New Zealand is Quitting Strong

Smoke Free Sweden says: “One of the key achievements detailed in the report is New Zealand’s success in halving its smoking rates in just five years by supporting adult smokers to switch to vaping. As a result, the country is on track to become one of the first to achieve official smoke-free status, with less than 5% of adults smoking cigarettes.

“The report provides valuable insights and recommendations that can be applied globally to reduce smoking rates and improve public health outcomes. We believe the lessons learned from New Zealand’s experience will be instrumental for policymakers, health professionals, and public health advocates worldwide.”

‘Quitting Strong: New Zealand’s Smoking Cessation Success Story’ states: “Sweden has emerged as a standard bearer for the global march towards a smoke free future. It has shown the world how to virtually eradicate smoking by enabling people who smoke cigarettes to switch to risk-reduced alternatives and it is reaping the public health dividend by witnessing a dramatically lower incidence of cancer and other smoking- related diseases.

The report details the Swedish Experience: “Sixty years ago, 49% of Swedish men smoked cigarettes. By 2022, Sweden’s public health agency reported that only 5.6% of Swedish adults continue to do so. Its successful reduction in smoking rates over the years has been facilitated by education, tobacco control measures and the adoption of risk-reduced, smoke free alternatives.”

The report states how although the enviable reduction in New Zealand’s smoking rates was a gradual process over many years, it has evidently been turbo- charged by the introduction of tobacco harm reduction.

Finally, the report details its lessons for the world, namely that New Zealand’s progress towards a smoke free nation powerfully exemplifies the effectiveness of the Swedish model. 

“This approach,” they say, “centred on harm reduction and promoting risk-reduced alternatives, demonstrably leads to significant reductions in smoking rates while providing critical controls on underage access and appeal.

“The WHO appears to have lost its way and has effectively ‘given up’ on adult smokers, seeking only to banish less risky novel nicotine alternatives. New Zealand, on the other hand, has chosen to strike a balance in accelerating its adult smokers switching while protecting its future generations with proportionate regulations.”

References:

• Report - https://smokefreesweden.org/wp-content/themes/smokefreesweden/assets/pdf/stories/SFNZ%20Report_v2.0.8-full.pdf
• Exec sum - https://smokefreesweden.org/wp-content/themes/smokefreesweden/assets/pdf/stories/SFNZ-Exec-Summary.pdf

Slides - https://smokefreesweden.org/wp-content/themes/smokefreesweden/assets/pdf/stories/SFNZ-Warsaw-Slides.pdf

Dave Cross

Journalist at POTV

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Dave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.