06.04.2023
New Zealand Bans Smoking For Future Generations
New Zealanders born on and after 1st January 2009 cannot buy cigarettes as a part of a package of anti-smoking laws. This means that the base age for buying cancer-causing smoke-sticks will keep going up for the citizens of New Zealand. This law has been passed after decades of hard work by the anti-smoking/tobacco organisations, and is in conjunction with the government’s goal of making New Zealand smoke-free by 2025. Furthermore, the new law has decreased the amount of nicotine allowed and lessened the number of tobacco retailers from around 6,000 to 600. This law may help New Zealand save billions of dollars spent on treating diseases like cancer, strokes, and smoking-related cardiac issues. Interestingly, the law does not cover vaping, which is quite popular in the country. New Zealand is believed to be the first country in the world to implement the annually rising smoking age. Data released in November showed the number of people smoking daily had fallen to 8% – down from 9.4% last year – marking the lowest rates since records began. The rise in daily vape users, however, was larger than the drop in daily smokers: 8.3% of adults are now vaping daily, up from 6.2% in the past year. Credit: WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM
Poverty deprives people of adequate education, health care and of life's most basic necessities- safe living conditions (including clean air and clean drinking water) and an adequate food supply. The developed (industrialized) countries today account for roughly 20 percent of the world's population but control about 80 percent of the world's wealth.
Poverty and pollution seem to operate in a vicious cycle that, so far, has been hard to break. Even in the developed nations, the gap between the rich and the poor is evident in their respective social and environmental conditions.
Poverty and pollution seem to operate in a vicious cycle that, so far, has been hard to break. Even in the developed nations, the gap between the rich and the poor is evident in their respective social and environmental conditions.
