Stern anti-smoking laws introduced by S. Aust.

Press, 3 September 1986, Page 20

Stern anti-smoking laws introduced by S. Aust.

By

CHRIS PETERS

NZPA staff correspondent Sydney The South Australian state Government has introduced anti-smoking legislation that promises to be the strictest in Australia if passed. The Tobacco Products Control Bill aims to prohibit smoking in taxis, lifts and inter-state buses, boost penalties, and ban sales to youngsters. Under the proposed legislation confectionery cigarettes will be banned; sucking or chewing tobacco will be banned; and the penalty for selling tobacco to children under 16 including by vending machine, will be doubled

to $lOOO. Also cigarette retailers will be required to display "in a prominent manner” a notice setting out the tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide yield of cigarettes; it will be an offence to sell cigarettes in packets of less than 20; and tobacco products sold by retail will be required to display a health warning.

The state’s non-smoking Minister of Health, Dr John Cornwall, told Parliament the smoking control strategy represented the most significant and comprehensive effort ever undertaken in the state and placed South Australia at the forefront of world public health

action in smoking control.

He wanted to “reduce the unnecessary wastage of human life associated with tobacco Use,” saying, “No longer can we stand on the sidelines as 16,000 Australians a year die as a result of tobacco use." The move in Adelaide follows up a bad week for tobacco companies with a Melbourne Supreme Court giving a woman dying of lung cancer the right to sue cigarette manufacturers, and stern cigar-ette-warning legislation foreshadowed for health warnings on packets sold in the Australian Capital Territory that manufacturers declared could see the Canberra city-state without cigarettes.