Smoking Plateau Demands New Tools For SmokeFree Success

Wednesday, 19 November 2025, 7:56 pm
Press Release: CAPHRA

The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) has expressed serious concern following the release of the New Zealand Ministry of Health’s 2024 and 2025 Health Survey results. The data shows the daily adult smoking rate sitting at 6.8 percent, essentially unchanged from last year’s 6.9 percent. Vaping has been central to the long term decline in smoking over the past decade. However, the latest figures confirm a clear plateau. New harm reduction tools such as nicotine pouches are now essential if New Zealand is to meet the SmokeFree 2025 target of fewer than 5 percent daily smokers across all groups.

Nancy Loucas, Executive Coordinator of CAPHRA, stated that the findings reinforce long standing warnings. “The results released today confirm that New Zealand’s progress has stalled. Vaping has been responsible for the most significant reductions in smoking in recent history, helping cut daily smoking from 16.4 percent in 2011 and 2012 to current levels and enabling many thousands of people to move away from cigarettes. The absence of any meaningful decline this year makes it clear that vaping alone will not get us to SmokeFree 2025. Inequities remain, with Maori daily smoking at 14.7 percent and Pasifika at 12.3 percent, and while these groups have seen reductions, overall national momentum has stopped.”

Loucas highlighted the importance of broadening the country’s harm reduction framework. “Vaping has already transformed public health by offering a far safer alternative that has prevented immense harm. To overcome this stagnation and achieve genuine equity in quitting outcomes, New Zealand must adopt additional innovative products such as nicotine pouches. These smoke free options provide discretion and practicality for people who have not switched through vaping. This mirrors progress in countries such as Sweden, where similar tools have contributed to unprecedented reductions in smoking.”

CAPHRA calls on the government to move quickly by easing restrictions and ensuring nicotine pouches are accessible and affordable. “We call on Minister Costello to urgently introduce risk proportionate legislation to legalise nicotine pouches as committed to in the coalition agreement,” Loucas continued. “By supporting nicotine pouches alongside vaping, New Zealand can rebuild momentum, reach people who have not yet switched, and deliver a SmokeFree Aotearoa for everyone. Time is running out. Let us ensure that New Zealanders have the full set of smokefree tools they need to quit for good.”

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