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
September 14, 2022 by scoop.co.nz
Expert Smokefree Submissions Deliver Answers - AVCA
“We are relying heavily on MPs to read and act on the valuable submissions to Parliament’s Health Select Committee which provide expert and practical solutions to help New Zealand achieve Smokefree Aotearoa 2025,” says Nancy Loucas co-founder of the Aotearoa Vapers Community Advocacy (AVCA). The Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Bill limits the number of retailers able to sell smoked tobacco products, aims to make tobacco products less appealing and addictive, and prohibits the sale of tobacco products to anyone born in 2009 or after.
September 06, 2022 by planetofthevapes.co.uk
Strong Reasons To Follow UK’s Success
The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) has welcomed the Action on Smoking and Health report showing vaping success in the United Kingdom. “Smoking in Britain is dramatically falling, largely because adults keen to quit have been able to switch to considerably less harmful vaping,” says Nancy Loucas, Executive Coordinator of CAPHRA.
Loucas’ comments come as the UK’s Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) released a report which it says shows a “vaping revolution” has taken place over the past decade. [...]
August 31, 2022 by nzherald.co.nz
Smoking bill: Foodstuffs, Z Energy oppose immediate limit of number of tobacco retailers
Foodstuffs NZ and Z Energy are lobbying the Government to drop a proposed immediate limit to the number of retailers able to sell tobacco products in an amendment bill deemed world-leading smoking legislation.
But the Cancer Society NZ says maintaining the thousands of tobacco retailers across the country will significantly hinder New Zealand's Smokefree 2025 aim.
The health select committee today heard public submissions on the bill, which would mean people aged 14 and under would never be able to legally buy tobacco and dramatically reduce nicotine levels.
August 23, 2022 by nzherald.co.nz
Science Digest: Do you know what's inside your vape?
New Zealand is on its way to curbing people's addiction to nicotine cigarettes, but is the switch to vaping or e-cigarettes any better for the public?
Increased prices, tough legislation and a growing awareness of health risks have pushed many smokers away from cigarettes. In its wake, vaping has exploded in popularity in New Zealand, with chain store Shosha now operating over 100 stores, while research shows there are more stores selling vaping products near schools than there are fast food joints.
Many teenagers and people who never tried cigarettes are now hooked on vaping, with many seeing it as a healthier option to smoking.
July 26, 2022 by theconversation.com
New Zealand’s ‘tobacco endgame’ law will be a world first for health – here’s what the modelling shows us
With the first reading of a new bill in parliament today, Aotearoa New Zealand’s plan to be smokefree by 2025 takes another tangible step forward.
The Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Bill will now go to the Health Select Committee for submissions and review, and (presumably) return to the House in late 2022 to be passed into law.
Assuming the final legislation looks similar to what is being proposed, it will mean Aotearoa New Zealand leapfrogs all other countries to be at the vanguard of tobacco control, with policy settings aimed at getting smoking prevalence beneath 5% of the adult population within years (not decades).
July 14, 2022 by rnz.co.nz
Northland council urges crackdown on vape stores
Kaipara District Council is seeking support for a national crackdown on vape sales - with some Dargaville locals aghast at having 13 vape retailers within one kilometre in their town. Other councils will be asked this month if they think vape retailers should all be R18, and if there should be national 'proximity limits' to prevent the clustering of such stores.
A 150-metre stretch of Dargaville's main shopping street Victoria Street features three different speciality vape retailers.
Within a kilometre radius, another 10 stores identified by the local health agencies - and verified by RNZ - sell plainer mint, menthol and tobacco flavoured vapes, alongside other goods.
June 22, 2022 by nzherald.co.nz
Vaping: Survey shows one in five Year 10s taking up habit as school fits hidden detectors
Aggressive marketing and evolving technology has left schools battling a vaping "epidemic", but one school has installed high-tech hidden detectors to help pupils break the habit.
A University of Otago professor, meanwhile, says punishment and education can only do so much while the devices for inhaling enticingly flavoured nicotine remain so widely available.
The academic pointed to research showing that one in five (20.2 per cent) of Year 10 students in New Zealand schools were regularly vaping.
June 13, 2022 by rnz.co.nz
Young vapers consuming more nicotine than a pack-a-day cigarette habit, group says
A organisation which provides health education to young people says some rangatahi who vape are consuming as much nicotine as someone smoking a pack-and-a-half-a-day of cigarettes a day. The Life Education Trust says schools are crying out for help because they are dealing with young people with full-on dependancy issues.
The latest Asthma and Respiratory Foundation and Secondary Principal's Association Survey found 27 percent of young people had vaped in the last seven days. And the ASH Year 10 Snapshot showed a dramatic increase for regular vaping from 12 percent of students in 2019 to 20 percent last year.
June 09, 2022 by bloomberg.com
Smoking Age Should Be Raised Each Year Until Cigarettes Effectively Banned, Review Says
A report commissioned by the UK government recommends raising the legal smoking age each year in a bid to phase out tobacco use among young people.
If adopted, the measures would slot the UK among the most aggressive countries in trying to stamp out smoking, joining nations such as New Zealand, which plans a similar move, which will eventually become a blanket prohibition. The report, released Thursday, recommended that the minimum age to buy cigarettes and other tobacco products should be increased from 18 by one year each year. Within several decades, nobody would be able to buy such products in the U.K.
May 10, 2022 by nzherald.co.nz
The Front Page: Has the Government lost control of vaping?
Vaping brands arrived in New Zealand under the auspices of helping New Zealanders quit smoking.
And while they have certainly played a role in that, they've also contributed to an entirely new generation hooked on nicotine.
NZ Herald health reporter Emma Russell tells Front Page podcast a recent survey shows that one in five secondary school students are addicted to vaping.
"One doctor said to me that this could just be history repeating itself," says Russell, referencing the fact that cigarettes have essentially been replaced by vaping.