This web site has
several goals:
- raise awareness about the damaging and life-threatening consequences of passive cigarette smoke.
- inform Australians on how to respond to nuisance smokers in their neighbourhood.
- support a growing public movement that says No to unwanted cigarette smoke
- encourage the Federal government to make the NRAS scheme only available to smokers who join a Quit smoking program.
- encourage more legislation to be enacted against nuisance smokers who deliberately harm others with their smoke. Often these nuisance smokers begin using their smoke as a weapon to harass when requests to control the smoke are refused.
We perceive that there
is a major failure with Local, State and Federal legislation as little
or no protections are available to stop Australians suffering
from passive smoke exposure. We need to work together to close the holes in the law and
better inform each other on how to deal with nuisance smokers and their free
assault on the health and well-being of those who don't wish to breathe toxic cigarette
smoke.
“Second-hand tobacco smoke is the
combination of smoke emitted from the burning end of a cigarette or other
tobacco products and smoke exhaled by the smoker. SHS contains thousands of
known chemicals, at least 250 of which are known to be carcinogenic or
otherwise toxic.”
“Evidence on the adverse health effects
of exposure to SHS has been accumulating for nearly 50 years. The first studies
to appear in the 1950s and 1960s focused on the effects of SHS on children and
on the impact of smoking by the mother on the fetus.”
“As more and more studies in the
ensuing decades have linked SHS exposure to a variety of serious diseases in
children and adults, a solid scientific consensus has developed on the effects
of SHS exposure. WHO, IARC, the United States Surgeon General, the United
States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Cal/EPA, and numerous expert
scientific and medical bodies worldwide have documented the adverse effects of
SHS on the respiratory and circulatory systems, its role as a carcinogen in
adults, and its impact on children’s health and development.”
World Health Organization, Protection
from exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke. Policy recommendations. (PDF)
