SMOKING rates in Queensland are at an all-time low, promising great hope that we can create a smoke free community in our lifetime. Cancer Council Queensland spokesperson Katie Clift explains.

Over the past 25 years, smoking rates in Queensland have halved, preventing tens of thousands of deaths.

The significance of this achievement should not be downplayed.

It follows decades of anti-tobacco campaigning, ad bans, price rises, and increasing regulation of a product that is guaranteed to kill half of all its users.

In fact, 10 Queenslanders still die every day from smoking-related illness and disease, and it's time to end this tragic toll.

For some time now, Cancer Council Queensland has been urging Members of Parliament and Government leaders to introduce statewide smoke free spaces.

Specifically, we need new laws to stop smoking in public places where harm might be caused from second-hand smoke.

Our targets include bus stops, taxi ranks, ferry terminals, pedestrian malls, and tertiary educational campuses.

The community is increasingly aware of the harmful health impacts of smoking - whereby support for smoke free spaces is at the highest level in Queensland's history.

That's because we know that strategies like this are proven to protect people from the harmful effects of smoking, encourage more smokers to quit, and prevent more young people from taking up the lethal habit.

It's estimated around 3000 Queenslanders will die from a tobacco-related disease this year. And about 300 of these deaths will be caused by second-hand smoke exposure.

Declines in smoking rates over time are a credit to community and government action, which led to bans on smoking in pubs, clubs, and restaurants.

More recently, smoking has been further denormalised by retail display bans, a ban on smoking in cars carrying children, and no smoking outside school gates and on hospital grounds.

However, much more needs to be done. We have recently seen a sharp increase in the prevalence of smoking among Queenslanders aged between 25 and 34 years old.

This defies the declines we have seen in other age groups, with 28 per cent of men in the 25-34 age bracket now smoking every day, compared with 19.8 per cent in 2012.

Among women in the 25-34 age bracket, the rate of smoking has increased from 12.8 per cent to 16.7 per cent.

If we don't arrest this alarming trend, a significant number of young Queenslanders will have their lives cut short by smoking.

Each cigarette contains more than 4000 harmful chemicals - and around 50 of them are known to cause cancer.

Those exposed to second-hand smoke are also at serious risk.

Smoke inhalation can cause lung cancer, heart disease and respiratory problems in adults, and SIDS, asthma, poor lung function and bronchitis in children.

Almost one Queenslander dies every day from second-hand smoke exposure - people who have never smoked.

Just inhaling tobacco smoke can increase a person's risk of developing lung cancer by as much as 30 per cent.

Around 500,000 people still smoke each day in Queensland. We'd like to help them quit, and to create smoke free places for all members of the community to enjoy.

To find out more about our vision for a smoke free state, visit www.cancerqld.org.au or call 13 11 20.