SMOKING COSTING WA A MASSIVE $2.4 BILLION A YEAR – Report finds
A study released by the Cancer Council of WA on Thursday 18 September reveals smoking costs the Western Australian community more than half of the State's entire health budget.
A report commissioned by the Cancer Council of WA has revealed that smoking is costing Western Australia a massive $2.4 billion a year. The report presented by health economists, Professors David Collins and Helen Lapsley, was commissioned to estimate the social costs of smoking in WA for the financial year 2004/05, and the benefits of reductions in the prevalence of smoking in WA to 5% or less over the next 10 or 15 years.
Key findings of the study include:
• Of the $2.4 billion in social costs from smoking, 31.3% are tangible costs and 68.7% are intangible. The latter costs arise from loss of life, and pain and suffering.
• There were 1,256 deaths and 67,730 bed-days attributed to tobacco, with hospital costs of $59.8 million.
• The above figures include 11 deaths and 6,750 hospital bed-days attributed to passive smoking and $5.9 million worth of hospital costs attributed to passive smoking.
• Over 96% of all hospital costs arising from passive smoking were attributable to patients in the 0 to 14 age group.
The Asthma Foundation of WA finds it disturbing that children accounted for almost all of the hospital costs associated with passive smoking.
Cigarette smoke can trigger asthma in children and cause more frequent and more severe asthma attacks.
This is in addition to many other chronic and life-threatening conditions. Far more needs to be done to protect children from exposure to cigarette smoke so they grow up healthy and smoke-free, and don't become a hospital statistic.
It is important for parents to recognise tobacco smoke as a major trigger for asthma. Not only can exposure to tobacco smoke act as a trigger, but it has also been found to increase the risk of a child developing asthma. A child will be at an increased risk of developing asthma if a mother smokes during her pregnancy or if a newborn is exposed to passive smoke.
The Newborns Asthma and Parental Smoking (NAPS) Project promotes the non Indigenous health message ‘Care for my air!' and Indigenous health message ‘Fresh air grows solid babies' and encourages pregnant women, new mothers and their families to protect the foetus and newborn from passive smoke. Exposure to tobacco smoke whilst pregnant (or as an infant) can increase the risk of asthma, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and the baby being born an unhealthy birth weight.
To learn more about the NAPS program and the dangers of smoking, visit the NAPS website |
