Overall smoking rate falls to 8% as country pursues goal of becoming smoke-free by 2025, but many may be switching to vaping instead
The number of people smoking in New Zealand has fallen to a historic low, as the country pushes forward with ambitious plans to wipe out smoking in a generation.
Data released on Thursday showed the number of people smoking daily had fallen to 8%, the lowest rates since records began, and down from 9.4% last year.
Continue reading...Popular disposable brand will still be able to sell products in Britain, despite being accused of flouting advertising regulations
China has banned the sale of flavoured e-cigarettes as part of a wide-ranging crackdown on the industry. The new rules mean vapes that have flavourings other than tobacco – such as those that taste fruity or sweet – cannot be sold on the domestic market.
But they can still be manufactured in China to be shipped around the world, including to the UK, where Chinese-made brands such as Elfbar, known for its range of flavoured disposable vapes, are popular.
Continue reading...Headteachers say more children are using vapes, forcing them to take action to tackle the problem
The government’s school behaviour adviser has called on headteachers to crack down on vaping among pupils, calling it “a huge health hazard” and an “enormous distraction”, amid reports that more children are using the devices, including some of primary age.
Tom Bennett said vaping was now as big an issue in schools as cigarettes once were, with children becoming “addicted to the practice and the chemicals involved”.
Continue reading...E-cigarette company, whose products are blamed for a surge in youth vaping, also faces new marketing restrictions
The electronic cigarette maker Juul Labs will pay nearly $440m to settle a two-year investigation by 33 states into the marketing of its high-nicotine vaping products, which have long been blamed for sparking a national surge in teen vaping.
William Tong, the Connecticut attorney general, announced the deal on Tuesday on behalf of the states plus Puerto Rico, which joined together in 2020 to investigate Juul’s early promotions and claims about the safety and benefits of its technology as a smoking alternative.
Continue reading...There are fears that the e-cigarette boom has the potential to create a generation of young people hooked on nicotine
Lindsey Smith’s son was 14 when he bought his first vape. Engrossed in videos of YouTubers making “ghost puffs” with the vapour, he decided he wanted to try it for himself.
At first he would spend hours trying to copy the strangers online – sitting in his bedroom and practising exhalation techniques to create the ghost-shaped clouds he was seeing on his screen.
Continue reading...Regulators say ‘scientific issues’ warrant further review of its decision to bar products from sale in US
The Food and Drug Administration will continue to allow Juul to sell its products while the vaping company appeals a recent ban, the agency said on Tuesday.
The FDA wrote on Twitter that there were “scientific issues” warranting additional review of the agency’s ruling last month, which ordered the company to remove its e-cigarettes from the US marketplace.
Continue reading...The company requested the hold while it appeals the sales ban which would have required it to immediately halt its business
Juul can continue to sell its electronic cigarettes, at least for now, after a federal appeals court on Friday temporarily blocked a government ban.
Juul filed an emergency motion earlier Friday, seeking the temporary hold while it appeals the sales ban.
Continue reading...FDA had delayed decision in September as it weighed the public health impact of the products
The US Food and Drug Administration is preparing to order Juul Labs to take its e-cigarettes off the market in the United States, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Shares in the tobacco giant Altria Group, which owns a 35% stake in the maker of vaping products, fell 8.5% following the report. The decision could come as early as Wednesday, the Journal report said.
Continue reading...‘Poison in every puff’ message proposed amid government concern photo warnings on tobacco packages have lost impact
Canada is poised to become the first country in the world to require that a warning be printed on every cigarette.
The move builds on Canada’s mandate to include graphic photo warnings on tobacco products’ packaging, a policy that started an international trend when it was introduced two decades ago.
Continue reading...Analysis: The question is not what is in the Khan review but whether its recommendations will be implement
• Plan to raise smoking age to 21 to be unveiled amid cabinet splits
While much has been made recently of the danger posed by soaring obesity levels, tobacco remains the biggest public health threat the world has ever faced.
Despite its risks being known for decades, 1.3 billion people globally still use tobacco products. They kill 8 million people every year, and more than one million of whom die from exposure to second-hand smoke.
Continue reading...Pregnant smokers were more likely to quit when using e-cigarettes than patches after four weeks, study shows
E-cigarettes are as safe to use as nicotine patches for pregnant smokers trying to quit, and may be a more effective tool, researchers have revealed.
Smoking in pregnancy can increase the risk of outcomes including premature birth, miscarriage and the baby having a low birth weight. But stubbing out the habit can be a struggle.
Continue reading...Effort to ‘help prevent children from becoming the next generation of smokers’ likely to face stiff opposition from big tobacco
The US Food and Drug Administration on Thursday issued a long-awaited proposal to ban menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, a major victory for anti-smoking advocates but one that could dent sales at tobacco companies.
The proposal, which comes a year after the agency announced the plan, still needs to be finalized, and could take years to implement as it is likely to face stiff opposition from big tobacco.
Continue reading...Experts suggest all-time low smoking rates may be thanks to less socializing and more time with kids
In the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, more Americans drank heavily and used illicit drugs – but apparently fewer smoked.
US cigarette smoking dropped to a new all-time low in 2020, with one in eight adults saying they were current smokers, according to survey data released on Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Adult e-cigarette use also dropped, the CDC reported.
Continue reading...Making substances illegal has never worked, simply because it fails to address the reasons why people use them
I once lived with a militant vegetarian who had grown up near an abattoir. With a thousand-yard stare, he’d talk about how its bloody runoff would seep into his local playground. He hadn’t touched meat since those days. You often hear this sort of thing from vegetarians and vegans: that if you looked at what went on inside (or even outside) a slaughterhouse, you’d switch to Quorn full-time. In a similar vein, if you want to quit smoking, I recommend watching someone go through lung cancer.
I could never look someone in the eye and tell them smoking isn’t both immensely pleasurable and cool-looking. What I would say is this: my mum was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2017. Over just a few months I watched her shrivel, become obscured by tangles of medical tubing, and begin to suffocate to death as her lungs filled with fluid. She died that same year, and it was a relief to know that her unimaginable suffering was over. I apologise if this description has either put a damper on your next fag break, or stressed you into taking a fag break when you didn’t even have one planned. As a former smoker, I can understand either scenario.
Eleanor Margolis is a columnist for the i newspaper and Diva
Continue reading...New Zealand has announced it will outlaw smoking for the next generation, so that those who are aged 14 and under today will never be legally able to buy tobacco.
New legislation means the legal smoking age will increase every year, to create a smoke-free generation of New Zealanders, associate health minister Dr Ayesha Verrall said
Continue reading...Legislation will mean people currently aged 14 and under will never be able to legally purchase tobacco
New Zealand has announced it will outlaw smoking for the next generation, so that those who are aged 14 and under today will never be legally able to buy tobacco.
New legislation means the legal smoking age will increase every year, to create a smoke-free generation of New Zealanders, associate health minister Dr Ayesha Verrall said on Thursday.
Continue reading...MPs propose raft of tough new measures aimed at getting more people to stop smoking
Individual cigarettes could have “smoking kills” printed on them under a raft of tough measures proposed by MPs to encourage more people to quit the deadly habit.
MPs have submitted an amendment to the health and care bill going through parliament which would allow the health secretary to make graphic health warnings mandatory.
Raise the legal age for buying cigarettes from 18 to 21.
Stop e-cigarette makers using tactics that might entice children to try them, such as sweet flavourings and cartoon characters.
Make it illegal to give e-cigarettes away free as sampler products, as some manufacturers have done.
Continue reading...Stress of pandemic could be behind increase in people aged 18-34, but number who quit habit also rose
The number of young adults who smoke in England rose by about a quarter in the first lockdown, research has suggested.
Nevertheless, the number of people who stopped smoking altogether increased, with the number across all age groups almost doubling during the first national lockdown when compared with the period immediately prior, researchers from University College London (UCL) and the University of Sheffield said.
Continue reading...CEO Jacek Olczak says product should be treated like petrol cars, which will be outlawed from 2030
The chief executive of tobacco business Philip Morris International has called on the UK government to ban cigarettes within a decade, in a move that would outlaw its own Marlboro brand.
Jacek Olczak said the company could “see the world without cigarettes … and actually, the sooner it happens, the better it is for everyone.” Cigarettes should be treated like petrol cars, the sale of which is due to be banned from 2030, he said.
Continue reading...If patches, hypnosis and self-help books don’t work, maybe it’s time to think laterally. Readers reveal the unlikely methods that encouraged them to kick the habit
I smoked 10 to 20 a day, but finally quit 11 years ago. I found getting a glass of water when the cravings hit worked really well. By the time I went to the kitchen, poured it and drank it, the peak of the craving had usually passed. It also helped me to realise that you can ride out a craving. The first three weeks were the hardest. Michael, artist and educator, Scotland
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