Wellington, Dec 31 The New Zealand government will provide vaping kits to New Zealand adults who want to quit smoking from next week.
The Stop Smoking Services across New Zealand will be receiving vaping starter kits, which will be provided for free to adult smokers, particularly to help those who have already tried other options to quit, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello said on Tuesday.
"Vaping has played a key role in reducing smoking rates and the government supports adults switching to vaping because vaping is far less harmful than smoking cigarettes," Costello said, adding those using quit smoking services are four times more likely to successfully stop smoking compared to those who receive no support.
New Zealand aims to get the smoking rate below 5 per cent by the end of next year, Xinhua news agency reported.
Earlier this year, New Zealand's Health Coalition Aotearoa (HCA) had criticised the government's preparation to repeal new smoke-free measures that would rapidly save thousands of lives.
The HCA had said that it was disappointed to see the Action on Smoking and Health Chair and Director among those defending the repeal by minimizing smoking harm, particularly to Maori and Pacific peoples, promoting vaping as the main tobacco control strategy, and suggesting a smoke-free generation has already been achieved.
A New Zealand Health Survey had found that daily smoking rates had decreased considerably
"But it's critical not to underestimate the devastating harm of smoked tobacco and to do everything possible to reduce that harm," the HCA said, adding this proportion of daily smokers is equivalent to 284,000 New Zealanders who are being irreparably harmed and will die early.
It said Maori daily smoking rates remain 2.5 times that of non-Maori at 17 per cent.
In the 2021-2022 Health Survey results, the daily smoking rate for Pacific people was 18.1 per cent.
New Zealand's tobacco control measures alone will not achieve the Smokefree 2025 goal, which aims at less than 5 per cent smoking rates for all ethnic groups, without the new smokefree law measures, said the HCA.
A survey had shown that the majority of New Zealanders want to retain the smoke-free law, including reducing the amount of nicotine allowed in cigarettes, reducing the number of retailers and ending sales of cigarettes to the next generation.
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