Wednesday, Oct 24, 2012 at 15:44
Have just looked into my bag of fireworks Honky, and I've pulled out a double bunger.
Got any statistics to back up your generalisations regarding accidents? I'm not arguing the case either way (I'd have to study some FACTS first) but in regard to the Newell even if your statement is correct regarding the death rate, your conclusion that lowering the speed limit was the only or even the primary cause is extremely simplistic. We'll never actually know because you'd have to look in detail at four or five years of stats before and after the limit was dropped to get a proper picture and the 100k limit was only in place for about 2 years. I'd be very surprised if lowering the speed limit was a significant factor in any of the fatal accidents at all. According to the RTA "fatigue and speed are the two main behavioural factors in crashes resulting in fatalities on the Newell Highway."
Can only think you're burleying with your smoking comment. There's plenty of studies which suggest that smoking costs our society far more than any income it produces. Here's one
summary:
Health impact
In 2003, tobacco smoking was the second leading cause of disease burden in Australia, (obesity being the leading cause), with 15,511 smoking-related deaths. The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates that 8% of the total disease and injury burden in Australia is attributed to tobacco smoking. 20% of all cancer deaths are due to smoking – more specifically, 80% of lung cancer deaths in 2003 were attributed to tobacco smoking.
The most recent smoking statistics have confirmed that daily smoking rates are declining. In 2007, 16.6% of Australians over 14 years smoked daily, which is almost 3% less than the 19.5% of smokers in 2001. The rate was slightly higher for men at 18%, and was 15.2% for women. The highest rates of smokers were found in the 18–24 age bracket for males, and the 25–34 age bracket in females. In the 12–17 age bracket, 9% of boys and 10% of girls admitted to smoking in a survey conducted in 2005; these figures peaked at age 17.
Indigenous Australians have the highest smoking rates, with 50% of adults smoking daily in 2005. Manual labourers and factory workers have a higher incidence of smokers (almost 40%) than office workers and professionals (approximately 13%).
Economic impact
In 2004–2005, the cost of smoking to Australia was $31.5 billion dollars. This figure is thought to be quite conservative, as it does not include hidden social costs such as reduced workplace productivity, litter, extended hospital stays (due to decreased post-operative outcomes), medical costs associated with birth complications, and mental and emotional suffering experienced by smokers and their family and friends.
Treatment of disease is one of the major costs attributed to tobacco use. Lifetime costs for smokers are greater than for non-smokers, even when taking into consideration that non-smokers live substantially longer than smokers. Treatment of disease includes medical costs, hospital, nursing
home, pharmaceutical and
ambulance. It is not just the individual and the government that bear these costs, but businesses, employers and society as a whole.
The costs borne by businesses include increased rates of absenteeism and loss of labour, which are substantially more in smokers than in non-smokers.
Governments provide mass education and health campaigns in order to deliver information about the dangers of smoking, which add substantially to the overall cost that Australia bears.
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