Principalities and Powers

At the NSW Public Health Association meeting last night I supported a motion calling for a formal complaint to be made to the Australian national airline, QANTAS, regarding the decision to sell cigarettes in-flight and to instruct staff to display them prominently on the trolley. I could have shouted crikey when I found this post saying that the new QANTAS non-executive director recently retired as finance director of British American Tobacco. QUANTAS of course denies any link between these two news items. Yet offers no real explanation for this giant step backwards from a commitment TO public health when they removed cigarettes from in-flight sales in 1999.

Vigilence and tenacity are clearly attributes I must continue to develop as I participate in public health practice in this country, and internationally. I understand that Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic all sell duty-free cigarettes in-flight. I am asking airlines to accept a sense of social responsibility over profitability and voluntarily remove such products from sale. For airlines with government funding, such a step would be consistent with national commitments to the World Health Organisation Convention on Tobacco Control.

On a personal level I will be writing to QANTAS myself, and intentionally booking with airlines that take a lead in population health protection. I hope that public service organisations and agencies will follow. And churches????