Nobody, surely, would want a child to take up smoking.
It's a ruinously expensive habit that is indisputably bad for your health and the Government has gon
New Zealand has passed a lifetime ban on anyone born after 2008 from buying cigarettes in a landmark attempt to eradicate smoking from the country as part of a 15-year program.
The West Coast DHB is the only one in the country meeting the national target of advising people to quite smoking – but the advice is largely falling on deaf ears.
The West Coast District Health Board is the only one in the country meeting the national target of advising people to quit smoking - but the advice is largely falling on deaf ears.
Back in the 1970s, more than one in three New Zealanders were cigarette smokers.
Even up until the mid-90s you could spot the Marlboro logo in Formula 1 races; Benson and Hedges was spruiked at cricket matches; the actual NRL grand prize, the Winfield Cup, was named after a brand of cigarettes.
But over the past couple of decades, the landscape has utterly changed.
Cigarette advertising was banned, as were sponsorships. Airplanes went smokefree - then bars and restaurants.
A decade of relentless tax hikes sent the price of a packet of smokes into the stratosphere: nowadays, a pack of 20 cigarettes will set you back more than $30.