New Zealand To Ban Smoking For Next Generation In Bid to Outlaw Habit By 2025

丁世禮

據(jù)英國《衛(wèi)報》報道，為了實現(xiàn).2025年成為無煙國家的目標(biāo)，新西蘭擬推出新法案，禁止下一代人口購買煙草。根據(jù)該法案，14歲以下的年輕人將永遠(yuǎn)不能在新西蘭合法購買香煙。這—年齡限制將逐年提高，以擴大終身禁煙的人口比例。

New Zealand has? announced it will? outlaw? smoking for the next generation， so that those who are aged 14 and under today will never be legally able to buy tobacco.

New legislation means the legal smoking age will in- crease every year， to create a smoke-free generation of New Zealanders， associate health minister Dr Ayesha Verrall saidon Thursday.

新西蘭宣布，將禁止下一代人吸煙，因此14歲以下人群將終身無法合法購買煙草。

新西蘭衛(wèi)生部副部長阿伊莎·韋拉爾博士12月9日表示，新法案意味著合法吸煙年齡將逐年提高，以實現(xiàn)新西蘭的無煙一代。

“This is a historic day for the health of our people，”she said.

The government announced the rising age alongsideother measures to make smoking unaffordable and inaccessible， to try to reach its goal of making the country entirelysmoke- free within the next four years. Other measures include reducing the legal amount of nicotine in tobacco products to very low levels， cutting down the shops where cigarettes could legally be sold， and increasing funding to addiction services. The new laws will not restrict vape sales.

“We want to make sure young people never start smoking so we will make it an offence to sell or supply smokedtobacco products to new cohorts of youth. People aged 14when the law comes into effect will never be able to legallypurchase tobacco，”Verrall said.

New Zealand’s daily smoking rates have been dropping over time — down to 11.6% in 2018， from 18% a decade earlier. But smoking rates for Māori and Pacifika werefar higher — 29% for Māori and 18% for Pasifika.“Ifnothing changes， it would be decades till Māori smoking ratesfall below 5%，”Verrall said. She said eradicating smokingin the next four years was within reach：“I believe it is. Theissue is， though， if we don’t change what we’re doing， wewon’t make it for Maori — and that’s what the plan is really focused on”.

Smoking has already been widely replaced by vapingamong teenage New Zealanders， and is also attracting manyyoung people who would never have taken up smokingaccording to surveying of 19，000 high school students thisyear， nearly 20% were vaping daily or several times a day，the majority with high nicotine doses. That’s compared to3% of those aged 15—17 who smoked daily in 2018， or13% who smoked a decade earlier.

Verrall said the legislation would be introduced in2022， with the age limits coming in in 2023.

她說：“這對新西蘭人民的健康來說是具有歷史意義的一天?！?/p>

新西蘭政府宣布提高合法吸煙年齡，同時采取其他措施，讓人們無力購買煙草且難以獲得，以努力實現(xiàn)其在未來四年內(nèi)全國徹底無煙的目標(biāo)。新西蘭政府的措施還包括將煙草產(chǎn)品中尼古丁的合法含量降低到極低水平，減少可以合法出售香煙的商店，以及增加戒煙服務(wù)撥款。這項新法規(guī)不會限制電子煙的銷售。

韋拉爾稱：“我們希望確保年輕人永遠(yuǎn)不會吸煙，因此我們將把向新生代年輕人出售或提供煙草制品定為犯罪行為。法律生效后，14歲以下人群將終身無法合法購買煙草?！?/p>

從2011年的18%到2018年的11.6%，新西蘭的每日吸煙率一直在下降。但毛利人和島民的吸煙率要高得多，分別為29%和18%。韋拉爾說：“如果不做任何改變，將毛利人的吸煙率下降至5%以下將需要幾十年的時間?！彼f，在未來四年內(nèi)全面無煙是可以實現(xiàn)的，“我相信我們可以做到。不過，問題是，如果我們不做出改變，就無法讓毛利人實現(xiàn)這一目標(biāo)——而這正是該法案真正關(guān)注的。”

在新西蘭青少年群體中，紙煙已經(jīng)被電子煙廣泛取代，電子煙也吸引了許多從未吸過煙的年輕人。根據(jù)今年對19000名高中生的調(diào)查，近20%的人每天至少吸一次電子煙。其中大多數(shù)人吸食的尼古丁劑量很高。相比之下，2018年，在15-17歲的人群中，每天吸紙煙的人為3%，2011年每天吸紙煙的人為13%。

韋拉爾表示，該法案將于2022年出臺，關(guān)于合法吸煙的年齡限制將于2023年實施。