New Zealand’s lifetime smoking ban for people born after 2008 – The HuffPost

via Associated Press

INTERNATIONAL – “This is a historic day for the health of our fellow citizens.” Minister of Health New Zealand Ayesha Verrall announced on Thursday, December 8 a plan to gradually raise the age at which the tobacco can be purchased, a “World premiere” which aims in the long term to ban the sale of tobacco.

Currently, regulations in force prohibit New Zealanders under the age of 18 from purchasing tobacco and from 2027 this age limit will increase by one year each year, the minister said. This means that people born after 2008 will never be able to smoke cigarettes in their lifetime.

New Zealand is taking a historic step towards our smokefree future.

We will implement bold measures, including banning the sale of cigarettes to future generations, as part of our # Smokefree2025 Action Plan. https://t.co/rx2tkrWJK9

– Ayesha Verrall (@drayeshaverrall) December 8, 2021

“We want to make sure that people never start smoking … as they get older, they and future generations will never be able to legally buy tobacco,” she said. The minister specified that the government will adopt a law also aimed at restricting the number of places that can sell tobacco and only authorize products containing a low level of nicotine, in order to reduce the risk of addiction.

Ayesha Verrall stressed that these measures will allow New Zealand to maintain its role as a world leader in tobacco control. In 1990, the archipelago had banned the tobacco industry from sponsoring the sports sector and in 2004 from smoke in bars. “This is a historic day for the health of our population,” she said.

Smoking the leading cause of preventable death in New Zealand

Smoking, the cause of one in four cancers, remains the leading cause of preventable death in New Zealand. The minister stressed that the health toll was particularly heavy in the Maori and Pacific communities, where the smoking rate is about twice as high as the 13.5% recorded among the rest of the population.

The government wants to reduce this percentage to 5% by 2025 and according to it, this achievable goal would save the health system 5.5 NZ $ (about 3.3 billion euros) in expenses. “We know it is difficult to quit this habit and some people who smoke are obviously going to need a lot of support,” added Minister Ayesha Verrall. This is why the 2021 budget foresees NZ $ 36 for the promotion of such programs.

The pressure group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) welcomed the announcements. “This set of complementary measures will be envied by countries fighting against the death and misery caused by smoked tobacco,” said Robert Beaglehole, president of ASH. “We will be at the forefront of tobacco control in the world,” he said.

The tobacco manufacturer British American Tobacco New Zealand for its part considered that these measures were “untested, unfounded and without any scientific proof of their effectiveness”. “The consequences are in fact a progressive ban, which only pushes for the sale (of tobacco) on the black market,” he said in a statement.

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