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An Australian public health expert whose figures on smoking fatalities are being used to support a smoke-free zones policy in Europe has said the move will save millions of lives.
Konrad Jamrozik is a Professor of Evidence-based Health Care and the Head of the Division of Health Systems, Policy and Practices at The University of Queensland.
Professor Jamrozik said European moves today towards adoption of smoke-free policies in public places and workplaces through the European Union (EU) could significantly reduce passive smoking deaths.
“While it has been demonstrated repeatedly that smoke-free policies have no adverse economic impact on the hospitality industry, their introduction is regularly followed by a significant downturn in active smoking,” he said.
“Their impact on avoiding preventable premature deaths is thus multiplied many times over and there is growing evidence, in Australia and overseas, that reducing active smoking among adults is the best way of helping young people never to take up the habit.”
In 2006, Professor Jamrozik conducted research that enabled him to provide a calculation for the number of deaths in Europe that could be attributed to public smoking.
The results, which were presented to the European Parliament in Brussels last year, indicate that more than 79,000 adults die each year as a result of passive smoking in the 25 countries of the EU. Passive smoking at work accounted for over 7,000 deaths in the EU in 2002, while exposure at home was responsible for a further 72,000 deaths.
“I performed the calculations at the request of a partnership between the European Respiratory Society, Cancer Research UK and the Institut National du Cancer in France,” Professor Jamrozik said.
“This information has played a significant role in the debate.”
Professor Jamrozik said nations around the world were now taking Australia's lead on tobacco control, adopting some of the policies that have already been successfully implemented across the country.
“Australia and Australians have been international leaders in tobacco control, at the forefront of efforts to eliminate the single most important cause of premature mortality and avoidable morbidity in developed countries.
“With the whole of Europe poised to follow our lead, tangible progress is now evident in our efforts to head off the billion deaths that tobacco might otherwise cause in the 21st century,” he said.
With many countries in Europe being slow to adopt modern approaches to tobacco control, Professor Jamrozik said the progress was promisinng.
Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.
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