Australia could become the first major nation to outlaw smoking [View all]

[The Straight Story]

Australia could become the first major nation to outlaw smoking, with a federal government-funded trial about to test the viability of electronic cigarettes as a safer, permanent replacement for tobacco.

Medical experts, cancer groups and anti-smoking lobbyists battled for decades to rid cigarettes from public spaces.

While the gadgets have been hailed as a safer substitute for cigarettes, there is no comprehensive scientific research into the health risks of inhaling vapour.
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The Sun-Herald can reveal that as part of its anti-smoking reform agenda, the previous Labor government committed more than $1 million to a pioneering study that, by 2015, will determine whether or not e-cigarettes could be utilised to phase out traditional cigarettes altogether.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/health/ban-considered-as-trial-tests-if-vapour-safer-20130914-2trj1.html