Health & Smoking

Cancer is a major reason of death in Australia. Lung cancer is the 5th most common type of cancer. It is the leading cause of cancer in Australians responsible for around 36,000 deaths each year. More than 85% of lung cancers relate to tobacco smoking.

Even if smoking rates have reduced over the last 60 years, they are still very high. 24% adults smoked in 2001, 22% were regular daily smokers and 2% smoked less often than once a day. Almost half of all adults (49%) narrated that they had never smoked regularly, while the remaining 26% said they were ex-smokers.

More males than females were current smokers (28% and 21%), the prevalence of smoking was higher in younger age groups than in older groups. Around 36% of males and 28% of females aged 18-34 years smoked compared with 7% of males and 5% of females aged 75 years and over. Smoking is a main reason of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) – a slowly progressive illness of the lung characterized by a gradual loss of lung function: chronic obstructive bronchitis, emphysema, chronic bronchitis or a combination of emphysema and chronic bronchitis. This bad habit is a major reason of stroke, heart disease and a wide variety of other health problems.

Most smokers begin to smoke while in their teens or when they start working. Many young people are influenced by the behaviors of their friends. Strategic advertising by tobacco companies has been linked to these behaviors as well. Younger people guess that smoking is supposed to give confidence, make them feel like adults, and help them cope with stress and anxiety associated with relationships, schooling, education, and so on. Younger women take up smoking in the belief that it will help them make them more attractive or lose weight.

Not surprisingly, these “early smokers” are more likely to develop serious health deseases from smoking.