New Zealand is on course to tackle the smoking epidemic through progressive measures.

The country is ahead of even Great Britain, which was the first to adopt the Smoke-Free Roadmap 2030 from 2020.

The ambitious goal is to reduce the number of smokers in the country to less than 5% by 2025, compared to the current 11%.

Even if they come of age in 5 years, those born after January 1, 2009 will not be able to buy cigarettes.

One of the ambitions is that children who are currently 14 years old and under will never have the opportunity to legally buy cigarettes in their lives, and this means that gradually the next generations will not have contact with cigarettes.

After half a century, only the elderly - those over 63 - will be able to buy cigarettes.

The new law also foresees a drastic reduction in the number of retailers to 600 and the amount of nicotine in cigarettes, which has not been limited until now, unlike the EU, where for at least 10 years the maximum nicotine per cigarette is 1 mg.

The new law targets cigarettes and supports vaping

"We want to make sure that people will never start smoking

," commented Deputy Health Minister Ayesha Bepal, under whose leadership a number of consistent steps in the elimination of smoking had already been made, at the announcement of the draft plan last year. until the adoption of the law.

“We want e-cigarettes to be available to support smoking cessation.

In recent months, we have witnessed the biggest decline in smoking and this can be attributed to the availability of e-cigarettes," says Dr. Ayesha Veral.

The new restrictions in the law do not apply to smokeless alternatives, which are popular in New Zealand and are supported by health authorities and most politicians as a suitable means of quitting smoking.

As part of the changes, the government approved a new regulatory framework for e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products in the Smoke-Free Environment and Tobacco Products Regulation Act.

It aims to "support the transition of smokers to regulated products", which are smoke-free alternatives defined as "significantly less harmful than smoking".

Scientists and PM Ardern: innovation is a powerful tool

It is the reduced harm of smokeless products such as e-cigarettes and tobacco heating devices that distinguish them from combustible cigarettes and before the law.

The latest legislation will allow a wider variety of nicotine products to be sold only by authorized retailers, albeit a reduced number.

There will be a requirement that they be approved by local regulatory authorities before they are placed on the market to ensure that the products meet safety requirements.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern also committed to the latest steps in the fight against smoking in her country and indicated that

.

An identical approach is taken in the UK Roadmap, where e-cigarettes are part of the smoking cessation tools.

"Increasing the price of cigarettes will not help people stop smoking.

Therefore, we must consider that there is an alternative that works very successfully for smokers.

We know that e-cigarettes make a difference to those who now want to stop smoking, and that is why they are such an important tool," Ardern commented on the role of smokeless alternatives in the fight against smoking.

"Vaping products, especially those containing nicotine, may help some people to quit or reduce smoking because they can address both the nicotine addiction and the behavioral aspects of smoking," states a from the instructions for working with people who want to quit smoking.

Numerous health campaigns by the authorities have explained with scientific information the reduced harm of smokeless products and the benefit of replacing cigarettes with them.

Scientists around the world have already described the changes as "a world-leading move, vital and an example to follow" and good news for public health.

"This is one of the most significant public health actions announced this century - a real opportunity to end the smoking epidemic in New Zealand

," said Carol Gartner from the Nicotine and Tobacco Regulation Research Group at the University of Queensland.

The fight against smoking in the island country has also included local celebrities who went beyond the health aspect, promoting the indisputable fact that being "smoke-free" is fashionable, regardless of what profession you practice and what is your social status in life.

"A lot of people smoke just to fit in, which is extremely stupid - they just have to be themselves," comments neo-soul artist Tau Manukia, formerly of the band Spacefix.

The good examples that reduced the death rate from cigarettes

Innovation is changing the market, and the reduction in mortality from smoking-related diseases can only be achieved by stopping cigarette smoking.

Examples include Sweden, Norway, Japan.

In Japan, 22% of smokers have already replaced cigarettes with tobacco heating devices, and Sweden has provided evidence of harm reduction by replacing cigarettes with snus.

In the Scandinavian country, where snus is widely used - tobacco for oral use without burning, there are a record few lung cancer diagnoses and the fewest smokers in the EU - 7%.

Another example of smoke-free policy success is Norway, where as early as 2018, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health assessed harm as a strategic element of tobacco control policy and outlined the pros and cons of less harmful nicotine alternatives compared to cigarettes.

In 2020, the Public Health England (Public Health England) indicated in its annual report on e-cigarettes that with their help the most people in England gave up smoking.

Sweden - closest to the smoke-free generation

Sweden's leadership in the race to stop smoking is indisputable.

The result is the lowest death rate from the harmful habit in Europe.

The smoking rate in Sweden has fallen since the 1980s from 35% to below 7%, a feat that has yet to be matched by any other nation in the world.

Thanks to snus, the country has waged a successful battle against cigarettes for years and boasts a 5.6% rate of smokers - a result that is a quarter of the EU average of 23% and the lowest in the EU and even in the world.

As a result, the country is well ahead of the European Cancer Plan's goal of a "smoke-free generation" by 2040, namely to reduce the number of smokers in Europe to 5% of the population.

This makes the Swedes the only European nation close to meeting the smoke-free target set by the EU, 18 years ahead of its deadline.

A group of leading public health professionals and harm reduction experts reiterated at a November conference in Stockholm their call for policymakers worldwide to ensure that less harmful alternatives to smoking are available to support smokers to quit refuse.

"If all smokers in the world, about 1.1 billion people, were to switch to one of the less harmful smokeless alternatives, it could prevent many diseases and save millions of lives worldwide.

Professor Carl Fagerström adds: "The upcoming Swedish EU Presidency is a great opportunity to share their 5% success story with other EU countries.

We hope that Sweden will be generous to share this know-how internationally.”

"ASH - Action for smoke-free 2025" is an organization that has been fighting against smoking since 1983.

On their site they publish data on the decline of smoking and the rise of vaping: https://www.ash.org.nz/smokefree_2025_plan