MPs must act to save passive smoking victims

Media release from the AMA (WA)

Members of Parliament who fail to support life-saving legislation to extend smoking bans will have the deaths of many West Australians on their conscience, the AMA (WA) warned today.

"Parliament has an opportunity to protect hundreds of thousands of children from passive smoking and to provide a healthy and enjoyable environment for the growing number of West Australians who dine outdoors each year," said association President Prof Gary Geelhoed.

"If MPs fail to act it will be because they believe the interests of the liquor and tobacco industries are more important than the health and wellbeing of the community."

Prof Geelhoed said the legislation, to be introduced by Alfred Cove Independent MP Janet Woollard, was long overdue and would bring WA into line with other States.

If passed, the new laws would ban smoking in cars carrying children, in alfresco dining areas, on patrolled beaches and in outdoor playing areas. They would also require tobacco products to be out of sight at point-of-sale.

"At present some local councils have been trying to lead the way by introducing their own laws to ban smoking in alfresco dining areas, but it is a piecemeal approach which could lead to widespread confusion,' said Prof Geelhoed.

"For instance, next year smoking will be banned in the alfresco areas of Northbridge, Leederville and Fremantle – but it will be okay to smoke in outdoor restaurants in Subiaco."

Prof Geelhoed, who is head of the emergency department at Princess Margaret Hospital, said there was little doubt that protecting children travelling in cars from smoke would help reduce the number of cases of respiratory illnesses among children.

"Having a two-year-old child sitting in the back seat of a car while mum and dad chain smoke is like putting the kid in a mobile gas chamber," he said.

"We have laws to protect children from physical abuse, but in many ways this is a more insidious and harmful form of abuse."

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