The Cancer Council of Victoria will fight a freedom of information request by a big tobacco company to access information from classroom surveys about young people’s attitudes towards smoking.
British American Tobacco has applied to access data collected by the Cancer Council from school students covering a range of issues, including where they get their cigarettes from, when they started smoking and how they feel about plain packaging.
The information was collected at schools around the state from a survey of students aged between 12 and 17.
The Cancer Council’s Todd Harper said the organisation was concerned the information could be misused.
“The response of children to the initiative of plain packing is a particularly important and rich source of information for tobacco companies,” he said.
“We are doing what we can to ensure that the information that has been collected from school students does remain confidential.”
Mr Harper said the council had gathered about three decades’ worth of data from students about their attitudes towards tobacco, alcohol and illicit drug use.
British American Tobacco said it was seeking the data to find out if plain packaging was having an impact on its product.
It said it would not be seeking any personal data or information about children.
“It is illegal to sell tobacco to children and tobacco advertising has been banned for decades,” the company said in a statement.
“Children are not, and will never be, our audience and we have always made this clear.”
A date is yet to be set for the matter before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.