REVEALED: Suburbs with the highest smoking rates in the country - amid claims quit campaigns only focus on 'privileged' areas
- Victoria University has revealed the suburbs with the highest smoking rates
- Bridgewater and Risdon Vale in Tasmania have the worst rates in Australia
- A NSW MP said the anti-smoking campaigns are focused on the inner city areas
- Mitchell Institute Ben Harris said local factors were influencing smoking rates
The Australian suburbs with the highest rates of smoking have been revealed, sparking calls for anti-tobacco campaigns in disadvantaged areas.
A report from Victoria University's Mitchell Institute showed Bridgewater and Risdon Vale in Tasmania, Mount Druitt in New South Wales, and Elizabeth in South Australia have the worst smoking rates in Australia.
Mt Druitt state Labor MP Edmond Atalla said the smoking rate was high in his electorate because the current anti-smoking campaigns are focused more on 'privileged' parts of the inner city.
Bridgewater and Risdon Vale in Tasmania, Mount Druitt and Tamworth in New South Wales, and Elizabeth in South Australia are the suburbs with the worst smoking rates in Australia, according to a report by Victoria University's Mitchell Institute (stock image)
'This NSW Government needs to look at the Mt Druitt electorate and actually work to make improvements in these areas,' Mr Atalla told Daily Telegraph.
'For too long there has been significant focus on the privileged parts of the inner city and it is high time that the focus shifts to western Sydney and regional areas.
Health Policy Lead at Mitchell Institute Ben Harris said local factors were influencing smoking rates.
'We know where we live, where we work, when we left school and who we know influences smoking,' Mr Harris said.
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'We also know that the best way to stop children picking up the habit is to encourage the adults around them quit smoking.
'Smoking kills, and it looks like six times more people in Bridgewater/Gagebrook in greater Hobart are going to die from illness caused by smoking than in Kur-ing-Gai in inner Sydney (sic).'
Health Policy Lead at Victoria University's (pictured) Mitchell Institute Ben Harris said local factors were influencing smoking rates
Mitchell Institute reported that about 40 per cent of the population smoked in Bridgewater or Gagebrook followed by 34.5 per cent in Risdon Vale in Tasmania.
Almost one in every three adults smoked in Mount Druitt and Tamworth in NSW.
The smoking rate was 31.1 per cent for Elizabeth suburb in northern Adelaide, compared to the national rate of 14 per cent.
And it was lowest in areas such as Gordon, Killara, Pymble, Lindfield, and Roseville on Sydney's affluent north shore, where less than eight per cent of the adult population smoked.
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