[Intl-tobacco] Australia: Anti-smoking spending drags behind other drug campaigns

[Robert Weissman]

Anti-smoking spending drags behind other drug campaigns
Source: Sydney Morning Herald, Monday, 6/19/00

The Federal Government spends $112 on anti-smoking measures for every
death from tobacco-related diseases - a thousand times less than the
$118,571 per death spent on anti-drugs campaigns.

Anti-tobacco spending is also dwarfed, in terms of the number of deaths,
by money devoted to the black-spot road safety program ($419, 619), AIDS
control ($264,706), breast cancer ($20,172 ) and preventing falls
($1,438).

These figures are in an article published today in the Medical Journal of
Australia by Associate Professor Simon Chapman, from the Department of
Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of Sydney.

Professor Chapman, who is chairman of the campaign group Action on Smoking
and Health, attacked funding for tobacco control as "appallingly
neglected" and said it was at a historic low.

"Ill-informed views that robust tobacco control will rapidly strangle the
goose that lays the annual $5 billion golden egg of tobacco excise"
appeared to have slowed any progress in tobacco control, he said.

Tobacco controls were allocated $3.8 million in the 1998-99 Federal
Budget.

Professor Chapman said the Government was likely to get a $400 million
windfall because of a change to the tobacco tax system lobbied for by the
Australian Cancer Society, but none of this money had been committed to
smoking prevention.

But a spokeswoman for the Health Minister, Mr Wooldridge, said tobacco
harm minimisation funding had been introduced by the Howard Government.

She said it was wrong to speak of a "historic" low in spending, even if
follow-up funding was not as high as the initial funding.

The "very successful" Every Cigarette is Doing You Damage advertising
campaign had reduced the number of smokers and new advertisements were
going to air, she said.

The chairman of the Australian Cancer Society's Tobacco Issues Committee,
Mr Mike Daube, said Australia lagged behind other countries in its
commitment to tobacco control.

"Until we commit a serious amount of money to tobacco control, the costs
in terms of deaths, disease and the economy will continue to rise," he
said.