Overwhelming support for ‘smokefree generation’ and non-addictive cigarette policies among people who smoke or recently quit, study finds

New Zealanders who smoke and those who have recently quit smoking have expressed high levels of support for the creation of a ‘smokefree generation’ and of making cigarettes non-addictive by taking out the nicotine, a new study has found.

The researchers, led by Research Fellow Dr Janine Nip from the Department of Public Health at the University of Otago, Wellington – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, Pōneke, analysed the views of almost 2,000 participants (all of whom were smokers or had recently quit smoking) in the New Zealand arm of the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Policy Evaluation Project. Their findings are published in the New Zealand Medical Journal.

The study found almost 83 per cent of people who smoke or recently quit were in favour of banning the sale of tobacco products to people born after a certain date to create a ‘smokefree generation’.

Participants also strongly supported mandatory reductions in the level of nicotine in cigarettes so they are no longer addictive, with 75 per cent in favour of having only very-low-nicotine cigarettes available for purchase.
Just over 35 per cent of those in the study supported substantial reductions in the number of retailers able to sell tobacco.

The three policies were world firsts when they were introduced as part of the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products [Smoked Tobacco] Amendment Act in 2023 but were abandoned by the current government when it partially repealed the legislation in February 2024. Other countries have now taken them up, with the UK planning to create a ‘smokefree generation’ and the US Food and Drug Administration recently issuing a proposal to minimise nicotine in smoked tobacco products.

Dr Nip says all three policies had significantly greater support from people who had recently quit smoking compared to those who currently smoked, and from people who were not daily smokers.

Almost 57 per cent of those surveyed said they supported the Smokefree Aotearoa goal of having less than five per cent of New Zealanders smoking daily by 2025.

Despite public health efforts, an estimated 363,000 New Zealanders still smoke, with smoking the leading cause of preventable death in Aotearoa. Its impact is substantially greater among those from lower socio-economic groups and Māori.

The senior author on the research paper and co-director of the ASPIRE Aotearoa Research Centre, Professor Richard Edwards, says about 50 per cent of those surveyed anticipated that they would reduce the amount they smoked, quit smoking completely or switch to vaping, if only very-low-nicotine cigarettes were available or if there were substantial reductions in the number of retailers selling tobacco products.

“This shows these measures have the potential to significantly reduce smoking prevalence and to do it equitably.

“Our findings call into question the Government’s decision to abandon these game-changing measures to mandate very-low-nicotine cigarettes, introduce a ‘smokefree generation’ and greatly reduce retailer numbers. Other countries, like the UK and the USA, are now moving ahead of Aotearoa in introducing these measures to protect their people from tobacco-related harm.”

Professor Edwards says only a minority of participants thought they would attempt to obtain cigarettes with a higher nicotine content if very-low-nicotine cigarettes were introduced. This contradicted arguments that this measure would lead to a much bigger illicit market in tobacco.

The data for the study was collected before the three smokefree measures were passed into law, and subsequently repealed.