Smoking in New Zealand
In New Zealand, smoking is legal but subject to tobacco control regulations. Cigarettes are regulated as tobacco products and can be sold through retail outlets, including online sales and vending machines. The importation of cigarettes for trade is allowed with a trade license. Health warnings on packaging are mandatory, the legal minimum age for purchase is 18 years, and smoking in public places is subject to legal restrictions. A comprehensive ban on tobacco advertising is also in place. Cigarettes in New Zealand are taxed at a total rate of 82.78%, including an excise component of 69.74%. Data show that in 2024, the number of current smokers was recorded to be approximately 364,000 in New Zealand, corresponding to an adult smoking prevalence of 8.6%. In the same year, current smoking prevalence was slightly higher among males (9.7%) than among females (7.7%). In 2022, this prevalence was recorded to be 11.4%. In 2023, the adult daily tobacco smoking prevalence was reported to be 7.7%, with approximately 362,845 daily smokers. In 2021, smoking led to approximately 3,580 deaths in New Zealand, including 2,085 deaths among males and 1,495 deaths among females. In other words, tobacco smoking accounted for 10.38% of all deaths in the country in 2021, including11.78% of all male deaths and 8.9% of all female deaths.
Read articles from New Zealand
December 13, 2022 by bbc.com
New Zealand passes legislation banning cigarettes for future generations
New Zealand will phase in a near-total tobacco ban from next year.
Legislation passed by parliament on Tuesday means that anyone born after 2008 will never be able to buy cigarettes or tobacco products.
It will mean the number of people able to buy tobacco will shrink each year. By 2050, for example, 40-year-olds will be too young to buy cigarettes.
Health Minister Ayesha Verrall, who introduced the bill, said it was a step "towards a smoke-free future".
"Thousands of people will live longer, healthier lives and the health system will be NZ$5 billion (US$3.2 billion) better off from not needing to treat the illnesses caused by smoking," Dr Verrall said.
November 29, 2022 by scoop.co.nz
Ministry Of Health Not Striking The Right Balance With Vaping Regulations
The Ministry of Health is not striking the right balance between protecting young people from the harms of vaping and making vapes available for current smokers to use as a quit smoking tool says the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation of New Zealand.
The Foundation is concerned by recent comments from the Ministry of Health which reveal it has no plans to cap the number of specialist vape retailers or to reduce the nicotine levels allowed in vapes.
November 23, 2022 by snusforumet.se
Marewa Glover: Anti-tobacco zealot turned harm reduction advocate
Last winter, New Zealand introduced anti-tobacco legislation, the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Bill, with the aim of making the country smoke-free by 2025.
The bill’s most headline-grabbing aspect was a generational tobacco ban. Starting in 2023, anyone born on or after January 1, 2009, is barred for life from purchasing combustible cigarettes. Someone aged 14 when the legislation became law would therefore never be able to legally purchase tobacco.
November 18, 2022 by rnz.co.nz
Daily smoking rates at all-time low but remain high for Māori, figures show
The number of people who smoke cigarettes daily has dropped to an all-time low of 8 percent, down from 9.4 percent this time last year.
But figures in the Annual NZ Health survey show the daily rate for Māori is still far higher: 19.9 percent, down from 22.3 percent.
While there has been a reduction in tobacco smoking, tobacco and e-cigarette use continues to grow, rising from 6 percent last year to 8.3 percent this year, with usage highest among 18-to 24-year-olds
Māori public health organisation Hāpai Te Hauora said more work was needed to help the country get to its Smokefree 2025 goal of 5 percent.
November 15, 2022 by scoop.co.nz
Lung Damage From Vaping Doesn’t Stack Up – AVCA
“New Zealand’s Asthma and Respiratory Foundation (ARFNZ) is once again making health claims without providing any evidence. If they want their warnings to be taking seriously, they need to provide some proof,” says Nancy Loucas, co-founder of AVCA (Aotearoa Vapers Community Advocacy). [...] AVCA says ARFNZ should read the internationally published medical studies by Professor Riccardo Polosa. He is an award winning and renowned expert in respiratory health and Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR).
November 11, 2022 by scoop.co.nz
Vape Authors Hit Back On WHO’s Health Claims
Several leading international Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) experts have compiled and published extensive research which slams the World Health Organization’s (WHO) official health claims about vaping.
Titled ‘The Subversion of Public Health: Consumer Perspectives’, the recently released white paper hits back at the WHO’s claim that ‘never-smoker minors who use ENDS (Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems) can double their chance of starting to smoke tobacco cigarettes later in life.’
November 08, 2022 by clivebates.com
Using models disconnected from reality to justify huge ‘endgame’ interventions
In this blog, we take a look at modelling used to justify ‘endgame’ legislation under discussion in New Zealand. Among other things, this would reduce nicotine in cigarettes and other tobacco available through legal channels to minimal levels. We find the modelling and data assumptions bear no relation whatsoever to the underlying processes and the effects that such legislation would trigger. Deep cuts in smoking are assumed as inputs to the model. Unsurprisingly, therefore, the model results show deep cuts in smoking, and this determines the resulting health benefits. But the assumptions have no grounding in reality and misinterpret and misuse trial findings.
November 07, 2022 by qeios.com
Review of: Tobacco endgame intervention impacts on health gains and Māori:non-Māori health inequity: a simulation study of the Aotearoa-New Zealand Tobacco Action Plan
Building on recent progress towards the New Zealand Smokefree 2025 goal, the Government plans to introduce tobacco control legislation giving ministers powers to implement three significant new policies:
a steep reduction in the number of retail outlets that can sell tobacco;
a ‘smokefree generation’ proposal that would make it illegal to sell tobacco to anyone born after a certain date, and;
[...]
In preparation for this legislation, the Ministry of Health funded academics from Australia and New Zealand to model estimates of the likely impact of these measures, especially their contribution to achieving the Smokefree 2025 goal.
October 27, 2022 by nzherald.co.nz
Warning to vape importers, manufacturers over nicotine level confusion
Authorities have requested importers and manufacturers of vape products to review the nicotine concentrations, with the potential for products to be withdrawn if they exceeded limits.
This comes as TVNZ's Fair Go reported the Ministry of Health may have been given false or misleading information about the amount of nicotine in some products.
The Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act required products to be accurately labelled with the concentration of nicotine in mg/mL.
October 11, 2022 by scoop.co.nz
Proponents Also Concerned About Many Vape Shops
“It’s vaping advocates who first raised concerns about the proliferation of dairies becoming specialist vape retailers (SVRs). New Zealand’s Asthma and Respiratory Foundation’s (ARFNZ) latest round of public scaremongering is not helpful,” says Nancy Loucas, co-founder of Aotearoa Vapers Community Advocacy (AVCA). “Not one Kiwi has reportedly died from vaping, yet 5,000 die every year from smoking-related illnesses. Despite this, the ARFNZ continues to obsess about the most effective smoking cessation tool we have. Its latest media beat up doesn’t help one Kiwi quit tobacco nor help New Zealand achieve Smokefree Aotearoa 2025,” she says.