Foreign media: New Zealand approves smoking ban and will increase smoking age year by year
Reference News Network reported Dec. 13 that New Zealand will gradually implement a near-total smoking ban starting next year, banning people born after 2008 from buying cigarettes and reducing the nicotine content in products.
The nicotine content of cigarettes will be drastically reduced and cigarettes themselves will be harder to buy under legislation approved by parliament on Monday and will never be available to anyone under 14.
The report also says the law amounts to raising the smoking age every year, with the goal of reducing the number of smokers almost immediately.
The report pointed out that the percentage of New Zealand adults who smoke is already relatively low, at just 8%. However, the “smoke-free environment” law passed the same day aims to reduce this figure to less than 5% by 2025.
The report also noted that in addition to gradually raising the age threshold, the new law will also reduce the number of retailers selling tobacco products nationwide to a maximum of 600, from the current number of 6,000.
The law would also reduce the nicotine content in tobacco products, the report said.
The new law does not ban e-cigarettes, the report said. (Compilation/Zhao Feifei)
[Redattore responsabile: Wang Qin]
