“The anti-smoking message definitely resonated with the children and I would encourage other local schools to register and receive this worthwhile education program” Mr Ripoll said.

Despite legislation changes to smoking laws, 1 in 5 Australians still smoke and a large proportion of these are children. Given the health risks associated with this habit, this is a worrying statistic. Here are some more figures to put the problem into perspective:

• Tobacco kills over 19,000 Australians a year – causing 1 in 7 adult deaths
• More than 205,000 schoolchildren smoke regularly; more than 40,000 take it up each year
• Tobacco smoking is the biggest single preventable cause of both cancer and heart disease – causing 21% of all cancer deaths and 13% of all new cases of cancer.
• Nearly 1.5 million hospital patient bed days a year are occupied by people with diseases caused by smoking at an annual cost to our hospital system was almost $700 million.