Call to print warnings on cigarettes

A university health professor is calling on the Government to increase taxes on tobacco by 30 percent immediately, and print warnings on the cigarettes themselves.

Massey University College of Health pro-vice chancellor Paul McDonald made the comments on Firstline this morning, as World Smokefree Day kicks off. 

Smoking kills 5000 Kiwis every year – 350 of them non-smokers who are killed by second-hand smoke.

The Government wants New Zealand smokefree by 2025. A ban on cigarette displays in stores came into force last year, and taxes on tobacco go up 10 percent every year.

Prof McDonald says the measures are working.

"Absolutely. There's no doubt. We have evidence from multiple countries now," he says.

A University of Canterbury study backs this up, showing not only are more people quitting, but those who continue to smoke have cut down.

But Prof McDonald says if the country's to go completely smokefree by 2025, more needs to be done.

"I know the Government's quite committed to 10 percent tax increases [but] it needs to be higher," he says.

"We need a short, sharp shock to smokers to have the maximum effect, so instead of looking at a 30 percent increase over say three or four years, it should be a 30 percent increase right away.

"In addition, [we should follow] Australia's lead in terms of plain packaging – strong evidence that that's effective. Looking at things like registries of people who sell tobacco. Looking at ideas such as licensing tobacco users themselves. There's a myriad of things we could do.

One idea which Prof McDonald says resonates with smokers is to put warnings on the cigarettes themselves.

"Smokers have a right to understand the nature of the activity they're engaging in, how difficult it is, how dangerous it is. When we looked at different possibilities, one of the things that came up was, can we put it on the cigarette? And they loved the idea. They really understood for the first time how intensive the danger was."

"The one that really resonated was when we put little rings around it, identifying that every time they smoke past one of those, it was the equivalent to one minute of their life that they were sacrificing.

"As one smoker vividly said to me, 'It's the first time that I really understood how dangerous this was. You put the warnings and you made it clear, and it was right under my nose each and every time I lit up.'"

The theme of this year's Smokefree Day in New Zealand is "Quit Now". Prof McDonald says the best thing a smoker can do, if they want to quit, is to get help from their friends and family.

"Ask them – if they're smokers – to quit along with you," he says. "Certainly call the Quitline, get some advice. There's a myriad of things that are available."