Chris Bullen: Health Coalition Aotearoa Spokesperson on the excise tax for heated tobacco products being cut

There are concerns tax cuts on heated tobacco will make the product much easier for young people to access. 

Customs quietly cut 50% from the excise tax at the start of the month. 

Customs Minister Casey Costello says it's a trial, aiming to give smokers a cheaper alternative. 

Health Coalition Aotearoa spokesperson Chris Bullen told Ryan Bridge it comes with a risk. 

He says once the price drops, a new product becomes a lot more accessible for young people with disposable incomes. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Five, the government has quietly cut excise tax on heated
tobacco products by fifty percent. A spokesperson for the Associate
Health Minister, Casey Costello, says the move was made to
encourage smokers to switch to safer alternatives. However, critics say
there is no evidence at'll work, saying that they have
opened a pathway for youth nicotine addiction. Chris Bolland is

(00:21):
with the Health Coalition alted Oron is with me this morning, Chris,
good morning. Are these heated tobacco products safer than smoking?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, they probably are a little safer, but we don't
have a huge amount of independent research information on these products.
Most of the data we have on them is from
tobacco industry commissioned research, so there is a question mark.
But to say, I guess the important point is do
they work to help people quit smoking? Which seems to

(00:52):
be what the minister is interested in using them for,
and there's absolutely no independent research about that side of
these product.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Is there arrest that kids will start using them? Is
there evidence that kids start using them if they have
never smoked or vaped before?

Speaker 2 (01:09):
The kids use one? Is an interesting one. There's limited evidence,
but what we know is that once the price is reduced,
then new, interesting, novel products do become interesting more accessible
to young people who have limited dispos of disposable income. So,
considering their price point now, which is quite high, this

(01:31):
removal of fifty percent of the tax will make them
much more affordable. And therefore there is a risk.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
When you say young people, we don't mean teenagers do
because they're not allowed to by any of this stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Well, strictly speaking, they're not allowed to if they are
under eighteen, it's correct, but we're talking about eighteen to
thirty year olds, and that's really a generation that has
the opportunity to not get involved with nicotine or tobacco
dependence and save themselves a lot of misery later in life.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
Chris, what's more important, because that seems to me you
can't have your cake and eat it too. What's more
important stopping adults from smoking cigarettes or preventing kids from
starting a vape or a heated tobacco product.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
I don't think it's quite as sort of clear cut
and dichotomis as that. The fact is, for adults who
are currently smoking, they've got real and present threat their
life expectancy. They're risk at having a heart attack or
cancers is very high, and so it's important that we
get that almost a quarter of a million New Zealanders

(02:38):
who are currently still smoking to quit smoking as soon
as possible. So there is a sense of urgency here. However,
you know, it's a sort of there is a risk
that with introducing new products that are untested that and
are supported by a huge marketing effort from the industries
behind them, that we will see a large number of

(03:01):
young people taking up the products who've never smoked. And
that's been the problem with vaping, where you've got a
good product in the case of vaping that's been tested
in trials in charing to the effective, but the regulation
has not been enforced in the marketing, it's been free
rein So we don't want that to happen with these

(03:21):
new products. Christ And I think that's a real risk.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
Thank you, Thank you very much for your time. I
appreciate it this morning. That's crispull And who's the Health
Coalition Altered, our spokesperson.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
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