Focus on Smoking

Nearly 85% of New Zealanders are smoke-free. But New Zealand is aiming even higher: The New Zealand Government has set the goal that by 2025 fewer than 5% of New Zealanders will be smokers. To this end, on 9th December 2022, Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall launched a new legislation, Auahi Kore Aotearoa […] Read on...

First of all, the good news: Between 2007 and 2019, the number of adult smokers has declined steadily. However, 1.3 billion people worldwide still use tobacco today (of which 1.1 billion are smokers, with another 200 million turning to other tobacco products). Five companies dominate 80 percent of the market. While they are promoting increasingly […] Read on...

Why? There are many good reasons to quit smoking, but in the context of the current corona situation there is one more reason, because smokers automatically belong to the risk group. Not only are they more prone to fall ill through the coronavirus, but it is also highly likely that the course of the disease […] Read on...

With 450 young adults hospitalised in only a few weeks across the United States because of severe lung infections caused by vaping, regulators are now moving against the vaping industry. It is widely recognised that electronic cigarettes such as Juul are attractive to teenagers wherever they are sold. These products look like high tech and […] Read on...

The American health agency, the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) as well as the FDA and local health authorities, have warned against e-cigarette use as 215 cases of severe pulmonary disease are reported across the United States. Notably, the CDC reports that many people affected stated they used e-cigarette products with liquids that contain cannabinoid […] Read on...

Electronic cigarettes are very popular among the younger generation and have been promoted by producers and some governments as safer than tobacco. Indeed, some governments claim e-cigarettes are almost harmless. However, the weight of evidence is now stacked up showing this is not true. Study after study continue to show that e-cigarette vapour is harmful […] Read on...

The city of San Francisco is to ban electronic cigarettes from sale in stores and online sales to addresses within San Francisco. The ban also prevents the manufacture, distribution and sale of e-cigarettes on San Francisco property. The ban has been put in place because the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not done its […] Read on...

More than seven million people in the world still die from smoking each year. Even the tobacco industry no longer deny that it is their products that kill people. Now the industry claims to have created solutions that would improve the lives of smokers. “Anyone who denies that technology can help diminish the harmfulness of […] Read on...

E-cigarettes are becoming increasingly popular. In 2011, 7 million people worldwide were smoking e-cigarettes. In 2016, that number had risen to 35 million and experts anticipate that by 2021 the numbers will be up to 55 million people. E-cigarettes are considered to be the “safe” and harmless alternative to tobacco cigarettes – finally you can […] Read on...

According to the 2017 UN World Drug Report, 183 million people worldwide use cannabis and the trend is increasing, thus making cannabis by far the most used illegal drug. Cannabis is used in the form of marijuana (dried inflorescences and leaves), hashish (resin of flowers mixed with plant parts) or hashish oil (viscous extract from […] Read on...