Last Thursday brought impending doom for the tobacco companies with the NSW Labor government planning to ban all displays of cigarette and smoking products. "Point of sale advertising has been a glaring loophole in the laws for too long and one that tobacco companies have ruthlessly exploited," lipped Anita Tang, The Cancer Council's Director of Health Strategies.
Then it seemed like things were evening out for the week as they claimed the political scalp of Tasmania's Premier Jim Bacon through the old scatter school of lung cancer brought on from years of smoking.
Right on the heels of that news came the release of a British study of a Sydney flavour that the killing rooms of non-smoking designations were ineffective and slow. "We need to treat this issue with the seriousness it deserves." With this comes the fear that people dying from second-hand smoke will sadly decrease and fatten out their miserable lives.
Written on Tuesday, 24 February 2004