Remember the days when restaurants were split into no-smoking and smoking sections? Divided only by an ineffective rope, everyone inhaled dangerous tobacco smoke with their entrée whether they wanted to or not. Victorians too young to remember this, may not realise just how much they’ve benefitted from the relentless work led by Quit over the past 40 years.
When Quit first launched in July 1985 as an initiative of Cancer Council Victoria, tobacco advertising was everywhere and smoke-free areas didn’t exist. What we take for granted today is the result of decades chipping away at the power and influence of the tobacco industry – and every victory has been an uphill battle.
From banning smoking in the workplace to stripping tobacco companies of their visual identity with plain packaging laws, every effort to protect the public from the harms of tobacco smoke has been fiercely fought by the tobacco industry.
They’ve rejected the science on second-hand smoke, argued for “smokers’ rights”, and brought lawsuits against landmark regulations, including plain packaging – only to lose each and every case.
So, it’s fitting that Quit’s 40th anniversary this year was marked in true Quit fashion – striking another blow to big tobacco. In July, new tobacco control laws came into effect, including new graphic health warnings on cigarette packs, warnings on each individual cigarette, and a ban on menthol and other flavour additives. For the first time, all cigarette packets must also include health promotion inserts directing people to quit.org.au and Quitline 13 7848 for support to quit.
Quit never quits
For 40 years, Quit has been an effective rope putting the squeeze around big tobacco. Thanks to such efforts, smoking rates in Australia are now down to 10.9%. But with tobacco still the leading cause of preventable deaths in Australia – killing 66 people every day – we can’t afford to loosen our grip.
Restricting the influence and reach of the tobacco industry has become more challenging with vapes potentially unwinding many of the milestone achievements we’ve made. Ruthless marketing to young people has attempted to recruit a new generation and nicotine pouches may be the next big challenge.
Drawing on the lessons learned from decades of work and progress in tobacco control, health advocates have moved quickly to intercept these new threats. The sale of flavoured vapes, including fruit and bubble-gum, is now banned in Australia and state-based tobacco business licensing schemes have been introduced.
If the past 40 years has proven anything, it’s that there is no line the tobacco industry won’t cross to regain control and put people’s health at risk. But Cancer Council Victoria, Quit and our partners won’t stop pushing back even harder to protect public health and bring down tobacco-related disease and cancer deaths.
Sometimes it’s in the absence of things where the biggest impact can be found. Coming home from a night out and not smelling like an ashtray, watching sport without cigarette ads, or ‘clearing the air’ at work to resolve conflict – not to vent smoke, is all part of a bigger story. A decades-old story of holding big tobacco to account for the health and wellbeing of all Victorians – and that story is ongoing.
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