The package of measures will make New Zealand’s retail tobacco industry one of the most restricted in the world, just behind Bhutan where cigarette sales are banned outright. New Zealand’s neighbour Australia was the first country in the world to mandate plain packaging of cigarettes in 2012. The new rules would halve the country’s smoking rates in as few as 10 years from when they take effect, the government said. Smoking kills about 5,000 people a year in New Zealand, making it one of the country’s top causes of preventable death. “Cigarette smoking kills 14 New Zealanders every day and two out of three smokers will die as a result of smoking,” said New Zealand Medical Association chair Alistair Humphrey in a statement.

Source: Stuff December 09, 2021 09:25 UTC