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New Zealand scraps world-first smoking ‘generation ban’ to fund tax cuts
New Zealand’s new government will scrap the country’s world-leading law to ban smoking for future generations to help pay for tax cuts – a move that public health officials believe will cost thousands of lives and be “catastrophic” for Māori communities.
In 2022 the country passed pioneering legislation which introduced a steadily rising smoking age to stop those born after January 2009 from ever being able to legally buy cigarettes. The law was designed to prevent thousands of smoking-related deaths and save the health system billions of dollars.
The legislation, which is thought have inspired a plan in the UK to phase out smoking for future generations, contained a slew of other measures to make smoking less affordable and accessible. It included dramatically reducing the legal amount of nicotine in tobacco products, allowing their sale only through special tobacco stores, and slashing the number of stores legally allowed to sell cigarettes from 6,000 to just 600 nationwide.
The laws were due to be implemented from July 2024. But as part of its coalition agreement with populist New Zealand First, National agreed to repeal the amendments, including “removing requirements for de-nicotisation, removing the reduction in retail outlets and the generation ban”.
On Saturday, the new finance minister, Nicola Willis, said the measures will be axed before March 2024, with the revenue from cigarette sales going towards the coalition’s tax cuts. National has had to find new ways to fund its tax plan, after its coalition partner, New Zealand First, rejected a proposal to let foreign buyers back into the property market.
Prime minister Christopher Luxon said his government would continue to lower smoking rates through education and other smoking policies.
But public health experts have expressed shock at the policy reversal, saying it could cost up to 5,000 lives a year, and be particularly detrimental to Māori, who have higher smoking rates.
“This is major loss for public health, and a huge win for the tobacco industry – whose profits will be boosted at the expense of Kiwi lives,” said Prof Lisa Te Morenga, the chair of non-government industry group Health Coalition Aotearoa.’’
Te Morenga highlighted recent modelling that showed the regulations would save $1.3bn in health system costs over the next 20 years, if fully implemented, and would reduce mortality rates by 22% for women, and 9% for men.
“Turning the tide on harmful products that are entrenched in society cannot be done by individuals, or even communities,” Te Morenga said. “It takes good – and brave – population-level policies.”
Source: The Guardian, 27 November 2023
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UK’s biggest manufacturer of cigarettes and e-cigarettes calls for tough rules on sales of products
British American Tobacco (BAT) is calling for vendors of vapes to be licensed, like those selling alcohol, and the banning of promotional images and flavours that target children.
The company - which says “healthier alternatives” to smoking account for half of its revenue - said it backed the Government’s ambitions to make Britain “smoke free”.
But anti-smoking campaigners said its move was a “breathtakingly cynical” move from a company that continues to make most of its profits from cigarettes.
Ministers are consulting on ways to reduce youth vaping, and plan to pass laws that will gradually ban the sale of cigarettes by phasing in increases in the age at which they can be legally purchased.
BAT is among many vape manufacturers opposed to a full ban on disposable e-cigarettes. It says doing so could fuel an illegal market, or push people trying to quit smoking by using vapes to buy tobacco.
The company, which manufactures such cigarette brands as Rothmans and Dunhill, insists it is committed to the “transformation” of its portfolio and shares the long-term ambition of a “smoke-free world”.
While most of its global profits come from cigarette sales, earlier this year the company - the biggest UK-based vaping manufacturer - said it was “close to break-even” in new markets.
It will launch a series of billboard and newspaper advertisements on Monday setting out ways to help reduce youth vaping.
Its five-point campaign will state: “You want Britain to be smoke-free by 2030. Surprisingly, so do we” and will call for a ban on confectionery, dessert and soft-drink flavoured vapes, none of which it sells.
BAT - which markets menthol, berry and tobacco vapes - argues that such flavours help to wean adult cigarette smokers off the habit.
The charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) has suggested a levy of £4 per disposable vape to prevent the devices being sold at “pocket money prices”.
Asli Ertonguc, BAT’s lead for the UK, said the firm was not against some increased taxes on e-cigarettes, but said such a levy was too high, adding it needed to be a “reasonable” and “proportionate” sum that did not deter tobacco users from switching.
Deborah Arnott, chief executive of ASH, said: “For BAT to claim to be spearheading a campaign to make industry more responsible is breathtakingly cynical. BAT makes the vast majority of its profits from selling cigarettes, which kill consumers when used as intended.”
“Tougher vape regulation, long called for by ASH and others, is now finally coming down the track, and this campaign is a vain attempt by BAT to put itself on the right side of history by clinging to the coattails of the public health community. No-one is going to take it seriously, certainly not the UK Government, which has made very clear it won’t allow the tobacco industry to influence public policy.”
Source: The Telegraph, 26 November 2023
See Also: Tobacco Tactics: British American Tobacco
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Formerly Philip Morris-backed foundation severs ties with nicotine industry
A research foundation originally set up by Philip Morris International (PMI) (PM.N) will no longer accept any funding from the nicotine industry as it seeks to win credibility with tobacco control advocates, its CEO said.
The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World was set up in 2017 with support from PMI, which pledged to provide tens of millions of dollars every year for 12 years to keep it running.
PMI provided a final grant of $122.5 million in September, equivalent to around three and a half years of funding based on the amount it pledged to the foundation annually between 2022 and 2029.
The foundation will now rebrand and find new funders from outside of the industry, Cliff Douglas said in an interview.
Douglas, a long-time tobacco control advocate who joined the foundation in October, said he wants to see it re-established as a credible actor in ending smoking.
"Whether it's true or not, [Douglas] will be seen as pursuing PMI's agenda, not that of public health," said Deborah Arnott, chief executive of UK health charity ASH, adding the foundation's role was "irredeemably tainted" by its PMI funding.
Yolonda Richardson, president and CEO of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, said it was "ludicrous" for the foundation to claim independence after accepting a hefty payment from PMI.
Source: Reuters 27 November 2023
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