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PRINTABLE VERSION: www.endsmoking.org.nz/enews14Dec06.pdf
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Media release Top-line
Census data shows regular cigarette smoking prevalence has fallen from 23.7%
in 1996, to 20.7% in 2006, a fall of 3 percentage points. Adults who say they
are former smokers remain stationary at 22%, and the proportion who never
smoked has risen 3 percentage points, from 54 to 57 percent of adults age 15
and over. Previous
surveys show fewer young people are smoking, and continued smoking in adults is
now the problem, according to Dr Murray Laugesen, chair of SmokeLess New Zealand. This in turn was due to
availability of cheap hand-rolled cigarettes on the one hand versus lack of
effective smokefree nicotine and tobacco alternatives
on sale. Thousands
of smokers are quitting, but are churning between quitting and relapsing,
with no change nationally in the proportion of successful former smokers in
the population. A
main reason for this churn in the past 10 years is the availability of cheap
hand-rolled cigarettes (four for a dollar). A smoker on average wages can
earn a day’s supply of these cigarettes in 15 minutes. Alternatives are
more expensive: nicotine gum and patch do not satisfy many smokers, and most
smokers have not tried oral snuff, which is not on sale in The
Smokefree Environments Act needed to be made into a
strong public health law to end the lung cancer epidemic, and provide a plan
for phasing out of cigarette sales, said Dr Laugesen. Programme funding was correctly
focused on helping older addicted smokers, but needed to be backed up by tax
and drug policies custom-designed to wean smokers off cigarettes: First, align tobacco tax rates in
line with the death risks, Dr
Laugesen said, to encourage quitting
or safer choices. Today ten
dollars buys only 20 manufactured cigarettes, but a smoker can roll 40 hand-rolled
cigarettes for the same price. Both types of cigarette were just as addictive
and dangerous. Hand-rolled cigarettes were currently cheaper than nicotine
gum or snuff, and naturally, smokers were switching to hand rolled instead of
giving up smoking. Secondly, provide less harmful addiction
choices for smokers, Dr Laugesen
said. As nicotine addicts, and smoking kills, smokers
needed to be able to quit tobacco in one or two stages, first stage, stop
smoking and lower the risk; and stage two (optional), to switch to safer smokefree nicotine or tobacco for as long as needed. Nicotine
gum or patch is a safe first-line drug, and higher doses were now becoming
accepted as best practice. A second-line drug choice is to personally import Swedish
snuff, which without the smoke, has five percent of the risk of smoking, does
not cause mouth cancer, and fully satisfies the need for nicotine. A law
change was needed to permit import of oral Swedish snuff for sale to addicted
smokers, Dr Laugesen said. The
fall in the percentage smoking has slowed from 0.6 percentage points per year
after the 1981 Census to 0.3 percentage points per year over the past ten
years. At
the 1996-2006 rate it could take another 70 years until
smoking is finally extinguished, Dr Laugesen said. Up to 4000 deaths a year
could be saved by stubbing out faster.
Table 2 Cigarette smoking prevalence, total estimated smokers, age 15
years and over 1976-2006
*The percentage who currently smoke is based on the usable responses in Table 1. ** applying Smokers % to Total
population in Census. For more information, contact Dr Laugesen ph 03 388688
0274 884 375 chair@endsmoking.org.nz
Dr Murray Laugesen QSO chair; Prof Ross McCormick, Sir John Scott KBE, Trish
Fraser MPH, Dr Marewa Glover, Trustees
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Making it easier to quit smoking for good © 2009 End Smoking NZ
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