Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Chris Bullen: Health Coalition Aotearoa Spokesperson on the Talbot Mills survey into tobacco and nicotine regulation

Transcript

Chris Bullen: Health Coalition Aotearoa Spokesperson on the Talbot Mills survey into tobacco and nicotine regulation · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: A Talbet Mills smoking survey out this morning. Just over
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: a thousand people, two thirds of them reckon our smoking
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: laws are influenced by big tobacco. They want to see
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: a return to low nicotine cigarettes. Half want a ban
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: on nicotine pouches. Professor Chris Bullen, Orkin University, Professor of
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Public Health, Health Coalition Altada. Health Coalition ALTA is a
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: by their definition, a titidity led coalition of health NGOs.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Winston Peters has previously labeled them left wing. Professor Chris
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Bullen joins me this morning, Good morning, good morning, how
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: are you very well? Thank you? So the survey saying
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: that the policy has influenced by big tobacco is the
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: is the I mean, could you say that of any industry?
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: For sure, all industries are policies orientated towards them. I
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: think the big difference here as we've got a long
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: history of dealing with the tobacco industry all around the world,
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: and they behave in particularly bad ways. So their products
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: are incredibly harmful. That's well known. So why should a
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: government that seems to be interested in the health and
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: well being of all New Zealanders they give access to
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: these this kind of industry to influence their policy in
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: a way that will lead to harm.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Has it led to more harm? Are we seeing more
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: harm today than we were two years ago from tobacco products?
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Well, I think the answer is that we're stalled with smoking.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Smoking being the most harmful tobacco product out there. The
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: prevalence of smoking should have been lower than it is
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: if the government had held to the previous settings policy settings.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: But when the coalition government came in, one of the
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: bottom lines for us in the first was to repeal
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: the smoke free legislation, which modeling suggested would have dramatically
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: reduced smoking below five percent in a few years. So
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: that will to we believe, around an additional eight thousand
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: people dying from smoking related diseases over the next twenty years,
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: and it could be prevented through appropriate policies.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: That's only in the legal market, right and if you
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: look at Australia where they have between fifty and sixty
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: percent of all tobacco and nearly all vaping products in
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Australia right now are from criminal suppliers according to Deacon University.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: So yes, you might be able to do what you
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: say you want to do with legal products, but it
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: won't stop the clearly stubborn six point eight percent of
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: New Zealanders who want to smoke a durry.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Well, we don't have the same issue with illegal tobacco
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: because of our regulated vaping market and because the set
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: policy settings have actually been I think more more sensible here.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: But we do need to be very careful because things
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: could turn suddenly in the wrong direction. However, the monitoring
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: that the Mystery of Health has been supporting in trying
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: to assess the size of the illicit market doesn't suggest
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: that the problem here is as bad as it is
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: in Australia by any stretch.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Okay, I appreciate your time this morning, your analysis Professor
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Cris Ball and Auckland University Professor Public Health Coalition our
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: tat art.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
• 3:22
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• 3:25
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