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Download AudioA frontline smoking cessation worker says the Government’s Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 Action Plan is a bold move that will save Māori lives.
Hāpai Te Hauora treatment expert and Action on Smoking and Health board member Rebecca Ruwhiu-Collins says she’s encouraged by ASH’s latest snapshot of Year 10 students.
It shows smoking rates among young Māori dropping from 6.8 per cent in 2019 to 3.7 per cent last year.
But some of that decrease was replaced by vaping, and the real game-changer will be the action plan, which includes a rising age limit for when people who can purchase tobacco products.
“They’re making sure our future generations will never have to deal with what we’ve had to deal with and see our whānau die due to smoking-related illnesses,” Ms Ruwhiu-Collins says.
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