Todd Harper, CEO of Cancer Council Victoria, Director of Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), shared on LinkedIn:
“With the death of Derryn Hinch, I wanted to acknowledge one aspect of his legacy that is less often discussed – his long-standing support for smokefree environments.
Long before smokefree workplaces, restaurants and bars became the norm, Derryn Hinch was advocating for the rights of people to be protected from the harms of secondhand tobacco smoke.
By his own account, he banned smoking in his home around 1985, enforced smokefree rules at his farm, and later introduced a no-smoking policy in his television workplace while hosting the Hinch show on Channel 7.
He often spoke about his dislike of secondhand smoke, recalling smoke-filled newsrooms, public spaces and aircraft cabins as examples of what Australians once accepted as normal.
He spoke of his personal experience, including the loss of his mother to lung cancer.
By the time Australia embraced smokefree hospitality venues and workplaces, Derryn Hinch had already spent decades putting those principles into practice in his own environments.
I valued our many conversations on this issue over the years including his time on 3AW and 3AK radio.
He was an important part of the early campaign for smokefree spaces helped reflect and reinforce a cultural shift that has delivered enormous public health benefits for Australians.”
Other articles featuring Todd Harper on OncoDaily.