What could we do, and what should we not do, to improve public health? This Blog has postings from public health experts on issues such as efficiency, equity, interventions, politics, cost effectiveness and much more.
Friday, February 16th, 2018 | dayhi34p | No Comments
Professor Janet Hoek, Dr Lindsay Robertson, Ms Mei-Ling Blank, Dr Rosalina Richards
Although most smokers want to quit, many of those who begin vaping continue to smoke. We recently probed this perplexing ambiguity and explored dual use of cigarettes and electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) [1]. In this blog, we summarise our findings and consider interventions that could encourage smokers to transition completely to vaping.
Friday, October 6th, 2017 | dayhi34p | No Comments
Prof Richard Edwards, Prof Tony Blakely, Prof Chris Cunningham, Frederieke Sanne van der Deen, Stephanie Erick, Zoe Hawke, Prof Janet Hoek, A/Prof George Thomson, Louise Thornley, Anaru Waa, Prof Nick Wilson
The “Achieving Smokefree Aotearoa by 2025” Action Plan was launched at Parliament on 2 August. A previous blog described its key features and a rationale for the recommended measures. This blog addresses critiques of the Plan; it discusses the potential role e-cigarettes could play in achieving the Smokefree 2025 goal and examines how measures in the Action Plan will support people who smoke to either quit or to transition fully from smoking to vaping.
Monday, October 3rd, 2016 | Kate Sloane | 6 Comments
Prof Nick Wilson, Prof Janet Hoek, A/Prof George Thomson, Prof Richard Edwards
The NZ Ministry of Health is currently reviewing public submissions on options that would allow nicotine-containing e-cigarettes to be sold legally in NZ. This consultation raises questions about how the wider uptake of e-cigarette use (known as “vaping”) will be managed. In this blog, we consider arguments about the indoor public settings where vaping should be allowed or prohibited. We conclude that there seems an overall strong rationale for “Smokefree = Vapefree” in all circumstances for the indoor areas covered by current smokefree laws and policies.
Thursday, September 8th, 2016 | Kate Sloane | 2 Comments
Professor Nick Wilson, Professor Janet Hoek, Frederieke Sanne van der Deen, Associate Professor George Thomson, Professor Richard Edwards
The NZ Ministry of Health is currently consulting on options around making nicotine-containing e-cigarettes available in NZ. Therefore, this Perspective Blog briefly examines possible pros and cons of two plausible licensed retail options: pharmacies and vape shops. It also highlights the need for a very well-considered approach, given consecutive NZ Governments’ poor track record in making policy to regulate addictive substances and reduce harm to public health.
Monday, July 4th, 2016 | Kate Sloane | 7 Comments
Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Coral Gartner, Prof Richard Edwards
This blog considers recent studies in which the biomarker levels in e-cigarette users (vapers) are compared to those from tobacco smokers. The results are highly variable but all suggest lower levels of risk to vapers relative to tobacco smokers. Yet as the situation with vaping is very dynamic (new products, changing ways people vape) and there is no evidence yet about long-term effects of e-cigarette use on health outcomes, a lot more future research will be needed to get a reasonable understanding of the relative harms.