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30 July 2008

NSW Government announces ban on tobacco displays, smoking in cars with children. Daily Telegraph; Sydney Morning Herald

See video commentary here

JUNE... 2007

Canadian court upholds right of Canadian government to ban advertising and mandate graphic pack warnings.

MARCH... 2007

An outline of select stories in the media during March 2007.

FEBRUARY... 2007

An outline of select stories in the media during February 2007.

Hammond D, Fong GT, Borland R, Cummings KM, McNeill A, Driezen P. Text and graphic warnings on cigarette packages findings from the international tobacco control four country study. Am J Prev Med. 2007 Mar;32(3):202-9.
Study conclusions: Large, comprehensive warnings on cigarette packages are more likely to be noticed and rated as effective by smokers. Changes in health warnings are also associated with increased effectiveness. Health warnings on U.S. packages, which were last updated in 1984, were associated with the least effectiveness.

JANUARY... 2007

An outline of select stories in the media during January 2007.

Savings in Hospital Costs from Reduction in Smokers. Research by Susan F Hurley and Jane P Matthews: The Quit Benefits Model: a Markov model for assessing the health benefits and health care cost savings of quitting smoking published in Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation 2007;5:2. The study predicts an average saving of A$373,000 in health care costs associated with heart attacks, lung cancer, stroke and chronic obstructive pulmonary (COPD) over ten years, if 1000 Australians quit smoking.

Chapman S. Deadly custom in steady decline. The Australian. 3 Jan 07. [Op Ed]
Smoking is slowly but surely dying in Australia, despite some obstinate myths about the habit.