Glover: Lives Will Be Lost
New Zealand has shown the world how vapes helped cut its smoking rate in half and governments around the world risk lives, according to leading international health expert Dr Marewa Glover
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by Dave Cross
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New Zealand has shown the world how vapes helped cut its smoking rate in half and governments around the world risk lives, according to leading international health expert Dr Marewa Glover. The harm reduction expert warned governments that millions of lives will be unnecessarily lost if policymakers fail to embrace the opportunities offered by tobacco harm reduction products.
New Zealand’s smoking rate has almost halved in just five years due to the widespread acceptance and use of smoke-free nicotine products such as vapes, Auckland-based Dr Glover told a global forum at the Harvard Club in New York, held alongside the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA79).
Like Sweden, which has also embraced safer alternatives to cigarettes in the form of snus pouches, New Zealand is now on the brink of becoming officially classified as smoke-free and is already reaping the public health dividends.
Dr Glover said: “New Zealand’s experience shows that giving adults access to safer alternatives means that adults who smoke can and do quit smoking in large numbers.
“This success, like in Sweden, has been driven by a combination of government-led initiatives and community support, rather than ideological wars against nicotine.”
Dr Glover, co-author of Quitting Strong: New Zealand’s Smoking Cessation Success Story, unveiled an educational video showcasing the public health breakthrough in her homeland and urging other nations to learn from the lessons it offers.
She continued: “New Zealand’s success contrasts starkly with that of our neighbour Australia. Australia has adopted a far more restrictive and dogmatic approach towards safer alternatives. As a result, it has seen any progress in reducing smoking rates flatlining, an explosion in illicit products and even an upsurge in violence associated with that criminal trade.
“This experience should serve as an urgent warning to the World Health Organization and policymakers who refuse to recognise the value of tobacco harm reduction despite a mounting body of evidence showing that smoke-free alternatives are the most effective tools for helping adults who smoke to quit their deadly habit.
“By providing that real-world evidence, New Zealand and Sweden stand as the game-changers that can help to save millions of lives around the globe. Governments must focus on reducing the death and disease caused by smoking and they can do that by following the example of these countries that are already succeeding. The alternative is to condemn millions of adults who smoke to continue smoking which will inevitably result in unnecessarily premature death.”
Sweden has reduced its smoking rates by 55% in the last decade by making safer alternatives to cigarettes - such as snus, modern oral nicotine pouches and vapes - acceptable, accessible and affordable. Compared with the rest of the European Union, Sweden now has 44% fewer tobacco-related deaths, a cancer rate that is 41% lower, and 38% fewer deaths attributable to any cancer.
In 2019, New Zealand’s Ministry of Health endorsed vaping as a tool for smoking cessation. Since then, New Zealand has seen its smoking rates almost halve as it too nears smoke-free status, where fewer than 5% of its adult population smokes cigarettes.
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave 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.
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