Adopt Kiwi plan on smoking, Scots told

Aresearcher is urging the Scottish Government to take inspiration from New Zealand and consider more radical approaches to eliminate tobacco smoking.

New Zealand’s Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 action plan comprises a package of measures including enhanced targeted smoking cessation support for Maori and Pacific people, among whom smoking prevalence is higher than other communities.

It also contains proposals such as minimising the amount of nicotine in smoked tobacco products and limiting the sale of these products to a small number of approved retailers.

Overall smoking prevalence in New Zealand is currently 11%, less than the rate of 17% in Scotland, but prevalence remains high at 26% in the Maori community, while in Scotland it sits at 32% in communities experiencing multiple deprivation.

Researchers said that dramatic reductions in tobacco smoking are needed in New Zealand’s Maori communities, and in deprived communities in Scotland, to reach each country’s target to reduce the smoking rate in all of New Zealand’s population groups to less than 5% by 2025, and in Scotland to 5% or less by 2034. Professor Richard Edwards, from the University of Otago in New Zealand, is urging the Scottish Government to adopt radical approaches in its Tobacco Action Plan which is being drafted for publication next year.

He said: “Smoking represents an ongoing public health emergency and is an enormous, unacceptable and avoidable contributor to health inequity in New Zealand, just as it is in Scotland.

“Our Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 action plan is a comprehensive strategy which has real potential to be successful if implemented in full, as no single measure will be sufficient to achieve our smoke-free goal on its own.

“I’d encourage Scotland to be brave, bold and inspired by the New Zealand experience to consider more radical measures to achieve the tobacco-free generations both our countries are striving for.”

Sheila Duffy, chief executive of Ash (Action on Smoking and Health) Scotland, said tobacco remains the biggest preventable killer of people in Scotland, causing 9,000 deaths and 100,000 hospitalisations each year and said the Scottish Government’s new tobacco action plan must be “ambitious and innovative”.