New Zealand plans to ban young people from ever buying cigarettes in their lifetime in one of the world's toughest crackdowns on the tobacco industry, arguing that other efforts to extinguish smoking were taking too long. 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. "This action plan offers some hope of realising our 2025 Smokefree Aotearoa goal, and keeping our tamariki (Maori children) smoke-free."

Source: Stuff December 09, 2021 09:32 UTC