Tobacco.org

2008 New Zealand
Tobacco Use Survey: Quitting Results (PDF) 

Key Points

Introduction

This report presents the quitting results of 15–64-year-olds from the 2008 New Zealand Tobacco Use Survey (NZTUS), including, where possible, comparisons with the 2006 NZTUS.

Quitting attempts

In 2008 an estimated19,600 New Zealanders had quit smoking in the previous 6–12 months.

Three out of five current smokers had tried to quit smoking in the past five years, a third of smokers had quit for at least 24 hours in the past 12 months and a fifth had successfully quit for a week before starting to smoke again.

Four out of five current smokers said that they would not smoke if they had their life over again.

Three-quarters of smokers who had tried to quit in the past 12 months said one of the reasons was for their own health, while a third had tried to quit because of the cost of smoking.

Quitting services and programmes

Among current smokers, three-quarters had been asked their smoking status by a health care worker in the past 12 months.

Māori and Pacific people and those from areas of high deprivation were more likely than the total New Zealand population aged 15–64 years and those from the least deprived areas respectively to have been asked their smoking status by a health care worker over the past 12 months.

Over a quarter (27.6%) of 15–64-year-old current smokers had been given advice or information, referred to quitting programmes or given quitting aids by a health care worker in the past 12 months.

Māori current smokers were two-fifths more likely than all current smokers aged
15–64, and current smokers living in the most deprived areas were twice as likely as those in the least deprived areas to have been provided with advice or information, referred to quitting programmes or given quitting aids by a health care worker in the past 12 months.

A third of people who had tried to quit smoking in the past 12 months (‘recent quit attempters’) had used quitting products or advice in their most recent quit attempt. The most common product used was nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) (19.5%). Quitline was used by one in eight, and general practitioners were used by 6% of recent quit attempters.

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2008 New Zealand Tobacco Use Survey-Quitting Results 

Summary of publication

New Zealand Tobacco Use Survey 2008: Quitting results, focussing on the quitting behaviour of current smokers, is the second report based on the New Zealand Tobacco Use Survey 2008 (NZTUS 2008) data.

The first report, Tobacco Trends 2008: A brief update of tobacco use in New Zealand was released in June 2009.

This report presents data directly related to smokers’ history of quitting smoking, their reasons for quitting, the products, services and advice they’ve used, and their awareness and knowledge of the different health effects of nicotine and tobacco.

Baseline data for monitoring the implementation of the New Zealand Smoking Cessation Guidelines are presented in this report. The data can also be used to monitor progress towards one of the six Health Targets, Better help for smokers to quit, that came into effect on 1 July 2009.

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• Survey shows most NZ smokers want to quit 

The 2008 New Zealand Tobacco Use Survey: Quitting Results published today shows overwhelmingly most smokers want to quit, Associate Minister of Health Hon Tariana Turia said.

Minister Turia said that helping smokers to quit was a priority for the Government and was one of the six health targets.

This report presents the quitting results of 15 to 64 year olds from the 2008 New Zealand Tobacco Use Survey, including where possible, in comparison with the previous survey (2006).

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Council smoking policy not a ban  

The Western Bay of Plenty District Council has no intention of taking any action against people for smoking in public spaces.

It has introduced a new policy to discourage smoking in public areas that covers parks, playgrounds, reserves, halls, skate parks, sports fields and beaches.

While 23 local bodies in New Zealand already have adopted smokefree policies, the Western Bay District Council is only the third to include beaches under its policy.

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Bay of Plenty tries to snuff out outdoor smoking 

Western Bay of Plenty District Council is trying to snuff out smoking outdoors with a smokefree policy targeting 30 of the district's beaches.

They include the popular holiday spots of Waihi Beach, Maketu and Athenree - and the towns of Katikati and Te Puke.

Western Bay of Plenty District Mayor Ross Paterson said council hoped the policy would raise awareness of antipathy many people now have toward smoking in public areas.

"This is not a ban - council has no intention of taking any action against people for smoking in public spaces.

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Turia commends Bay council on smoking ban 

Tariana Turia has commended a move by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council to ban smoking on 30 beaches in its district.

“Banning smoking in public spaces not only makes it harder for smokers to light up but it helps reduce youth uptake of smoking,” Mrs Turia said.

“The district council’s unanimous decision to introduce the smoking bans is a reflection of its good community leadership and role modelling,” Mrs Turia said.

Popular holiday spots including Waihi, Maketu and Athenree beaches will now become smokefree under the council’s decision along with public halls, land around the halls, playgrounds, parks, sports fields, skate parks and reserves in the western Bay of Plenty area which covers Waihi, Katikati, Kaimai, Te Puke and Maketu.

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Rhys Ifans sparks smoking scare from NZCity 

Rhys Ifans caused a mid-air panic by appearing to smoke a cigarette on a plane.

The 'Notting Hill' actor was jetting from London to Los Angeles when he began puffing on the white stick - smoking on planes is banned - causing furious passengers to complain to staff on the Virgin Atlantic flight.

The 41-year-old star caused further concern when he twisted the cigarette around and pressed the burning red ember into his lip - until staff realised it was a fake cigarette.

Rhys was using a SmokeStik, a new invention which allows smokers to get their nicotine hit without having to puff on a cigarette.

The version Rhys was using, the SmokeStik Royale, was designed by socialite Lady Victoria Hervey and features her family's crest.

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‘Kick butt: No Smoking Whanganui’ 

Hon Tariana Turia

Associate Minister of Health / MP for Te Tai Hauauru

Monday 26 October 2009

This week is the inaugural No Smoking Whanganui Week and I am putting my full support behind it for one simple reason - I want our families and children to live fuller and better lives.

The initiative is not an attack on smokers but to inspire and support them to give quitting a go.

So if you have a friend or someone in your whanau who smokes, I encourage you to appeal to them to give it a try. No doubt they have most probably already done that in the past, and fell off the wagon, but nevertheless we must keep telling them that we love them, and it’s because of that love that we will keep hounding them about it. . . .

The most powerful tool to quit smoking that I have come across so far is that of whanau - stories of elderly women who started smoking in the 1960s, when the deadly affects of smoking were not known, and who have chosen to quit in the new millennium so they can live longer for their mokopuna.

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Tobacco sting nabs 10 dairies selling to teens 

Ten Whangarei and Kaipara dairy owners could be prosecuted and fined up to $2000 each after being caught selling cigarettes to under-age teenagers in a Northland District Health Board tobacco operation.

Both volunteers used in the three-day operation were 15 years old and were told to give their correct age if asked by dairies.

The targeted retailers had either been complained about for selling tobacco to under-age children, were near schools, or were in areas where many people smoked.

Results of the operation were very disappointing, says Northland District Health Board smokefree officer Wendy Antrobus, because the legislation is nearly 20 years old.

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NZer wins tobacco fighting award  

New Zealand anti-smoking campaigner Shane Bradbrook has won an international award for his contributions to tobacco control.

Mr Bradbrook was awarded the Nigel Gray Award at the Oceania Tobacco Control Conference in Darwin today.

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Shane Bradbrook honoured for role in tobacco control  

Director of Te Reo Marama Shane Bradbrook received international recognition for his contribution to tobacco control, when he was presented with Nigel Gray Award at the Oceania Tobacco Control Conference in Darwin last Friday.

The award recognises an individual’s contributions to tobacco control, with a bias towards relatively ‘unsung heros’. Judges considered depth of achievement at local and regional levels, and achievements at national and international levels. People working in tobacco control in Australia, New Zealand, the South Pacific, the Pacific Islands, and Papua New Guinea were eligible for nomination. . . .

“Rather than saying to Maori ‘you need to stop smoking’, we have raised awareness about the agenda of the tobacco companies who are not concerned with Maori health. They want to make a profit and are not worried about killing people in the process. In fact they believe that this is their right.”

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Mobile phone-based interventions for smoking cessation 

Summary

Can interventions delivered by mobile phones help people to stop smoking?

More evidence is needed to determine if programmes delivered over mobile phones can help people to stop smoking. This review found text message mobile phone programmes to be effective in the short-term (six weeks), and a combined Internet-mobile phone programme to be effective up to 12 months.

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• Time 4 u 2 quit: Text messaging found to help smokers 

Text messaging can help smokers quit the habit, according to an international study.

A review of four trials conducted in New Zealand, Britain and Norway, found that programs to help people stop smoking that included text-messaged advice doubled the chances that smokers would be able to kick the habit for up to a year.

The trials, involving 2,600 smokers, used text messages as a way to give smokers daily advice and encouragement and also offered support when quitters needed it the most.

If they found themselves craving nicotine, for example, they could text "crave" to the program and get immediate advice on what to do.

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• Editorial : A righteous war on evil weed  

Four hundred years ago this year, John Rolfe, an enterprising 24-year-old from Norfolk, arrived in the fledgling settlement of Jamestown in the English colony of Virginia. A canny businessman despite his tender years, he saw a chance to make a few bob on an old plant, genus Nicotiana, widely referred to at the time as "brown gold". . .

The tobacco companies will assuredly not answer the call to appear before the committee - fronting up is not in their corporate nature - but Harawira's determination to put the acid on them deserves applause.

It is also in tune with pressure on tobacco coming from other quarters. A Public Health Association conference in Dunedin this month discussed proposals to license tobacco retailers; to ban sales near schools; to require plain packaging bearing only health warnings; and make it easier to sue tobacco firms.

Campaigners are fond of referring to this as the "endgame" of tobacco and are talking about ending the sale of the substance within a decade. It sounds ludicrous, but it makes sense: this is a product which, used in accordance with the manufacturers' instructions, is always harmful to health and typically lethal. If it were invented today, it would be banned.

The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan became the world's first smokefree nation when it banned the sale and public consumption of tobacco almost five years ago. People who argue that it couldn't happen here should think again. In 1980, no one would have imagined this country would have smokefree workplaces, never mind bars.

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Tobacco company rejects research findings 

A major tobacco company has rejected claims it is undermining the law by not following regulations on the use of graphic warnings on cigarette packets.

Researchers at Otago University said a new study of bought and discarded cigarette packs showed the regulations were not being met. . . .

"British American Tobacco's graphic health warnings meet all legal requirements," a spokeswoman said.

"The Ministry of Health has not raised any concerns with us in this regard."

Dr Hoek said use of "less offensive" graphics, including images of a diseased mouth or eye, undercut the law and public health policy.

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