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Smoking - A Leading Cause of Death


Front of Cigarette Pack (representation only)	Back of Cigarette Pack (representation only)

Smoking is the largest preventable cause of death and disease in Australia. There is a tobacco-related death about every 28 minutes in Australia, adding up to more than 50 deaths each day. In 1998, 19,019 deaths were caused by tobacco use. A large proportion of these deaths were males (almost 13,000 deaths per year compared with 6,000 for females). In all age groups, except 15-34 years, more deaths were related to use of tobacco than to alcohol or illicit drugs.

A large proportion of these deaths (around 21 every day) are from cancer, one-quarter of which involve working-age Australians.

Over 4,000 tobacco-related deaths each year are due to ischaemic heart disease (the main cause of heart attack), a third of which involve working-age Australians.

Someone dies from the effects of environmental tobacco smoke every second or third day (that is, five every fortnight).

Every week, on average, someone under the age of 15 dies from a tobacco-related cause.

In 1995, almost 3.2 million adult Australians were identified as being at risk of developing chronic conditions from smoking tobacco. This was equivalent to around 23.5% of the adult population. ²

Decided to quit smoking? For help, talk to your doctor or pharmacist, call the Quitline on 131 848 or visit the Quitline web site at www.quitnow.info.au .

Sources

AIHW: Ridolfo and Stevenson (2001). The quantification of drug-caused mortality and morbidity in Australia, 1998 . AIHW cat. No. PHE 29. Canberra, AIHW. (for all the above except where otherwise noted) http://www.aihw.gov.au/publications/phe/qdcmma98/
Mathers C, Vos T, Stevenson C. The burden of disease and injury in Australia . Canberra. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 1999. http://www.aihw.gov.au/publications/index.cfm/title/5180

For copyright permission to use any of these images, please contact quitnow@health.gov.au

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