New Zealand has passed legislation that will gradually phase in a tobacco ban from next year.
The law, which was passed by parliament on Tuesday, means that anyone born after 2008 will never be able to buy tobacco products.
As a result, this means the number of people able to buy tobacco will decrease each year.
For example, by 2040 those who are 40 will be too young to buy cigarettes.
Ayesha Verrall is associate health minister. At the laws passing, she said: ‘Thousands of people will live longer, healthier lives and the health system will be $5 billion better off from not needing to treat the illnesses caused by smoking, such as numerous types of cancer, heart attacks, strokes, amputations.’
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Reduce nicotine
New Zealand is believed to be the first country in the world to implement the annually rising smoking age.
Other measures will also be implemented alongside it. This includes reducing the legal amount of nicotine in tobacco products and having them only be sold in specialty tobacco stores.
The number of stores legally allowed to sell cigarettes will be shrunk from 6,000 to just 600 across the country.
Vaping increase
Data shows the number of adults in New Zealand smoking daily has dropped to 8%, down from 9.4% in 2021.
The same cannot be said for e-cigarettes, however. Around 8.3% of adults are now vaping each day – up from 6.2% in the past year.
A similar pattern is seen in the UK. Data shows that around 13.3% of people aged 18 or over smoked cigarettes in 2021.
This is down from 14.0% in 2020, according to the Office for National Statistics.
However 7.7% of those aged 16 and above said they used e-cigarettes – compared to 6.4% in 2020.
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