Science Media Centre

Associate Health Minister Nicky Wagner has announced the sale of nicotine e-cigarettes and e-liquid will be legalised. Controls will include restricting sales to over 18-year-olds and prohibiting vaping in indoor workplaces and other areas where smoking is banned under the Smoke-free Environments Act. The Science Media Centre gathered expert reaction on the announcement. Feel free […]

University of Otago public health researchers are calling on policy makers to develop stronger regulation of loose tobacco to curb the growing popularity of the cheaper option among New Zealand’s young adults. Their research, published in Tobacco Control, found young adults who used roll-your-own tobacco associated the product with being more natural and less harmful. ASPIRE2025 co-director […]

Two new reports suggest using e-cigarettes help people quit smoking, including a Cochrane Collaboration review that included a New Zealand study. A study published in the British Medical Journal this morning suggests the growth in the use of e-cigarettes in England has been associated with a higher rate of successful attempts to quit smoking. A […]

New research highlighting the prevalence of smoking on New Zealand television has been widely covered by the media. Researchers from the University of Otago monitored depictions of tobacco across a week’s worth of free-to-air, prime-time New Zealand television. Comparing the results with a similar study from 2004, the researchers found that there had been little […]

Draft regulations for introducing plain packaging for cigarettes have been revealed by the Government. Associate Health Minister Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga today released the draft regulations and a consultation document outlining how a law requiring plain packaging would be implemented. Plain packaging policies aim to reduce the appeal of cigarettes by requiring standardised packaging that removes […]

Electronic cigarettes sold in New Zealand are stronger than they used to be, but still contain far less harmful toxicants than regular cigarettes, according to a new analysis of leading brands. The study, published in the New Zealand Medical Journal, also found discrepancies between labelled and actual nicotine content, prompting a call for better monitoring […]

New research on the nicotine and chemical content of electronic cigarette ‘smoke’ has heated up debate on regulations. Electronic cigarettes sold in New Zealand are stronger than they used to be, but contain far less harmful toxicants than regular cigarettes, according to a new analysis of leading brands published in the New Zealand Medical Journal. […]

A group of health experts led by New Zealanders have laid down the global challenge of the world being tobacco-free by 2040, but they admit it requires a ‘turbo-charged’ effort. Writing in a major new Series in The Lancet, an international group of health and policy experts, led by University of Auckland Professors Robert Beaglehole […]

A new analysis of e-cigarettes has detected formaldehyde-containing compounds in the vapour the devices produce, raising questions about their potential health effects. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, analysed the aerosol drawn from a typical e-cigarette at different temperatures and found that at the highest temperatures formaldehyde was detected at levels several times […]

Public health researchers are calling for greater integrity in policy making and an end to the attack strategies which have spilled out of the political sphere and into  academia. In an editorial for the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health,  Prof Boyd Swinburn and Michael Moore decry the rise of attack politics the […]