Smoking and vaping on death notification forms in Australia: Improving the reporting of preventable risk factors

We are coming up to almost 60 years since the landmark US Report of the Surgeon General on The Health Consequences of Smoking that warned of the negative health impacts of smoking tobacco. While Australia as a nation has taken great strides in how to end the tobacco epidemic, we still have limitations in identifying tobacco and e-cigarette (vaping) attributed deaths as this information is not reported through our death notifications. For most people, Australia has one of the most complete and accurate death notification systems in the world. However, without important information on tobacco and vaping, there are limitations in understanding how these impact particular population groups as well as where resource allocation of health programs and policies that can improve public health and safety should go...