Sixty years since landmark study linked smoking to cancer

IT IS 60 years today since the publication of the landmark paper by Doll and Hill that identified smoking as a cause of lung cancer. The paper was published in the British Medical Journal on 30 September 1950.

However, according to Professor Mike Daube, president of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health, despite an incontrovertible body of evidence on the damaging health effects of smoking, more than 960,000 Australians have died as a result of smoking.

“We will reach the millionth Australian death from smoking during 2013,” he said.

Professor Daube welcomed plans by the Gillard Government to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes and other tobacco products.

The reintroduction of the Australian National Preventive Health Agency Bill to Parliament was also very welcome, he added. 

“This Bill should be supported without reservation by anybody concerned for the health of our community,” Professor Daube said.

“The Government’s tough actions on tax and plain packaging will also save lives by reducing smoking in both adults and children.”