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| | Page Last Updated:
Thursday, 27 July 2006 |
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Home>Services and Facilities>Public Health Services>Tobacco
| Retail Sales | | The State Government remains concerned about the significant health impact of tobacco on our community. More than 4,500 Victorians die from smoking-related illnesses every year and smoking costs Victoria more than $3.3 billion each year.
Teenage smoking continues to be a major health problem facing our community. Eighty per cent of smokers take up the habit before they turn 18 years old. The younger people are when they start smoking the more likely they are to be heavier, more addicted smokers and to die of a smoking-related disease.
The Government has introduced laws to improve the responsible selling of tobacco products. Tobacco laws have come into force which:
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 | Abolish advertising of tobacco at retail outlets | | Restrict displays of tobacco products | | Require retailers to display health warning or stop smoking signs | | Increase penalties if you or your staff sell any tobacco product including cigarettes to children and young people under the age of 18 years (minors) | | Make it an offence if you or your staff are found to be in possession of illegal tobacco i.e “chop chop” | | Allow the Magistrates Court to remove your ability to sell tobacco if you are found guilty of selling tobacco to minors and/or possessing illegal tobacco. | | Limit the location where tobacco vending machines can be positioned.
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| Council undertakes test purchases where a person under 18 years of age is sent into shops to ensure a sale is denied. Shouls a sale occur, the vendor and operator are liable to receive an infringement notice of aproximately $200.
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| Smoking in enclosed places | | Exposure to passive smoking also remains a significant general public and occupational health and safety issue, particularly in the hospitality sector, where workers are exposed to second hand smoke on a daily basis. Research suggests that there is a significantly higher lung cancer risk for both smoking and non-smoking bar tenders, compared with the general population. With the exception of licensed premises, all enlcosed work places became smoke free in March 2006. Enclosed licensed premises are exempt from this requirement until June 2007.
Environmental Health Officers in Local Councils administer all provisions of tobacco legislation and are also responsible for enforcing the no smoking laws as part of their duties.
The legislation builds on the tobacco reforms passed by the Victorian Parliament to address passive smoking and will help make Victoria a healthier place in which to live, work and do business. Other key measures contained in the legislation mean the following until June 2007:
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| licensed venues with two or more operating rooms are required to designate one operating room as smoke free; | | in single room gaming venues, the 'gaming machine area', as defined under the Gaming Machine Control Act 1991, is required to be smoke-free. In these venues, if the bar is excluded from the gaming machine area, the bar will not be required to be smoke-free; | | in gaming venues with two rooms, the gaming room is required to be smoke-free; | | in gaming venues with three or more operating rooms, occupiers are required to designate one operating room, in addition to their gaming room, as smoke-free. In these venues, two rooms will be smoke-free.
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