We’ve known for decades just how damaging smoking can be to our health, and while rates have declined in recent years, especially among younger people, there are still way too many who are happy to puff away their lives. To combat the rates of smoking in younger generations as well as to meet its goal of becoming smoke-free by 2025, New Zealand is considering a ban on cigarette sales to anyone born after 2004, according to reports.
What do you think about a smokefree generation policy?
Have your say in the consultation proposals for a Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 Action Plan: https://t.co/0puALiuNvs pic.twitter.com/f83zaJPMBf
— Ministry of Health – Manatū Hauora (@minhealthnz) April 14, 2021
- A total ban on sales isn’t all that’s on the table. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her government are also said to be considering measures including minimum pricing, limiting which shops can sell cigarettes, drastically reducing the level of nicotine in them, and banning filters. Nothing has been set in stone just yet, but the discussions and the proposals are ongoing.
- The rate of tobacco-related deaths in New Zealand is still too high. The country is dedicated to getting those numbers down in order to help New Zealanders live their longest, healthiest lives and they’re prepared to take more aggressive steps to ensure that this happens. As associate health minister Dr. Ayesha Verrall said according to The Guardian: “We need a new approach. About 4,500 New Zealanders die every year from tobacco, and we need to make accelerated progress to be able to reach that goal. Business-as-usual without a tobacco control program won’t get us there.”
- Public health organizations support the smoking bans and limitations. For example, Lucy Elwood, chief executive of New Zealand’s Cancer Society, pointed out that there are way too many tobacco retailers in low-income communities and this disparity can easily be seen in the illnesses and fatalities caused by cigarettes. “This proposal goes beyond assisting people to quit. These glaring inequities are why we need to protect future generations from the harms of tobacco. Tobacco is the most harmful consumer product in history and needs to be phased out,” she said.
- Tobacco addiction has largely affected Māori and Pasifika New Zealanders. Shane Kawenata Bradbrook, an activist who has been campaigning for smoke-free Māori communities for many years, is ready for the tobacco industry’s awful reign to be over so that his community can begin to heal. “For too long the tobacco industry has been addicting our people, fleecing them of their money before we have to bury them in urupa [burial grounds] all over this land. I am looking forward to truly making this a sunset industry in this corner of the world,” he said.
