New Zealand towards a tobacco-free country?

According to the WHO, tobacco is the cause of more than 8 million deaths each year worldwide.

Getty Images/iStockphoto - itakdalee

Text by: RFI Follow

2 mins

A bill that aims to permanently ban smoking in New Zealand has passed parliament for this final vote.

A policy implemented by different governments for more than 10 years.  

Publicity

Read more

From our correspondent in Wellington, 

The New Zealand government wants to both discourage smokers and prevent young people from taking up smoking.

And for this, the government wants to gradually raise the legal age for buying tobacco. 

Thus, from January 1, 2023, people born after 2008 will no longer be allowed to buy cigarettes, and that permanently.

The government also wants to reduce the level of nicotine in cigarette packs.   

And to further deter the population: the price of cigarettes which increases every year.

In the country, a package costs around 40 New Zealand dollars, or 25 euros.

The

Smoke-free

plan 2025  

This plan "a country without tobacco in 2025" launched ten years ago aims in the long term to constitute a country of non-smokers.

An almost apolitical plan since it was respected unanimously by the various governments which succeeded one another.

Several measures have already been put in place in the past, such as the ban on smoking in public spaces, such as beaches, parks or even bar or restaurant terraces. 

The law adopted Tuesday, December 27 therefore aims to strengthen the arsenal of measures with the aim of reducing the number of smokers below 5% of the population.

They are currently 8%, which represents in New Zealand just under 400,000 people. 

A really effective plan?   

There isn't really a big tobacco culture in New Zealand.

There is also a clear difference in the image around smokers.

By banning smoking in public spaces, smokers are almost seen as repugnant.

An image sometimes caused by the smell of cigarettes or simply because of this national health policy which, in recent years, has changed mentalities about being a smoker.

But the drop in the number of smokers in recent years has stalled.

In 2021, only 15,000 people out of the expected 60,000 have quit smoking.

And this reduction is not the same according to the ethnic groups.

Among Pacific communities and Maori, smoking rates remain quite high and these anti-smoking campaigns have only worked for European populations across New Zealand.   

With this measure, the country still hopes to save more than 5 billion euros in health costs.

Each year, 5,000 people die from smoking in New Zealand. 

►Also read:

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

• New Zealand

• Health and medicine

• Dope