(Newser) – People who are 12 years old or younger in New Zealand today will never reach an age where they will be legally allowed to smoke cigarettes, the government says. A new law expected to be introduced next year will ban smoking for future generations, with the legal smoking age increasing every year, the Guardian reports. story continues belowVerrall said smoking rates are higher among older teens, but studies have found under 1% of 14-year-olds smoke tobacco. New Zealand aims to get the smoking rate down to 5% by 2025 and eventually eradicate smoking. The current smoking rate is around 13%, but it is close to 30% among the Maori population, which also has much higher rates of smoking-related illness and death, per the BBC.

Source: Stuff December 09, 2021 15:12 UTC