You're right one won't hurt but it wont do me any good either . . . All the adults I know that smoke wished they never started. Besides, being grown up means being independent, what's independent about smoking? . . . No way - cigarettes are so last season . . . If you were my friend you wouldn't be asking me to do something that could hurt me . . . No way - nobody smokes anymore. I'm in the majority mate . . .
Smoking in Australia
hard facts
Imagine if a passenger airplane crashed in Australia every Wednesday, this is how many people (approx. 290 people) die from smoking every week.
FACT: Smoking is the largest single cause of death and disease in Australia.
FACT: Some of the diseases caused by smoking include:
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cancer (in the lung, lip, tongue, mouth, throat, nose, nasal sinus, voice box, oesophagus, pancreas, stomach, kidney, bladder, ureter, cervix, and bone marrow)
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heart disease
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stroke
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emphysema
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asthma
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blindness
FACT: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations are 2.6 times more likely to die from smoking related diseases such as stroke, heart and vascular disease compared to the overall Australian population.
FACT: There are more ex-smokers (4.1million) than smokers (around 3.5 million).
For more information about smoking in Australia check out:
- Facts about smoking fact sheet (PDF 474kb)
- Australian Bureau of Statistics - Tobacco Smoking in Australia, 2007 - 08 (PDF 233kb)
- Tobacco in Australia: Facts and Issues - Chapter 1: Trends in the prevalence of smoking
- Just the Facts: A fact sheet about tobacco use among Indigenous Australians (PDF 610kb)
- Centre for Excellence in Indigenous Tobacco Control (CEITC)
- Tobacco in Australia: Facts and Issues - Chapter 8: Tobacco use in Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders