For decades, New Zealand has taken measures to discourage its citizens from smoking. Authorities tried several approaches, including higher tobacco taxes, smoke-free public spaces, graphic health warnings, plain packaging, and strong public health campaigns. With these efforts, smoking rates steadily declined. Yet progress was gradual, particularly among the Māori people, who have historically had higher smoking rates.
However, the landscape changed dramatically around 2018/19. Smoking rates began declining rapidly, especially among indigenous communities. A new peer-reviewed paper published in The Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacific, authored by Robert Beaglehole, Ruth Bonita, and Ben Youdan, examines what happened. Drawing on more than twenty years of national data, the authors explore how this island nation experienced one of the fastest declines in smoking ever recorded in a high-income country and what lessons this may hold for tobacco control worldwide.
By the end of the 2010s, while New Zealand’s traditional tobacco control measures remained in place, a new factor emerged: regulated access to vaping products.
In sum, New Zealand adopted an innovation-oriented approach, recognizing that vaping is substantially less harmful than smoking combustible cigarettes. Health authorities began endorsing vapes as a smoking cessation tool but also introduced regulations to protect young people. These regulations included age restrictions, marketing controls, flavor limitations, and product standards.
According to the authors, the timing deserves attention. The strong increase in vaping among New Zealanders coincided with a significant acceleration in the decline of smoking rates after 2018/19, particularly among adults who had struggled to quit through traditional methods. While the study does not claim vaping alone caused this decline, it concludes that regulated access to safer nicotine products contributed alongside existing tobacco control measures.
Traditional tobacco control has focused on preventing smoking and encouraging smokers to quit completely. Innovative Nicotine Products (INPs) add the option to switch first. The goal is not to encourage nicotine use but to reduce the devastating health consequences caused by burning tobacco. INPs have far fewer toxic components than combustible cigarettes and may offer a more realistic pathway away from them.
Moreover, one of the most encouraging aspects of New Zealand’s experience is that the greatest improvements occurred in communities with the highest smoking rates.
The paper reports that Māori populations and people living in poorer neighborhoods experienced some of the largest reductions in smoking prevalence after 2019.
Another group positively impacted was the youth. Since that period, daily smoking among Kiwi teenagers has continued to decline and reached historically low levels. Furthermore, after vaping regulations were strengthened in 2021, youth vaping also began to fall.
This suggests that careful, evidence-based regulation rather than prohibition can pursue two important public health goals at the same time: reducing youth smoking while limiting youth vaping.
The Lancet’s paper highlights several important lessons for policymakers;
- First, comprehensive tobacco control measures remain essential. Smoke-free laws, taxation, education campaigns, and advertising restrictions all contribute to reducing smoking.
- Second, harm reduction can complement these traditional approaches. Providing adult smokers with access to safer nicotine products may accelerate declines in cigarette smoking, particularly among populations experiencing the greatest burden of tobacco-related disease.
- Third, regulation matters. Policies should maximize opportunities for adult smokers to switch while minimizing youth access.
- Fourth, as smoking becomes concentrated within smaller and more disadvantaged populations, future tobacco control strategies will need to become increasingly targeted and equity-focused.
Although every country has its own regulatory and cultural context, New Zealand’s experience provides valuable real-world evidence that innovation, evidence-based regulation, and a sustained focus on reducing the harms of combustible tobacco can work together to accelerate progress toward a smoke-free future.
* Beatriz Santos is the Chief Communications Officer (CCO) at We Are Innovation. She is based in Lisbon, Portugal. Beatriz started publishing articles through her University newspaper and eventually moved to national and international reach outlets, including the well known Portuguese outlets NOVO and Observador. Her professional career includes international communications experience with the ATREVIA agency and the European Parliament. She also has two published books and is an essential part of the Students For Liberty organization in Portugal. With a focus on positive change and global cooperation, Beatriz actively seeks partnerships across the globe to promote innovative initiatives.
Source: We Are Innovation
