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Health

  • Tobacco use is the single biggest preventable cause of death in the world(i) as well as New Zealand(ii)

(i) WHO. 2008. WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2008: The MPOWER package. Geneva: World Health Organization.

(ii) Ministry of Health.1999.Taking the Pulse: the 1996/97 New Zealand Health Survey. Wellington: New Zealand.

  • Half of all continuing smokers will die from smoking - an average of 14 years early.

Peto, R., & Lopez,A (1994). Mortality from smoking in developed countries 1950-2000: Indirect estimates from national vital statistics. Oxford University Press: New York.

  • In New Zealand smoking is responsible for nearly 5000 deaths per annum.

Peto R, et. al. 2006. Mortality from smoking in developed countries 1950-2000 (2nd edition, 2nd edition, revised June 2006: www.deathsfromsmoking.net). Geneva: Switzerland: International Union Against Cancer (UICC)

  • Smoking is a major cause of blindness, with about 1300 people in New Zealand having untreatable blindness due to current and past smoking.

Wilson, G., et al. (2001). Smoke gets in your eyes: smoking and visual impairment in New Zealand. NZ Med J, 114, 471-4.

  • Around 90 percent of lung cancer deaths are caused by smoking.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.2004. The Health Consequences of Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health.

  • In U.S. alone, figures show that expectant mothers who smoke cause the deaths of over 600 boy babies and 400 baby girls each year. Babies who survive but suffer from smoking related problems cost the country approximately $800 each to help, totaling nearly $4 million.

US Govt. CDC — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

  • Smoking causes diseases in nearly every organ of the body. Cigarette smoking is conclusively linked to diseases such as leukaemia, cataracts, pneumonia and cancers of the cervix, kidney, pancreas and stomach. The report also showed that smoking was a definite cause of cancers of the lung and larynx in men and chronic bronchitis in both men and women.

Report on Smoking and Health, 2004, the US Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona

  • By the year 2030, tobacco is likely to be the world's leading cause of death and disability killing more than 10 million people annually and claiming more lives than HIV, tuberculosis, motor vehicle accidents, suicide and homicide combined.

World Health Organisation. (1999). Factsheet No 222: Tobacco dependence. Geneva. World Health Organisation.

  • In the US, during a decade of war in Vietnam, when nearly 50,000 Americans were killed in battle, the US Surgeon-General estimated that between 1 and 3.5 million deaths from smoking-related diseases occurred on the home-front.

Hetzel & McMichael, The LS Factor

  • In the industrialised world in 2005, Australia has the fewest smokers — 17% of those over 15 light up. The highest incidence is in Holland (34%), with Hungary next (33%) and Korea third (30%).

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2005

Economic (NZ)

  • The tangible costs of smoking to New Zealand in 2005 were in the order of NZ$1.7 billion, or about 1.1 percent of GDP(i). Major components are lost production due to premature mortality, lost production due to smoking caused morbidity, and smoking-caused health care costs.

(i) O’Dea D, Thomson G. Report on tobacco taxation in New Zealand. Report commissioned by The Smokefree Coalition and ASH New Zealand.

  • The NZ Government earned $1068 million in revenue from tobacco (year ended 30 June 2010).

Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand for the Year Ended 30 June 2010