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Monthly Archives: April 2021

Reducing nicotine in smoked tobacco products: A pivotal feature of the proposals for achieving Smokefree Aotearoa 2025

Friday, April 30th, 2021 | tedla55p | 4 Comments

Richard Edwards, Janet Hoek, Nick Wilson, Chris Bullen *

The NZ Government has published a discussion document outlining an Action Plan for the Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 goal and has invited submissions on its proposals. This blog is one of a series examining key aspects of the plan to help inform the debate and submissions. Here we examine the proposal to reduce the nicotine in smoked tobacco products to very low levels. We conclude this strategy is likely to have a profound impact on smoking prevalence and, if implemented as part of a comprehensive plan, gives a realistic prospect of achieving a Smokefree Aotearoa.  

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Smokefree outdoor areas: A missing part of Government’s new Smokefree 2025 proposals

Thursday, April 22nd, 2021 | carra86p | 2 Comments

George Thomson, Nick Wilson (ASPIRE2025)

Smokefree outdoor areas are not ‘business-as-usual’ for New Zealand. Current efforts for such areas are rarely backed by law. Smokers trying to quit need places where being smokefree is normal, and in particular, they need smokefree outdoor hospitality areas. Aotearoa is far behind many jurisdictions in helping smokers in this way. There is strong public support for major changes, including for smokefree building entrances and outdoor dining.

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Progress towards a Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 Action Plan: Congratulations to the Government

Friday, April 16th, 2021 | tedla55p | 1 Comment

Richard Edwards, Janet Hoek, Anaru Waa, George Thomson, Nick Wilson (author details*)

We congratulate the NZ Government on its proposed Action Plan for the Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 goal. Here we examine the evidence for three key ideas outlined in the plan: permitting tobacco products to be sold in only a small number of stores; reducing the nicotine in tobacco products to very low levels; and restricting the legal sale of tobacco products to people born before a certain fixed year (the “smokefree generation” idea).

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More Evidence that Elimination is the Best COVID-19 Control Strategy for Health and the Economy

Monday, April 12th, 2021 | carra86p | 1 Comment

Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Jennifer Summers, Prof Michael Baker

In this blog we briefly consider a new Report from a European think tank that aims to identify an optimal COVID-19 response strategy. It considers mortality data, GDP impacts, and mobility data and suggests that COVID-19 elimination appears to be superior to mitigation/suppression strategies in health and economic terms. Nevertheless, more data and a longer-term perspective is needed, before we can be really certain about the relative benefits and costs of different COVID-19 control strategies.

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Charting our way back to normal

Thursday, April 8th, 2021 | tedla55p | 3 Comments

By Professor Tony Blakely, Dr Tim Wilson, Luke Thorburn and Professor Nathan Grills, University of Melbourne

A new web tool, COVID-19 Pandemic Trade-offs, allows people to weigh the costs and benefits of different policy responses as Australia rolls out vaccines and considers opening borders.

See here for an associated explanatory video. Article reproduced with permission from Pursuit 

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