Our collective message is clear.

Passive or involuntary smoking kills.

All Australians have a right to a safe working environment.

By targeting the hospitality industry in this campaign, we are tidying up one of the last bastions of smokers' 'rights'.

Today we refocus our efforts to rid our society of the scourge of smoking.

Why?

Because smoking is the largest preventable cause of death and disease in our society.

Because smoking is the largest preventable cause of death and disease in Australia.

Every 30 seconds, someone, somewhere in the world, dies of lung cancer.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death for both men and women worldwide.

Its growing incidence causes more deaths than breast and prostate cancer combined.

But despite this grizzly truth, lung cancer still fails to attract appropriate action from healthcare authorities, media and the public.

In NSW in 2001, 871 people died from breast cancer.  In the same year 2 326 people died from lung cancer - nearly three times as many.

Lung cancer has one of the worst prognosis profiles of all cancers.

Only 15 per cent of people with lung cancer will be alive five years after diagnosis.

Thanks to successful lobby efforts, most of us have enjoyed a smokefree workplace for many years.

Gone are the days when smokers could do a consultation, smoke in hand, or walk into an office building, or a supermarket puffing away on a fag.

For very good reasons we have outlawed this practice on public health grounds. 

Involuntary or passive smoking is defined as exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke - usually a mixture of exhaled mainstream smoke and sidestream smoke released from the smoldering cigarette or other smoking device.

It involves inhaling cancer-causing substances, as well as other toxic components in secondhand tobacco smoke.

More than 50 studies of involuntary smoking and lung cancer risk in people who have never smoked, especially spouses of smokers, have been published during the last 25 years.

These studies have been carried out in many countries. Most studies showed an increased risk, especially for people with higher exposures.

Further analysis of lung cancer in people who have never smoked but who were exposed to secondhand tobacco smoke at the workplace have found a statistically significant increased risk of 16 to 19 per cent.

This evidence is sufficient to conclude that involuntary smoking is a cause of lung cancer in people who have never smoked.

But it is not just lung cancer. Involuntary smoking is associated with a number of other diseases and adverse effects in people who have never smoked, including children.

Exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke causes coronary heart disease.

Involuntary smoking increases the risk of acute heart disease by 25-35%.

Adverse effects of involuntary smoking on the respiratory system have also been detected.

In adults, the strongest evidence for a causal relationship exists for chest related illnesses, which significantly reduces lung function.

A recent study released by The Cancer Council Victoria investigated the link between exposure to passive smoking and a range of respiratory symptoms, and found that many Victorian workers are suffering from many unpleasant symptoms.

Workers exposed to passive smoking at work were more likely to suffer from a range of respiratory symptoms such as wheezing, shortness of breath, coughing, sore eyes, and sore throat.

Key findings of the study include:

• over half of the workers surveyed said smoking was allowed somewhere in their workplace;
• almost one in five workers said there were no smoking restrictions in their work area;
• and 6% of workers said there were no restrictions at all at their workplace;
• over one third of workers surveyed reported being exposed to cigarette smoke at work;
• 17% of workers faced prolonged daily exposure (more than seven and a half hours a day);
• 18% said they were exposed to smoke for some part of their working day.

The authors found that the longer workers were exposed to cigarette smoke, the greater the likelihood that they had experienced respiratory symptoms.

The results showed that workers exposed for long periods were:

• almost five times more likely to cough in the morning;
• nine times more likely to experience frequent coughing;
• seven times more likely to experience sore eyes; and
• almost eight times more likely to suffer from a sore throat.

Workers who had shorter periods of exposure had an increased risk of developing respiratory symptoms as a result. It is obvious that workers in venues like bars and pubs are exposed to passive smoking in their workplace more than other workers.

But the health of people working in the hospitality industry has been overlooked in favour of patrons' rights to smoke.

Hospitality workers are justifiably concerned about their working conditions.

Key findings of a recent study published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health:

• Over half (57%) of hospitality workers interviewed were exposed to passive smoke at work, compared to 8% of other workers
• Four out of five workers in bars and clubs are concerned about working in smoky conditions
• While non-smokers were most likely to be concerned about working in smoky venues, smokers were also concerned about being exposed to passive smoke - two thirds of staff who smoked said they were concerned about the potentially harmful effects of being exposed to passive smoking at work.

Members of the public can get up and leave if they're uncomfortable with their surroundings but these workers have to endure the smoky venues and risk their health, simply to go to work and earn a living.

This is an intolerable injustice.

People have a right to a clean, safe working environment.

This means a smokefree environment.

The only way to protect workers' health is to ban smoking in all workplaces.

Workers in bars and pubs have just as much right to a safe, smokefree workplace as anyone else.

To coin a hopefully soon to be famous saying - it's about health and it's about time.

The AMA has committed itself today to working with other key stakeholders to ensure a total indoor smoking ban across Australia.

This is the only acceptable outcome for all Australian workers.

It's unacceptable to discriminate against certain groups of workers when determining workplace safety policy.

This is unacceptable.

Hospitality workers are not second-class citizens.

In recent weeks we have seen the Bacon Government in Tasmania come up with the ridiculous suggestion that keeping smokers a metre from the bar would somehow protect workers.

Who are they kidding? 

The smoke doesn't know where to stop.

Recent studies in both NSW and the ACT have found that partial bans based on separate areas do virtually nothing to protect workers or patrons from the severe health harm caused by second-hand tobacco smoke.

Environmental tobacco smoke does not obey arbitrary boundaries set by governments.

If you think back to the dark old days of air travel when smoking used to be allowed in certain rows - smoke still wafted through the cabin.

Smoke is still wafting through bars across the across this country.

Conclusion

The AMA has a long history of advocacy on tobacco control. 

Each year at its National Conference the AMA, in conjunction with the Australian Council on Smoking and Health (ACOSH), produces the National Tobacco Scoreboard that ranks the anti-smoking legislative and public health efforts of State and Territory Governments.

We are putting the governments of Australia on notice that for next year's National Tobacco Scoreboard we will be paying particular attention to their efforts to address workplace tobacco smoke.

It's about health and it's about time.

Thank you