Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Chris Bullen: Health Coalition Aotearoa Spokesperson on the excise tax for heated tobacco products being cut

Transcript

Chris Bullen: Health Coalition Aotearoa Spokesperson on the excise tax for heated tobacco products being cut · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Five, the government has quietly cut excise tax on heated
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: tobacco products by fifty percent. A spokesperson for the Associate
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Health Minister, Casey Costello, says the move was made to
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: encourage smokers to switch to safer alternatives. However, critics say
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: there is no evidence at'll work, saying that they have
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: opened a pathway for youth nicotine addiction. Chris Bolland is
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: with the Health Coalition alted Oron is with me this morning, Chris,
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  Speaker 1: good morning. Are these heated tobacco products safer than smoking?
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Well, they probably are a little safer, but we don't
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  Speaker 2: have a huge amount of independent research information on these products.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Most of the data we have on them is from
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  Speaker 2: tobacco industry commissioned research, so there is a question mark.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: But to say, I guess the important point is do
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  Speaker 2: they work to help people quit smoking? Which seems to
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  Speaker 2: be what the minister is interested in using them for,
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: and there's absolutely no independent research about that side of
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: these product.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Is there arrest that kids will start using them? Is
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: there evidence that kids start using them if they have
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: never smoked or vaped before?
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: The kids use one? Is an interesting one. There's limited evidence,
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: but what we know is that once the price is reduced,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: then new, interesting, novel products do become interesting more accessible
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: to young people who have limited dispos of disposable income. So,
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: considering their price point now, which is quite high, this
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: removal of fifty percent of the tax will make them
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: much more affordable. And therefore there is a risk.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: When you say young people, we don't mean teenagers do
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  Speaker 1: because they're not allowed to by any of this stuff.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Well, strictly speaking, they're not allowed to if they are
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: under eighteen, it's correct, but we're talking about eighteen to
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: thirty year olds, and that's really a generation that has
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: the opportunity to not get involved with nicotine or tobacco
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: dependence and save themselves a lot of misery later in life.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: Chris, what's more important, because that seems to me you
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  Speaker 1: can't have your cake and eat it too. What's more
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: important stopping adults from smoking cigarettes or preventing kids from
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: starting a vape or a heated tobacco product.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: I don't think it's quite as sort of clear cut
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: and dichotomis as that. The fact is, for adults who
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: are currently smoking, they've got real and present threat their
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: life expectancy. They're risk at having a heart attack or
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: cancers is very high, and so it's important that we
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: get that almost a quarter of a million New Zealanders
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: who are currently still smoking to quit smoking as soon
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: as possible. So there is a sense of urgency here. However,
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: you know, it's a sort of there is a risk
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: that with introducing new products that are untested that and
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: are supported by a huge marketing effort from the industries
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  Speaker 2: behind them, that we will see a large number of
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: young people taking up the products who've never smoked. And
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: that's been the problem with vaping, where you've got a
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: good product in the case of vaping that's been tested
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: in trials in charing to the effective, but the regulation
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: has not been enforced in the marketing, it's been free
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: rein So we don't want that to happen with these
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  Speaker 2: new products. Christ And I think that's a real risk.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you very much for your time. I
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: appreciate it this morning. That's crispull And who's the Health
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Coalition Altered, our spokesperson.
• 3:30
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• 3:33
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• 3:36
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