2.1 Tobacco consumption

Good historical data about tobacco consumption in Australia is scarce. One tobacco industry sponsored source ceased publishing data in the mid-1970s, possibly because the health lobby was making more effective use of them than the tobacco industry.(1) The Australian Tobacco Marketing Advisory Committee published annual reports each year between 1966 and 1994, which included useful appendices on tobacco production, imports, exports, tax rates and revenue (e.g. 2). However, since the end of the Tobacco Stabilisation Plan in 1995 and the winding down of the Committee, no further reports have been produced.

Comprehensive data describing age and sex specific smoking prevalence and consumption patterns have been collected by various government agencies in other countries for many years. Only since 1974 have regular national surveys on Australian smoking rates been carried out and widely published by the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria (see Chapter 1). In Australia, the only publicly accessible historical data on tobacco consumption are those available from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, based on data supplied by the Australian Customs service, formerly the Department of Customs and Excise. For the most part these data are centred upon imports, exports, and revenue collection, and were not designed to accurately reflect tobacco consumption.

Tables 2.1 and 2.2 show total amounts of tobacco products dutied, and estimated total consumption of tobacco products per person aged 15 years and over for selected years. Both of these measures suggest that tobacco consumption in Australia is in decline. This has been the case since 1976, the year in which direct tobacco advertising in the broadcast media (television and radio) was finally phased out (see Chapter 15). Following its peak in 1975, overall apparent consumption has declined from 33 million kilograms of tobacco to 21.5 million kilograms in 1996-97, a fall of 35%.(2)

When attempting to discredit public health measures designed to reduce smoking, tobacco industry employees sometimes cited the previously relatively static total tobacco consumption which has been observed in Australia in the mid 1970s. However this did not take into account the increasing population. Between 1975 and 1997, the population of Australia aged 15 years and over increased from 10.1 million to 14.6 million, a rise of 45%.(3) Thus estimated per capita adult tobacco consumption has declined from 3.3 kilograms per person per year in 1975, to 1.5 kilograms per person per year in 1993, a decline of 55%. In the decade between 1987 and 1997, per capita tobacco consumption decreased by 34%.

Table 2.2: Estimated per capita consumption of tobacco products for Australia, selected years - gms per person over 15 years
ending 30 June	Loose tobacco	Cigars	Other tobacco products	Cigarettes	Total tobacco products
1910	1,591	105	1	316	2,014
1920	1,440	89	1	602	2,132
1930	1,420	42	0	611	2,074
1935	1,293	24	0	440	1,757
1940	1,732	20	0	618	2,370
1945	1,237	9	0	612	1,859
1950	1,537	16	0	1,302	2,855
1955	1,473	13	0	1,771	3,257
1960	1,015	15	0	2,485	3,515
1965	589	21	0	2,759	3,370
1970	463	26	0	2,836	3,326
1971	445	24	0	2,766	3,235
1972	455	27	0	2,779	3,261
1973	416	30	0	2,843	3,289
1974	389	34	0	2,864	3,287
1975	369	33	0	2,883	3284
1976	379	31	0	2,768	3,178
1977	364	29	0	2,732	3,124
1978	326	24	0	2,683	3,033
1979	303	23	0	2,526	2,852
1980	289	22	0	2553	2864
1981	262	21	0	2,533	2,816
1982	235	20	0	2,533	2,789
1983	228	17	0	2,364	2,609
1984	230	15	0	2,274	2,518
1985	190	14	0	2,227	2,431
1986	157	13	0	2,199	2,368
1987	138	11	0	2,086	2,236
1988	122	5	0	2,043	2,170
1989	108	9	0	1,979	2,096
1990	106	8	0	1,990	2,105
1991	115	7	0	1,837	1,959
1992	107	6	0	1,843	1,956
1993	99	5	0	1,632	1,736
1994	125	6	0	1,562	1,693
1995	108	5	0	1,543	1,656
1996	113	5	0	1,353	1,471
1997	114	5	0	1,355	1,472
1998	n/a	2	0	1,301	?
1999	n/a	6	0	1,256	?
References Population Official Yearbook of Australia, no61, 1975 and 1976, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Catalogue no 3201.0 Jan 67 and revised by 1947, 1954 and 1961 and 1966 census; September 1973, Ref No 4, 15 Data supplied on disc, for June quarter, post-Census revised 1964 to 1999. Note revision results in per capita estimates differing from those published in the previous edition Excise i. Excise 1907 to 1912, Australian Customs and Shipping returns - calender, not financial year ii. Comparative statement of net customs and excise Revenue collected, 1909 to 1918-19 iii. Overseas Trade Bulletins 26, 36, 46, 51 iv. Overseas Trade, ABS Catalogue no 78 8535 5, 1958-59 to 1962-63, Table 33 p793 1963-64 to 1967-68, p1050, 1968-69 to 1972-73, Table 32 p632; 1972-73 ti 1976-77, Table 22 p112 v. Excise data for Australian Tobacco Products, supplied by John Broweleit, ABS Dec 1994, and Zigmont Mackinois, June 96 and Sept 96 Excise data for Australian Tobacco Products, supplied by International Trade Section, Australian Bureau of Statistics, March and Sept 1998 vi. Note data on loose tobacco is no longer available due to confidentiality issues which allow manufacturers to refuse release of data Customs duty a. General imports Australia for 1903 to 1909 b. Imports Australia for 1910 to 1913 and 1914/15 to 937/38 c. Imports cleared for home consumption, 1938-39 to 1958-59 d. Import clearance data for Australian Tobacco Products, 1981/2 to 1993/4, supplied by John Boweleit, International Trade, ABS Feb 1995, and Michael Ashly, Sept 1996 e. Customs data for Australian Tobacco Products, supplied by International Trade Section, Australian Bureau of Statistics, September 1997, September 1998 and September 1999.

The statistic 'estimated total consumption of tobacco products per person aged 15 years and over' is commonly used in many countries to describe tobacco consumption, and is necessarily expressed by weight. However as these data do not take into account the prevalence of smoking, the true exposure of smokers can be seriously underestimated. For example, Table 2.2 suggests that in 1995-96 the weight of cigarettes consumed per adult in the population was 1471 grams. Table 2.3, which shows estimated consumption of tobacco products per adult smoker for selected years, shows the weight of cigarettes consumed per smoker in 1995 to be 7093 grams per year.

Tobacco consumption per adult smoker

Table 2.3 estimates the total consumption of tobacco products per adult smoker. It should be noted that these calculations exclude consumption by children, which is estimated at around 1% of the market.(5)

Table 2.3: Estimated total consumption of tobacco products per smoker aged 15 years and over, Australia, for selected years
	1945	1964	1983	1986	1989	1992
	Number of smokers (millions)
Men	2.005	2.274	2.350	2.014	1.950	1.893
Women	0.729	1.093	1.788	1.740	1.787	1.660
Total	2.734	3.367	4.138	3.754	3.737	3.553
	Estimated grams of cigarettes consumed per adult smoker per year*
	1,233	6,110	6,650	7,219	6,931	7,093
	Estimated number of cigarettes consumed per adult smoker per year
	1,233 º	6,110 º	8,130 ø	9,173 ø	9,366 ø	9,962 ø
	Estimated number of cigarettes consumed per adult smoker per day
	3.4	16.7	22.3	25.1	25.6	27.3
* using data from column 2, Table 2.1 above º assuming an average weight per cigarette of 1 gram ø using average weights of cigarettes as recorded in Chapter 5, Table 5.1 Source: Woodward,1 Lee,4 Hill et al,8,9 Hill and White,10 Australian Bureau of Statistics,11

The apparent increase in numbers of cigarettes smoked by smokers in the fifty years between 1945 and 1995 may have been influenced by the following factors:

• A shortage of cigarettes in 1945 due to rationing. (Figures for 1945 were lower than for all years since 1938, prior to the war. Figures increased significantly in 1947.)
• A progressively increasing use of manufactured cigarettes to nearly 100% of the market.
• A reduction in the amount of tobacco per cigarette (see Chapter 5, Section 2).
• A decrease in tar and nicotine content of cigarettes. Published data only exist from 1969 (see Chapter 5, Section 3).

Some of these factors may have led to a reduction in the amount of nicotine delivered per cigarette, requiring smokers to increase their daily consumption in order to maintain personal nicotine levels.

Other considerations are:

Evidence that as pack sizes have increased, so has daily consumption among those who purchase them (see Tables 2.9 and 2.10 below). This probably is due both to the fact that cigarettes in larger packs tend to be smaller and lighter, therefore requiring more to be smoked for the same quantity of nicotine to be obtained and that the smoker who gauges consumption by pack size (albeit unconsciously) may have increased consumption.

An increase in the numbers of cigarettes smoked by women. The average age of uptake of smoking among women has significantly declined in recent decades,(12,13) and earlier age of uptake correlates strongly with heavier consumption levels and longer duration of smoking.(14,15)

Measured by per capita disposable income, Australia has been a comparatively wealthy country since the 1940s. Until quite recently, increased personal affluence is typically translated into greater use of recreational or 'luxury' goods such as tobacco(16,17) (see also Chapter 1, Section 10).

Finally, tobacco promotion in Australia met little effective opposition until the 1970s (see also Introduction).