Research Tabacco Control and Road Safety in Australia

INTRODUCTION By the beginning of 21st century, public health activities over different settings led to growth in healthcare. Improvement in large number of diseases, injuries, infectious diseases, nutrition, sanitation, cancers, dental health have led to significant growth in Australia’s health population since last 30 years. Improvements grew from advances and technology in medicine and surgery, delivery of quality health care services, and also range of public health programs promotion via an organized approach (NHMRC, Dec 1996, p.7). When we talk about developing and implementing population based interventions strategies,†¦show more content†¦Significant funds have been provided by National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) for medical research in tobacco diseases. Also, the State, Federal and Territory funding to road safety continues for more than 20 years. Road safety expenses have been more in developed road safety infrastructure. In 1989, the law was passed in which the Federal Legislation banned all forms of tobacco advertisements like signs, billboards etc. Also, in 1987 the Victorian Tobacco Act added a wholesale tax on tobacco products in Victoria to promote good health, prevent diseases, and disabilities. It was later followed by South Australia in 1988, Australian Capital Territory in 1989 and Western Australia in 1991. The most notable traffic law was one in which seat belts became compulsory to be worn in 1970. In Australia, the illegal blood alcohol concentration limit has been set up to 0.05ml/100ml throughout Australia. Laws were introduced in 1976, to enforce proper restraint of children’s/babies in vehicles. In Australia, the ratio of injured persons with blood alcohol concentration (BAC) reduced from 44% in 1981 to 30% in 1995 (FORS, 1995, P.17) In the late 1970s, Australia was one of the first nations to run mass reach anti-smoking campaigns (Egger et al, 1983, p.1125-28). Media started playing a significant role in spreading awareness to public with evidence about the dangers of tobacco smoking to health. Now the community knows about the harmful