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New Zealand to ban smoking for next generation in bid to outlaw habit by 2025
新西兰将禁止下一代人吸烟，以期在2025年之前全面禁烟
New Zealand has announced it will outlaw smoking for the next generation, so that those who are aged 14 and under today will never be legally able to buy tobacco. New legislation means the legal smoking age will increase every year, to create a smoke-free generation of New Zealanders, associate health minister Dr Ayesha Verrall said on Thursday. “This is a historic day for the health of our people,” she said.
新西兰宣布将禁止下一代吸烟，因此那些年龄在14岁及以下的人群将永远无法合法购买烟草。新西兰卫生部副部长阿伊莎·韦拉尔博士周四表示，新立法意味着合法的吸烟年龄将逐年提高，以造就新西兰的无烟一代。她说：“这对我们人民的健康来说是历史性的一天。”
The government announced the rising age alongside other measures to make smoking unaffordable and inaccessible, to try to reach its goal of making the country entirely smoke-free within the next four years. Other measures include reducing the legal amount of nicotine in tobacco products to very low levels, cutting down the shops where cigarettes could legally be sold, and increasing funding to addiction services. The new laws will not restrict vape sales.
政府宣布提高吸烟年龄，同时采取其他措施，让人们无法负担和接触到吸烟，试图在未来四年内实现全国完全无烟的目标。其他措施包括将烟草产品中尼古丁的合法含量降低到非常低的水平，减少可以合法销售香烟的商店，以及加大对戒断服务的资金资助。新法律不会限制电子烟的销售。
New Zealand’s daily smoking rates have been dropping over time – down to 11.6% in 2018, from 18% a decade earlier. But smoking rates for Māori and Pasifika were far higher – 29% for Māori and 18% for Pasifika. “If nothing changes, it would be decades till Māori smoking rates fall below 5%,” Verrall said. She said eradicating smoking in the next four years was within reach: “I believe it is. In fact, we’re on track to for the New Zealand European population. The issue is, though, if we don’t change what we’re doing, we won’t make it for Māori – and that’s [what] the plan is really focused on”.
从2011的18%下降到2018年的11.6%，随着时间的推移，新西兰的日吸烟率一直在下降。但毛利人和太平洋岛民的吸烟率要高得多，分别为29%和18%。韦拉尔说：“如果不做任何改变，将毛利人的吸烟率下降至5%以下将需要几十年的时间。”她说，在接下来的四年里戒烟是触手可及的：“我相信我们可以做到。事实上，我们正在为新西兰的欧洲人服务。不过，问题是，如果我们不做出改变，就无法让毛利人实现这一目标——而这正是该计划真正关注的。”
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