November 07, 2019
Variety works to help Maori quit smoking
A Māori health researcher has told a parliamentary committee that tackling Māori cancer rates requires embracing a variety of ways to get Māori to stop smoking.
Marewa Glover made the connection at the Maori Affairs Committee inquiry into health inequities for Māori .
She warned legislation to control vaping could be counterproductive if it resulted in a formal ban of alternate products like snus, a form of powdered tobacco taken orally that is popular in Scandinavia, especially among the indigenous Sami people.
"Looking particularly at reducing the inequities in the rates of cancer that Māori are suffering, if we really want to reduce that we need to help people who smoke to quit altogether, and if they can't quit altogether as many people haven't been able to do, then to get on to snus or vaping or a combination thereof," Dr Glover says.
Marewa Glover says overseas research also indicates banning vape flavourings or limiting its nicotine content could also have limited or negative effects.
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