Targeting the Addictiveness of Smoked Tobacco in New Zealand

Nicotine is the primary constituent in cigarettes responsible for maintaining smoking behavior. In December 2021, the New Zealand (NZ) Government launched the Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 Action Plan, outlining a strategy to reduce smoking prevalence to less than 5% by 2025. The plan is world-leading with transformative goals including: 1) eliminate health inequities in smoking rates and smoking-related illness; 2) ensure youth never start smoking tobacco; and 3) increase quitting in people who smoke. A major component of the initiative is to mandate a low nicotine product standard for smoked tobacco. Similarly, in the United States, the Biden administration recently announced its intention to pursue a low nicotine product standard for cigarettes and other combusted tobacco products, reviving a pillar of the Comprehensive Framework for Nicotine and Tobacco Regulation announced in 2017. This webinar will review the science underlying nicotine reduction and discuss ways to optimize the likelihood that mandating very low nicotine levels in smoked tobacco will achieve the intended public health outcomes.

October 20, 2022, 6:00 PM EST, 11:00pm BST

October 21, 2022 11:00am NZDT, 8:00am AEST