Friday, March 29, 2024

New Zealand: Smokefree 2025 Plan Considers Nicotine And Age Restrictions

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“Back in 2011 when Smokefree 2025 was launched, it was viewed as doable albeit requiring serious and deliberate government programmes and intervention. However, nine years on we’re still sadly miles off,” said AVCA co-director Nancy Loucas, in a recent press release.

The local Government is now also proposing restricting where tobacco products can be sold, and creating a licensing regime.

In a bid to expedite the process, the Government of New Zealand is now proposing limiting the amount of nicotine allowed in cigarettes, restricting where tobacco products can be sold, and also creating a licensing regime.

Earlier this year, Loucas had explained why the recently implemented Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Vaping) Amendment Bill, would be counterproductive to achieving this goal. “A huge opportunity has been missed to make risk-reduced vaping products more accessible to smokers in order to reach the SmokeFree 2025 goal set by the government,” she said.

Loucas has emphasized that any vape/tobacco tobacco-related actions must dovetail with the country’s smokefree action plan. “Finalising the vaping regulations and the smokefree action plan must not been done in silos. The two are intrinsically linked, with vaping an effective tool towards Aotearoa achieving the smokefree goal. It should be regulated proportionately.”

EU data show that lower nicotine levels lead to higher toxin consumption

Meanwhile, public health professor Chris Bullen has said that studies show that when consuming relatively low nicotine levels, non-smokers do not get addicted to nicotine and that smokers manage to cut down or quit. Sadly, data from Europe where such a cap has already been set, have indicated quite the opposite.

Data have shown that forcing smokers who are trying to quit to consume lower levels of nicotine than they are used to, only compels them to use the products more often than they normally would, hence consume more toxins, or else simply revert back to using more harmful tobacco products.

Read Further: NZ Herald

New Zealand Proposes Vape Products Should Carry Health Warnings in Māori



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