Smokers' survey results 'call into question' repeal of smokefree measures

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-01-24 00:01

New Zealand

Photo by Cristian Guerrero on Unsplash

Regular smokers and people who just quit strongly support 'smokefree generation' laws and very low nicotine cigarette mandates, two surveys of over 1200 New Zealanders show, with more than three-quarters supporting both measures. About a third supported cutting the number of retailers who could sell cigarettes and those who didn't intend to quit were least supportive. About half said they'd quit or reduce smoking in response to very low nicotine cigarette mandates or retailer reductions, while under 20% would try to find workarounds to get their preferred tobacco products. The study authors say these findings "call into question" the decision to repeal the three world-first measures last year.

News release

From: Pasifika Medical Association Group

We conducted surveys between 2020 and 2021 of people who smoke or who recently quit smoking in Aotearoa New Zealand. Support among survey participants for the following policies was: 83% for a smokefree generation policy (banning the sale of tobacco to people born after a certain date), 75% for making only very low nicotine cigarettes available and 35% for a substantial reduction in tobacco retailers. Around half of the participants who smoked anticipated quitting completely, switching to vaping or cutting down the amount they smoke if very low nicotine cigarettes or substantial retailer reductions were introduced. These findings call in to question the Government’s decision to repeal these policy measures in 2024.

Journal/
conference: New Zealand Medical Journal

Organisation/s: University of Otago, AUT University

Funder: This research was funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand (19/641), with additional support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (FDN-148477) and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (IA-004).

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