November 4, 2009 – 2:16 pm
As the previous Croakey post points out, the news about Indigenous smoking rates may be more encouraging than we’ve previously understood.
Dr Mark Ragg, a health and communications expert, believes the history of smoking among people with mental illness holds some lessons for those working to tackle Indigenous smoking, and also gives cause for optimisim.
He writes:
“David [...]
November 4, 2009 – 2:07 pm
We are so inundated by bad news about Indigenous health that it’s easy to be overwhelmed by doom and gloom. But when it comes to smoking – a major cause of sickness and premature death – the news may be more encouraging than we’ve previously thought.
Dr David Thomas, a senior research fellow at the Menzies [...]
October 20, 2009 – 4:26 pm
Yesterday there was some debate in the House of Reps on the Government’s plans to establish the Australian National Preventive Health Agency, and we will be hearing more anon. You can download the Bill here.
The advent of the Agency presents another predictable opportunity for a predictably boring debate about the “nanny state”, as per this [...]
October 2, 2009 – 11:24 am
These clips are worth checking out – part of the funkiest anti-smoking campaign I’ve seen in a while.
This one is called Cough N Rap
And, I don’t know about you, but this one just makes me want to dance… (if it doesn’t stop people smoking, it might at least get them moving…)
The clips (and there are [...]
September 2, 2009 – 6:30 pm
Don’t get too excited about the Preventative Health Taskforce recommendations, cautions Professor Boyd Swinburn, Professor of Population Health at Deakin University, and Director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Obesity Prevention. There have been other reports making similar useful recommendations which have gone nowhere.
He writes:
“The decision by the Preventative Health Taskforce to start with the [...]
By Croakey
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Also posted in Food, alcohol, chronic diseases, health reform, prevention, public health
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Tagged alcohol, Boyd Swinburn, food industry, obesity, Preventative Health Taskforce, public health, self-regulation, tobacco
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September 2, 2009 – 4:14 pm
As Australia considers introducing tougher controls on tobacco, it is timely to be reminded that there is much work yet to be done in other countries, as Lesley Russell observed during her recent travels. She writes:
“On a recent trip to New Mexico, I was astounded to see large billboards advertising cheap cigarettes at smoke shops [...]
August 25, 2009 – 9:06 am
The National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission’s final report made numerous recommendations, many of which require a great deal more work before they could be considered ready for implementation. It seems unlikely that changes will happen quickly.
However, Professor Ian Olver, CEO of Cancer Council Australia, has a few suggestions for reforms that could be [...]
The Opposition spokesman on health, Peter Dutton, was recently quoted in the SMH and other Fairfax publications arguing that increasing tobacco taxes is just a money grab and has “nothing to do with health outcomes”.
It’s time Mr Dutton, his staff, colleagues – and anyone else who happens to be poorly informed on this issue – [...]
Last night, the former federal health minister Tony Abbott told a crowd at the University of Sydney that he didn’t support the NSW laws which took effect yesterday, banning smoking in cars carrying kids.
As a child, he was regularly imprisoned in a car with heavy smokers, he said. “Both my parents smoked heavily wherever they [...]
Simon Chapman, professor of public health at the University of Sydney, has provided a robust critique of Jennifer Doggett’s recent critique of increased tobacco taxes:
Erstwhile Croakey correspondent Jennifer Doggett has written a piece for ABC-Online challenging the wisdom of increasing tobacco tax, arguing that it would be regressive and harm the poor (it will “mean [...]
