November 17, 2022
Smoker numbers down despite lockdown blues
A quarter of Māori wāhine smokers have quit in the last 12 months, helping bring New Zealand’s smoking rate to an historic low of 8 percent of adults smoking daily.
The Maori women’s rate fell from 24.1 percent to 18.2 percent, and the overall daily smoking rate for Māori is now at 19.9 percent, down from 22.3 percent in 2020/21.
Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall says the number of people smoking fell by 56,000 over the past year, despite the pressures and stress of the pandemic when other countries saw an uptick in their smoking rates during lockdowns.
Smoking rates are now half of what they were 10 years ago.
Dr Verrall says the Government has made stop smoking services more accessible and introduced tailored Māori and Pacific services and funded more health promotion.
About 84,000 people attempting to quit smoking in the past 12 months.
She hopes parliament will pass legislation by the end of the year to decrease the number of retail outlets able to sell tobacco, drastically reduce the level of nicotine in cigarettes to non-addictive levels and ensure the next generation are never sold tobacco.