Explore state and territory data on tobacco smoking in Australia.
Smoking cessation
The addictive nature of nicotine means that successful cessation may take many attempts over several years.
Between 2013 and 2016, the NDSHS showed that the proportion of smokers who succeeded in giving up smoking for at least a month in the 12 months prior to completing the survey declined from 20% to 17.2% (Table S2.21).
The main reasons current smokers do not want to quit were because they enjoy it (59%) or because it relaxes them (40%). About 1 in 5 (21%) current smokers said they do not intend to quit because they are addicted to nicotine and 1 in 6 (17%) said they had tried to quit before but it had not worked (Table S3.29).
Smokers who smoked fewer than 20 cigarettes per day were more likely to succeed at making changes to their smoking behaviour than pack-a-day smokers (smoking 20 cigarettes or more). Pack-a-day smokers were more likely to attempt changes without success [2].
The main reasons smokers gave for trying to quit or change their smoking behaviour was because it was costing too much money (52%) or it was affecting their health (44%) [2].
Electronic cigarettes
Electronic cigarettes (also known as e-cigarettes, electronic nicotine delivery systems, or personal vaporisers) are devices designed to produce a vapour that the user inhales. Most e-cigarettes contain a battery, a liquid cartridge and a vaporisation system and are used in a manner that simulates smoking [7]. It is currently illegal to sell e-cigarettes that contain nicotine in any form [8].
In 2016, current use of e-cigarettes was relatively low in the general population with only 1.2% of people aged 14 or older reporting that they currently use e-cigarettes (Table S2.19). More specifically, in 2016:
- almost one-third (31%) of smokers had tried e-cigarettes in their lifetime (Table S2.18)
- 1 in 20 (4.4%) smokers currently used e-cigarettes and only 1.5% used them daily (Table S2.19)
- 1.2% of ex-smokers currently used e-cigarettes and only 0.6% of never smokers used e-cigarettes (Table S2.19)
- 49% of smokers aged 18–24 had tried an e-cigarette in their lifetime compared with 6.8% of smokers aged 60–69. Similarly, 18.7% of smokers aged 18–24 had recently tried an e-cigarette compared with only 2.9% of smokers aged 60–69 (Table S2.18)
The most common reason for trying e-cigarettes was curiosity (55%) but people’s reasons varied by age (Table S2.20). People aged under 30 were about 3 times as likely to nominate curiosity as people aged 60 or older. Older people (aged 50 or older) were more likely to use e-cigarettes as a cessation device with more than half specifying that they used them to help them quit smoking. About 1 in 5 (19%) used e-cigarettes because they thought they were less harmful than regular cigarettes [2].
Illicit tobacco
Illicit tobacco includes both unbranded tobacco and branded tobacco products on which no excise, customs duty or Goods and Services Tax (GST) was paid.
Unbranded illicit tobacco includes finely cut, unprocessed loose tobacco that has been grown, distributed and sold without government intervention or taxation [2]. According to the 2016 NDSHS:
- About 1 in 3 smokers were aware of unbranded tobacco in 2016 and this proportion did not change from 2013 (33% and 34%, respectively).
- Between 2013 and 2016, there was no change in the proportion of smokers who smoked unbranded tobacco in their lifetime (16.5% for both years) or who currently use it (3.6% in 2013 and 3.8% in 2016). However, lifetime and current use has declined since 2007 (27% and 6.1%, respectively) (Table S2.22).
Illicit branded tobacco includes tobacco products that are smuggled into Australia without payment of the applicable customs duty [2]. The 2016 NDSHS showed that:
- Fewer current smokers had seen tobacco products without plain packaging in the previous 3 months (decline from 18.5% in 2013 to 13.0% in 2016) and fewer smokers had purchased these products (from 9.6% in 2013 to 5.5%) (Table S2.23).
- Of those smokers that had seen these products, less than half (44%) had purchased them and about 1 in 10 (11.3%) bought 15 or more of these packets (Table S2.24).
- Of smokers who purchased these products, 37% said they bought them from a supermarket, convenience or grocery store and one-quarter (25%) purchased them from a tobacconist; a further 23% did not know where they were purchased from [2] (Table S2.23).
Harms
Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of morbidity and mortality in Australia. In 2011, tobacco smoking was responsible for 9% of the total burden of disease and injury.
Tobacco use contributed to the burden for five disease groups including 36% of respiratory diseases, 22% of cancers, 12% of cardiovascular diseases and 3.5% of endocrine disorders [9] (Table S2.58).
The total burden attributable to tobacco use was only slightly lower in 2011 than in 2003. Over this period, there was an increase in the burden of tobacco for cancer and respiratory diseases, and a large decrease in the burden for cardiovascular diseases. This is likely to be due to health improvements from reductions in tobacco use taking longer to become apparent in cancer and chronic respiratory diseases than in cardiovascular diseases [10 as cited in 9].
Tobacco smoking in pregnancy
Tobacco smoking is the most common preventable risk factor for pregnancy complications, and is associated with poorer perinatal outcomes, including low birthweight, being small for gestational age, pre-term birth and perinatal death [11].
The AIHW’s National Perinatal Data Collection indicates that rates of smoking during pregnancy in Australia have fallen over time, with statistically significant reductions for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous mothers between 2009 and 2015 [11] (Figure TOBACCO4). In 2015, 10% of mothers who gave birth smoked at some time during their pregnancy, a decrease from 15% in 2009 (Table S2.59). Overall, Indigenous mothers are more likely to smoke during pregnancy than non-Indigenous mothers (45% compared to 12%; age-standardised per cents).