Teenage smoking plummets

The smoking rate among New Zealand teenagers has dropped by a third since last year, according to a Radio New Zealand story citing Ministry of Health figures.

The country’s Quitline was quoted as saying that this year 8,000 15-17-year-olds ‘are smoking’, down from 12,000 last year. A decade ago there were said to have been 35,000 in this age group ‘taking up the habit’.

Quitline’s clinical director Sharryn Gannon said the majority of young people were not picking up cigarettes – a trend that was creating “a new generation of ‘never-smokers'”.

Gannon said the average smoker took up the habit at age 14, and that if people could make it to age 25 without taking up smoking then it was likely they would never smoke.

Meanwhile, the overall smoking rate in New Zealand also has decreased, a decrease that included a five percent reduction among Maori men during the past two years.

Gannon said the increasing price of cigarettes and the availability of e-cigarettes were also reasons why people were quitting the habit.