Page 1505 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 6 June 2007
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clearance system from working properly, which means the poisonous chemicals in tobacco smoke can build up inside the lungs ...
Free radicals—these highly reactive chemicals can damage the heart muscles and blood vessels. They react with cholesterol, leading to the build-up of fatty material on artery walls. Their actions lead to heart disease, stroke and blood vessel disease.
Metals—tobacco smoke contains dangerous metals including arsenic, cadmium and lead. Several of these metals are carcinogenic.
Radioactive compounds—tobacco smoke contains radioactive compounds, which are known to be carcinogenic.
It sounds pretty ghastly, really, when you read it out. The document continues:
many of the 4,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke are chemically active and trigger profound and potentially fatal changes in the body.
smoking harms nearly every organ in the body.
Today in this place the Minister for Health has outlined her commitment, a commitment she made clear on 31 May this year—World No Tobacco Day—when she urged Canberrans to create their own smoke-free environments. As we know, World No Tobacco Day is an annual World Health Organisation initiative highlighting the health risks related to tobacco smoking globally. This year’s message was: 100 per cent smoke-free environments. The minister encouraged people to create their own smoke-free environments in their own home, near their children’s playgrounds and at their community events. She reminded people that on 1 December 2006, the ACT went smoke free in all enclosed public places.
The World Health Organisation message reinforces the importance of smoke-free environments. Fortunately, Canberra’s wholehearted embrace of the smoking ban in indoor public places is evidence of the importance that this community places on people being able to live their daily lives without facing the health risks that are posed by passive smoking. Creating smoke-free environments encourages people to quit smoking and reduces the likelihood of young people taking up the habit.
Another initiative which is planned is to distribute antismoking packs to 17 government and 13 non-government high schools to help ACT students quit. The youth smoking prevention and cessation pack is a joint project of the ACT government and the ACT Cancer Council. As part of the project, in 2005 the ACT government carried out a secondary student alcohol and drug survey of 1,148 students aged between 12 and 17 years in ACT government and non-government schools.
This survey found that there has been a large reduction in smoking amongst school students, but of course we are still concerned about any young people smoking in the ACT or elsewhere. As more than 19,000 Australians are predicted to die over the next year from illnesses caused by smoking related diseases, kicking the habit is indeed a life and death matter. This government needs to do all it can to prevent these deaths and smoking-related illnesses; otherwise, what price do we place on the lives of Australians?
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