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Speaker 1: Five, the government has quietly cut excise tax on heated

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Speaker 1: tobacco products by fifty percent. A spokesperson for the Associate

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Speaker 1: Health Minister, Casey Costello, says the move was made to

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Speaker 1: encourage smokers to switch to safer alternatives. However, critics say

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Speaker 1: there is no evidence at'll work, saying that they have

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Speaker 1: opened a pathway for youth nicotine addiction. Chris Bolland is

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Speaker 1: with the Health Coalition alted Oron is with me this morning, Chris,

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Speaker 1: good morning. Are these heated tobacco products safer than smoking?

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Speaker 2: Well, they probably are a little safer, but we don't

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Speaker 2: have a huge amount of independent research information on these products.

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Speaker 2: Most of the data we have on them is from

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Speaker 2: tobacco industry commissioned research, so there is a question mark.

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Speaker 2: But to say, I guess the important point is do

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Speaker 2: they work to help people quit smoking? Which seems to

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Speaker 2: be what the minister is interested in using them for,

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Speaker 2: and there's absolutely no independent research about that side of

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Speaker 2: these product.

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Speaker 1: Is there arrest that kids will start using them? Is

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Speaker 1: there evidence that kids start using them if they have

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Speaker 1: never smoked or vaped before?

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Speaker 2: The kids use one? Is an interesting one. There's limited evidence,

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Speaker 2: but what we know is that once the price is reduced,

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Speaker 2: then new, interesting, novel products do become interesting more accessible

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Speaker 2: to young people who have limited dispos of disposable income. So,

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Speaker 2: considering their price point now, which is quite high, this

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Speaker 2: removal of fifty percent of the tax will make them

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Speaker 2: much more affordable. And therefore there is a risk.

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Speaker 1: When you say young people, we don't mean teenagers do

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Speaker 1: because they're not allowed to by any of this stuff.

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Speaker 2: Well, strictly speaking, they're not allowed to if they are

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Speaker 2: under eighteen, it's correct, but we're talking about eighteen to

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Speaker 2: thirty year olds, and that's really a generation that has

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Speaker 2: the opportunity to not get involved with nicotine or tobacco

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Speaker 2: dependence and save themselves a lot of misery later in life.

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Speaker 1: Chris, what's more important, because that seems to me you

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Speaker 1: can't have your cake and eat it too. What's more

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Speaker 1: important stopping adults from smoking cigarettes or preventing kids from

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Speaker 1: starting a vape or a heated tobacco product.

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Speaker 2: I don't think it's quite as sort of clear cut

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Speaker 2: and dichotomis as that. The fact is, for adults who

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Speaker 2: are currently smoking, they've got real and present threat their

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Speaker 2: life expectancy. They're risk at having a heart attack or

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Speaker 2: cancers is very high, and so it's important that we

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Speaker 2: get that almost a quarter of a million New Zealanders

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Speaker 2: who are currently still smoking to quit smoking as soon

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Speaker 2: as possible. So there is a sense of urgency here. However,

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Speaker 2: you know, it's a sort of there is a risk

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Speaker 2: that with introducing new products that are untested that and

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Speaker 2: are supported by a huge marketing effort from the industries

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Speaker 2: behind them, that we will see a large number of

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Speaker 2: young people taking up the products who've never smoked. And

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Speaker 2: that's been the problem with vaping, where you've got a

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Speaker 2: good product in the case of vaping that's been tested

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Speaker 2: in trials in charing to the effective, but the regulation

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Speaker 2: has not been enforced in the marketing, it's been free

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Speaker 2: rein So we don't want that to happen with these

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Speaker 2: new products. Christ And I think that's a real risk.

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Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you very much for your time. I

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Speaker 1: appreciate it this morning. That's crispull And who's the Health

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Speaker 1: Coalition Altered, our spokesperson.

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