An effective anti-smoking policy may be based on popularizing alternative products to cigarettes, such as e-cigarettes and heated tobacco. Such a project is being implemented by the New Zealand government, and praised by prof. Krzysztof J. Filipiak, cardiologist, rector of the Medical University of Maria Skłodowskiej-Curie in Warsaw.
In an interview with the ISBzdrowie portal, prof. Filipiak points to the solutions introduced in New Zealand, which aim to significantly reduce the population of people addicted to nicotine in the next few years. The government there wants to ban the sale of cigarettes and tobacco-burning products to people born after 2008 in six years. New Zealand plans to reduce the percentage of people smoking to a maximum of 2025 percent by 5. One of the solutions leading to the achievement of these goals is to encourage smokers to replace traditional cigarettes with new products, such as e-cigarettes and tobacco heaters.
«Certainly it is encouraging that our politicians listened to the numerous voices of the medical and medical communities, raising the excise duty on cigarettes. But raising the price of cigarettes alone will not bring the expected effect in the form of a drop in the percentage of smokers, unless it is followed by intensified actions in the area of anti-smoking policy and pro-health education. New Zealand has been carrying out such activities for years, but not only scares smokers with death from smoking, but also shows them that they have access to less harmful products than cigarettes: tobacco heaters or e-cigarettes. I look with hope, for example, to New Zealand and I hope that our Ministry of Health will at least consider the discussion on such activities in our country »- says prof. Filipiak.
New Zealand’s Smoke Free 2025 program plans to introduce only cigarettes with lower nicotine content in four years’ time. In 2027, a total ban on the sale of burnt tobacco – i.e. traditional cigarettes, cigars and cigarillos – is to be introduced. However, the sale of e-cigarettes and tobacco heaters will be allowed, as these products are seen by the Antipode government as an opportunity to effectively combat smoking. Interestingly, smokeless products are reimbursed by the New Zealand government for people who quit smoking.