Campaign Started To Raise Smoking Age In Australia To 21

Smoking is pretty prevalent in Australia, despite efforts like big campaigns and plain packaging being introduced for years.

The Heart Foundation said there are around 2.5 million daily smokers in the country, with about 200,000 puffing irregularly.

While the rate isn't high, there's a decent proportion who smoke under the age of 18, which is obviously illegal, but it's not hard to get them illegally or bum a smoke off someone these days.

Well, that could be much harder if a campaign to raise the legal smoking age gets its way.

Billionaire Andrew Forest is leading the charge to increase the age to 21 instead of 18, hoping it will clean up the country's collective health as well as save up to $3.1 billion.

Mr Forest has told the Sydney Morning Herald: "Nearly 90 per cent of adult smokers start as children. By the time they reach 21, they are hooked and become lifelong customers of big tobacco.

"When tobacco causes many times more cost to the nation that it ever brings in revenue, and creates extreme suffering before palliative care and death, there is something seriously wrong with any government in the world, particularly ours, tolerating it."

Mr Forest hasn't minced his words when it comes to his views about tobacco companies.

He's described them as 'more cunning than a gold-toothed rat' and said they 'preyed on our vulnerable youth' to sell their products.

The campaign has been kicked off in time for World No Tobacco Day, which has also seen the places with the highest rates of the bad habit revealed.

The north coast of Tasmania has fared the worst in the study, showing 40 percent of people living in Bridgewater and Gagebrookare smokers. Risdon Vale in outer Hobart came second in the list with 34.4 percent followed by Mount Druitt in Sydney with 31.2 percent.

Health policy lead Ben Harris said: "Smoking kills, and it looks like six times more people in Bridgewater/Gagebrook in greater Hobart are going to die from illness caused by smoking than in Kur-ing-Gai in inner Sydney."

If you're wondering where the best places are for non-smokers, it's in the Sydney suburbs of Killara, Gordon and Pymble, with just 6.6 percent of residents lighting up.

Would you support raising the minimum age of smoking from 18 to 21 to save lives and money?

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Interesting, Community, Smoking, Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie