{"id":30970,"date":"2025-11-18T10:36:37","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T10:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/?p=30970"},"modified":"2025-11-18T16:27:58","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T16:27:58","slug":"cop-11-the-dirty-ashtray-award-goes-to-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/post\/cop-11-the-dirty-ashtray-award-goes-to-new-zealand\/","title":{"rendered":"COP 11: The \u201cdirty ashtray\u201d award goes to…New Zealand?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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New Zealand – which has some of the world\u2019s lowest smoking rates and highest cigarette taxes – has been given the \u201cdirty ashtray\u201d award by the Global Alliance on Tobacco Control (GATC) in a move that brings into stark focus just how far the global tobacco control movement has fallen<\/strong>. The Award is meant for countries whose tobacco control policies fail public health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the latest data, just 6.8% of New Zealanders smoke. A pack of cigarettes costs just under NZ$50 (US$28), plain packaging for cigarettes has been in place for years and smoking is banned in pretty much all public places. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mexico was awarded the \u201cOrchid\u201d award by GATC for \u201cpowerful and uncompromising statements against the tobacco industry at COP11\u201d. Mexico\u2019s smoking rates are more than double those of New Zealand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, prohibitionist campaigners are annoyed that New Zealand has embraced harm reduction, pointing to \u201calarming vaping rates among young people\u201d. Youth vaping rates have fallen for three successive years<\/a> in New Zealand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mexico was awarded the \u201cOrchid\u201d award by GATC for \u201cpowerful and uncompromising statements against the tobacco industry at COP11\u201d. Mexico\u2019s smoking rates are more than double those of New Zealand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NZ pushes back<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The award comes during the WHO\u2019s Conference on tobacco control policy where there are sharp divides between countries who have experienced the benefits of harm reduction – like New Zealand – and WHO\u2019s own staff who want the entire concept of tobacco harm reduction written off as an \u201cindustry narrative\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the opening plenary of the conference yesterday, New Zealand’s representatives declared: “Since 2019 smoking rates have declined more rapidly in association with implementation of tobacco harm reduction measures, particularly regulated access to vaping products”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GATC also points to the fact that New Zealand has \u201cplummeted from 2nd to 53rd in the<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index 2025\u201d. The Index, which is financed by Bloomberg Philanthropies, alleges that New Zealand suffers more from tobacco industry interference than countries like Thailand, where the Thai Tobacco Monopoly (owned by the Government) produces cigarettes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Associate Health Minister Casey Costello called the index “ridiculous”, pointing out the country\u2019s relative success in reducing smoking, pointing out that this is the metric that really matters and not the “strange view, that what really matters is how much you criticise the tobacco industry”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“I haven’t seen this year’s index, but the last one had Brunei at No.1 and France at No.3. Brunei’s smoking rate is around 17 percent – well over double NZ’s rate. In May, France’s smoking rate was 23 percent – more than three times NZ’s rate,” she said. “That illustrates how ridiculous this index is.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A tobacco control success story<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Going after New Zealand – where pro harm-reduction policies have been embraced by both sides of the political divide – illustrates how the global tobacco control movement is increasingly detached from reality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only Sweden has lower smoking rates in the developed world<\/a>, and those are also thanks to a long term embrace of harm reduction.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n

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New Zealand – which has some of the world\u2019s lowest smoking rates and highest cigarette taxes – has been given the \u201cdirty ashtray\u201d award by the Global Alliance on Tobacco Control (GATC) in a move that brings into stark focus just how…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":990003,"featured_media":31001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[257],"tags":[27,327,334,183,333],"slider":[],"class_list":["post-30970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-article","tag-france","tag-global","tag-harm-reduction","tag-sweden"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/990003"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30970"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31082,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30970\/revisions\/31082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30970"},{"taxonomy":"slider","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/slider?post=30970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}