Good morning ladies and gentlemen. My name is Ibrahim Mohamed and today I’d like to talk about why cigarette advertising should be totally banned in Australia.
My presentation is divided into three parts. Firstly, I will be talking about the effects of smoking on our health. Secondly, I will be talking about passive smoking and how it affects health. Thirdly, I will be talking about how the government is giving a blind eye to what cigarette companies are doing.
Please feel free to ask any questions you may have at the end of my presentation. Now let’s start.
The first part of this presentation is about the effects of smoking on our health. As you know, new research tells us every day that smoking is harmful to health and yet many more people start to smoke. It has been proven without any doubt that smoking cigarettes causes many diseases such as mouth and lung cancer, heart disease, lung disease and many more. In addition to that, it destroys blood vessels.
The second part of my presentation is about passive smoking. This happens when you don’t smoke but share the same room with someone who does. Your health can also be badly affected by the smoke. Sometimes we refer to passive smoking when we say second-hand smoking. They mean the same. Passive smoking is a health hazard. Exposure to passive smoking is a serious health hazard for smokers and non-smokers. People who inhale smoke from others are at increased risk of disease. A recent study By Mayo Clinic in America indicates that
• Non-smokers living with smokers have about a 25 to 30 per cent increase in risk of heart disease and are also more likely to suffer a stroke.
• Exposure to second-hand smoke is especially risky for children and babies and may cause low birth weight, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), bronchitis, pneumonia, asthma and middle ear infections.
The third part of my presentation is about the role of the Australian Government and how it encourages tobacco companies to destroy the health of millions of Australians. In Australia, 15,000 to 19,000 Australians deaths each year are caused by smoking. Roughly 20% of the Australian population smokes. Aboriginal life expectancy is 17 years less than non-indigenous Australians. Their high smoking rate gets part of the blame. Government officials say they are trying to address the issue.
Because tobacco companies pay billions of dollars every year to the government in taxes, it allows them to target young non-smokers through advertising and promotions. For example, they pay top dollars to famous film stars to smoke in films. The government says it is investing 10.5 million dollars this year to reduce smoking indigenous rate. On the other hand it is not doing enough to protect millions of young Australians who are the target of tobacco companies’ advertisement campaigns. A recent study conducted in Australia shows that exposure to tobacco advertising and promotion is associated with the likelihood that adolescents will start to smoke.
In short, I would like to assert that cigarette advertismnets should be banned in Australia. Tobacco advertisements are a silent killer to everyone and the government is not doing enough. Thousands of non-smokers start to smoke every day because of cigarette advertismnets. This brings me to the end of this presentation today. Thanks very much for your attention. Now if you have any questions, I will be more than happy to answer them.
