Take action on plain packaging

We believe plain packaging of cigarettes is an important step towards creating our vision for the future – a future where our children are free from tobacco harm. It is also a key action towards the goal of New Zealand becoming a smokefree nation by 2025

Plain packages won’t affect existing smokers very much but will greatly reduce the appeal of tobacco products to our children and grandchildren.

We’re working in partnership with other concerned agencies like the Cancer Society to help New Zealanders understand how cigarette packaging affects children and why this is such an important issue for child health. You can check out what we’re doing here

Here are the facts on plain packaging. The Government needs to know that New Zealanders support this so most important thing you can do is make a submission. You can submit to the consultation by:

• Going to http://www.plainpacks.org.nz and signing the online petition
• Click here to download a printable petition page and start collecting signatures
• Write your own submission or use one of the templates here
• Talk to your friends, your family, your school, your Marae – ask them to put in a submission
• Send us a letter or email and tell us why getting rid of tobacco is important to you and your family – we’d love to hear from you.
• Print one of these postcards, sign, stamp and send! 

Our children deserve a future free from tobacco harm

Maybe you have a child in your life: your baby, your mokopuna, your niece or nephew, the child next door, the baby you are planning for the future. If you are lucky you will have spent lots of time watching them learn, watching them sleep and gazing at them in amazement.

Each child is born with a precious gift – a lifetime. What will they do with it?  Each one will fill their life differently – different relationships, different experiences, different communities, different choices – big ones and little ones. You will be there to guide them, worry about them, and help them to make the best choices.

One of the worries is how to help them make choices that will make them strong and healthy adults.  One of the most important choices they will make is whether to smoke or not.  Most smokers start while they are teenagers – and most regret it later but find they can’t stop as easily as they started.

What if New Zealand could take that worry away? What if New Zealanders didn’t have ready access to cigarettes? What if children could fulfil their lifetimes without the risk of becoming addicted to tobacco?
That is our vision. 

New Zealand has committed to becoming  a smokefree nation by 2025, ensuring  the next generation of children won’t be exposed to tobacco; won’t be tempted to smoke to show how grown up they are. The Heart Foundation is right behind that vision.

It’s time to make a change

It’s been 60 years since we first found out the detrimental harm tobacco causes, yet we still have almost 5,000 New Zealanders needlessly dying from smoking-related illness each year. 500 of these deaths are caused by second hand smoke. It’s time to really make a difference.

That’s where our vision for a smokefree New Zealand comes in. We share this with other health agencies and the New Zealand government, and we’d like you to join us too.

Heart disease and smoking

You probably know about the relationship between smoking and lung cancer, but did you know smoking is also linked to heart disease?

Smoking is the most important preventable cause of heart disease. In fact, smokers are almost twice as likely to have a heart attack as people who have never smoked. 

Learn about why New Zealand needs to be smokefree by 2025 and what we’re doing about it here.