Members of ASPIRE2025 have just released the latest research report aimed at informing and stimulating debate about policy options that might help New Zealand become a smokefree nation by 2025.
Key messages from this project:
• Bold policies are needed to address inequalities and reduce smoking prevalence in priority groups. Key informants agreed that a suite of interventions is needed to achieve the 2025 goal – no single policy will get us there.
• The report highlights the need for greater clarity over the definition of the smokefree 2025 goal: Is the prevalence goal <5% overall or <5% for all ethnic groups? The government's wording was “reducing smoking prevalence and tobacco availability to minimal levels” and yet the focus on reducing availability appears to have dropped out of discourse on the smokefree 2025 goal.
• The findings suggest that dramatic tax increases may be the most viable immediate policy target for New Zealand's tobacco control sector. This option was seen by key informants as both effective and politically feasible, if coupled with complementary interventions.
• More work is required to collate evidence and raise awareness about other ‘game changer' options such as compulsory removal of nicotine from tobacco, bans on additives, reduced retail availability and the ‘tobacco free generation'. Key informants had mixed views on the likely effectiveness and feasibility of these options.
• Frustration at the lack of progress towards Smokefree 2025 was a key theme. The findings add further weight to calls for urgent government action on tobacco control.
For more information please email richard.edwards@otago.ac.nz
Members of ASPIRE2025 have just released the latest research report aimed at informing and stimulating debate about policy options that might help New Zealand become a smokefree nation by 2025.
Key messages from this project:
• Bold policies are needed to address inequalities and reduce smoking prevalence in priority groups. Key informants agreed that a suite of interventions is needed to achieve the 2025 goal – no single policy will get us there.
• The report highlights the need for greater clarity over the definition of the smokefree 2025 goal: Is the prevalence goal <5% overall or <5% for all ethnic groups? The government's wording was “reducing smoking prevalence and tobacco availability to minimal levels” and yet the focus on reducing availability appears to have dropped out of discourse on the smokefree 2025 goal.
• The findings suggest that dramatic tax increases may be the most viable immediate policy target for New Zealand's tobacco control sector. This option was seen by key informants as both effective and politically feasible, if coupled with complementary interventions.
• More work is required to collate evidence and raise awareness about other ‘game changer' options such as compulsory removal of nicotine from tobacco, bans on additives, reduced retail availability and the ‘tobacco free generation'. Key informants had mixed views on the likely effectiveness and feasibility of these options.
• Frustration at the lack of progress towards Smokefree 2025 was a key theme. The findings add further weight to calls for urgent government action on tobacco control.
For more information please email richard.edwards@otago.ac.nz
