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
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.
March 02, 2022 by 1news.co.nz
Teen smoking rates fall to all time low, vaping increases
Smoking rates among 13 and 14-year-olds have fallen to a record low while vaping has risen, according to the 2021 ASH (Action for Smokefree 2025) Year 10 Survey. The study found the number of year 10 students who smoke cigarettes daily has dropped from around two per cent in 2019, to 1.3 per cent in 2021.
In December last year, a survey carried out by the Ministry of Health showed the proportion of all New Zealanders smoking dropped from 11.9 per cent in the 2019-2020 survey to 9.4 per cent in 2021.
February 24, 2022 by tbsnews.net
New Zealand PM: ‘We know that vaping is making a difference’
Talking about a recent legislation that will bar people aged 14 and under to legally buy tobacco, the New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern acknowledged that vaping can be an effective tool to help smokers quit.
The New Zealand prime minister said that continuing to raise tobacco prices will not continue to help people stop smoking and that is why there is a need for alternative ways. She said that the best way to reduce smoking rate would be if people don't take up smoking in the first place.
February 13, 2022 by vapingpost.com
New Zealand’s New Vape Flavour Restricions Will Increase Smoking Rates
With the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Vaping) Amendment Act going into force, New Zealand’s general retailers including service stations, supermarkets and convenience stores, are only allowed to to sell three vape flavours: menthol, mint, and tobacco.
“It’s crazy that Kiwis desperate to quit cigarettes can walk into a service station and buy any cigarette brand under the sun. They can’t, however, access the most popular vapes flavours. It makes no sense when vaping has been proven to be 95% less harmful than smoking,” said Jonathan Devery, co-owner of the largest Kiwi-owned vape companies, Alt New Zealand and VAPO.
December 15, 2021 by thespinoff.co.nz
I smoked for 20 years. I desperately wish there’d been a cigarette ban
I can not, however, pinpoint the moment that I decided to start smoking cigarettes because I don’t believe I ever did. It just happened. I was 18-ish and had smoked socially at parties. I don’t remember buying my first packet but at some point, I morphed into the person who would always let you bum a smoke. I liked that about myself at the time but an affectation soon became a habit and a full blown addiction. The accidental nature of how I became a smoker is one of the strongest reasons I support the latest announcement from the government to gradually increase the legal age at which someone can buy cigarettes and to regulate where you can buy them from. [...]
December 14, 2021 by filtermag.org
Desperate to Win the Smokefree Race, New Zealand Resorts to Prohibition
Bhutan was the first country to ban the import and sale of tobacco, in 2004. But New Zealand is held up as the country to watch.
In the global race to eliminate tobacco smoking, New Zealand was first out of the stalls with its 1990 Smoke-free Environments Act. The law banned smoking inside public buildings such as schools, in workplaces and on public transportation. It extended restrictions on advertising and established an agency to replace tobacco-industry event sponsorship It remains a milestone achievement that the law became an exemplar during the writing of the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.