Community members and the smokefree sector are advocating for councils to prioritise smokefree beach regulations. This call to action came to a head this week as Wellington city council stated that they are proposing to extend its smoking ban to the Grey St pedestrian area and beaches.
Despite the strong efforts of people on the frontline cleaning our beaches, New Zealand's cigarettes are now the largest source of plastic waste in our ocean, with health and environmental advocates challenging communities to reflect on New Zealand’s “tidy kiwi” brand.
The Ministry of Health are making moves to regulate vapes, e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products. This is supported by Hāpai Te Hauora who hopes that the Ministry do their best to provide effective and sustainable regulation.
Last week it was revealed that Philip Morris (New Zealand) has taken British American Tobacco (New Zealand) to court. The two tobacco giants are squabbling over alleged anti-competitive behaviour by British American Tobacco in the New Zealand market.
"Spotlight On ..." - As a way of highlighting and celebrating members of our Tobacco Control Whanau, The Tobacco Control Update, is proud to bring you "Spotlight On ..."
We have an amazing collection of people working in all aspects of Tobacco Control, all making a contribution to our governments goal of Smokefree Aotearoa 2025.
This series of interviews will give you some insight in the many and varied members of our whanau and introduce you their work, passions and motivation in doing what they do.
A recent study has sought to understand smoking trends among nurses and doctors in New Zealand and has identified disparities between Māori and non-Māori healthcare workers. The Otago University study, led by Professor Richard Edwards and colleagues, found that by 2013 doctors and the majority of nursing sectors had achieved the Smokefree 2025 goal of less than 5% smoking prevalence. However, the smoking rate of Māori nurses in particular remained high.
The Asthma and Respiratory Foundation NZ could be putting the Smokefree 2025 goal at risk through their scare-mongering tactics and attempts to influence the new Government to turn their backs on a sensible, harm reduction approach to smoking cessation. Hāpai Te Hauora has supported the Ministry of Health and previous ministers’ compassionate and progressive stance on e-cigarettes which championed a realistic and pragmatic pathway for people to become smoke free.
Maori public health group Hapai Te Hauora wants the new Minister responsible for the Aotearoa Smokefree 2025 target to look for ways to cut the supply of tobacco products.
Our Kaiwhakahaere, Zoe Hawke spoke to Newshub before the #ASAP2025 launch this morning, saying, “Our main concern currently is that Māori and Pacific aren’t going to reach that 2025 goal. Whatever we do, we need to make sure that we’re concentrating on those particular populations, and this Action Plan is key to getting there.”
Hāpai Te Hauora supports new research on tobacco control published by the University of Otago in the British Medical Journal this month. "This is significant for the tobacco control sector" says Zoe Hawke, General Manager of the National Tobacco Control Advocacy Service for Hāpai Te Hauora.