Shift #36 - FCIL Webinar
Thursday, June 27, 2024 | 1-2 pm CST/2-3 pm EST (1 hr)
Details
Michelle Hurt, student/intern
Jennifer Gonzalez, practicum supervisor
This is a screenshot of the webinar about cigarette bans in other countries. I love that we get to hear from foreign/comparative law specialists, as this was something I was interested in when I was in undergrad.
We had two hosts for this FCIL webinar on cigarette bans of New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The first host spoke about New Zealand gave us a lot of statistics, which were really interesting to hear about (it made me want to find statistics in the U.S.). In 2022/23 - 1 in 5 adults use tobacco compared to 1 in 3 in 2022. In addition, 6.8% of adults were daily smokers, down from 8.6% from the previous year and 16.4% in 2011/12. There is also a decline in daily smoking for all ethnic groups compared 2011/12 and 2022/23. Daily smoking decreased in 14-15 year olds but vaping rose between 2015 and 2023. She also gave us a history of smoking regulations in the country, all the way beginning to 1963 when there was a ban on advertising of cigarettes on TV and radio. Another example of a regulation was that all domestic airlines in New Zealand were smoke-free by 1988 (international flights were smoke-free by 1995). The latest regulation was on 2021, with a ban on smoking in cars that have a child occupant. Now, New Zealand is working on their Smokefree 2025 Policy, with a goal for a daily smoking prevalence of less than 5% for all population groups. No other country has phased out cigarette sales like New Zealand, helping them in their goal of having a smokefree generation.
Our second host talked about UK's smoking laws. UK has made significant strides over the years. In 1974, 51% of adults were smokers and this decreased to 20% in 2014. However, by 2019, there were only 12.95% of adult smokers. 77% of the population supports measures to limit smoking. The host gave us statistics on costs of smoking in the UK. For example, the cost of a pack of 20 cigarettes is between $15 and $20 (this breaks down into $7.90 per pack with a 16.5% tobacco duty and a 20% value-added tax). Plus, smoking costs the UK economy around $20.1 billion annually ($18 billion in lost productivity and $4 billion in health and social care costs). We also got to hear about the UK's regulations and their plan of being a Smokefree England by 2030. This includes measures that will discourage people from starting to smoke and raising funds to help people to stop their habit. Currently, even with the 12.95% of adult smokers (6 million people approximately), smoking is the biggest cause of preventable illness. I really appreciate these countries' efforts in having smokefree generations, something I think every country should follow!
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