URGENT ACTION NEEDED ON SMOKING

IS IT NOT a fact that for every person in Australia killed by heroin
there are 30 who die from cigarette smoking?

Thirty to one. Is it not a fact that if a person does not take up
smoking by the age of 18, they are very unlikely ever to do so? Is it
not a fact that one of the main reasons, if not the main reason, so
many teenagers are smoking is because they see their favourite actors
and actresses smoking on television every night, thus glamorising
smoking and making it appear a normal part of everyday life? Is it not
a fact that leading stars and film directors now admit to being paid
huge bribes to feature smoking on screen (one recent survey suggesting
there is now four times as much smoking on TV as in real life)?
Shouldn't we, therefore, as a matter of urgency, have censorship
warnings on our TV programs: "Dangerous addictive smoking included in
this program''? Isn't this much more important that featuring such
warnings as "Abusive language''? Could censorship warnings cost those
involved in this deadly scam more than the bribes they might receive?

Could they help save millions of our young ones from becoming addicted
to cigarettes, which fill our hospitals and maim so many - far more
than heroin?

Finally, is the tobacco industry lobby so powerful that our Prime
Minister is unable to take this simple preventative step, which costs
us nothing?

JIM VICKERS-WILLIS
Brighton, Vic