2023 Annual State of Public Health Lecture – From Smokefree to Tupeka Kore: What do we need to do to achieve a tobacco free vision?
Information of lecture content:
Aotearoa New Zealand’s world-leading tobacco "endgame" legislation reflects Māori politicians’ and health advocates’ determination to end the many harms smoking has imposed on their peoples. They challenged individually focused approaches and called for strategies to address the causes of tobacco harm, particularly tobacco products’ widespread accessibility and addictiveness.
Following the Māori Affairs Select Committee Inquiry, the government committed to a Smokefree goal. Recently enacted measures, including denicotinisation, a large reduction in tobacco retail outlets, and a smokefree generation, are predicted to accelerate reductions in smoking prevalence across all population groups, bringing profound public health benefits and potentially catalysing global action.
Yet the Tupeka Kore vision was not limited to reducing smoked tobacco use but foresaw a return to wellbeing uncompromised by nicotine addiction. As smoking prevalence declines further, vaping prevalence has risen, particularly among young people.
In this presentation, we will reflect on the Tupeka Kore vision and consider how we could address future challenges.
About the speakers:
Janet Hoek
Janet is a Professor of public health at the University of Otago, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand.
She co-directs ASPIRE Aotearoa, a University of Otago Research Centre, and a Health Research Council of New Zealand programme supporting the Smokefree 2025 goal. She has explored on-pack warnings and plain packaging, and the uptake and use of e-cigarettes; she is now researching endgame measures including denicotinisation, limiting tobacco availability, and the smokefree generation policy.
Professor Hoek serves on national and international advisory groups and editorial boards; she has received several awards for her research, including the Universities New Zealand 2022 Critic and Conscience of Society Award.
Andrew Waa
Andrew is an Associate Professor of public and Indigenous health based at the Eru Pōmare Māorimi Health Research Centre, University of Otago, Wellington, Aotearoa.
He co-directs ASPIRE Aotearoa, a University of Otago Research Centre, and a Health Research Council of New Zealand programme supporting the Smokefree 2025 goal.
His research includes exploring the potential impacts of tobacco endgames for whānau Māori, smoking among rangatahi, and the development of social marketing campaigns to reduce smoking and second-hand smoke exposure.
Richard Edwards
Richard trained as a public health physician in the UK and is now a Professor of Public Health at the University of Otago, Wellington and co-director of ASPIRE Aotearoa Research Centre.
His main research interests are in tobacco use epidemiology, tobacco endgames, and smoke free and endgame policies.
He focuses particularly on research to help achieve the Tupeka Kore vision of ending significant tobacco use in Aotearoa New Zealand by 2025. He is co-principal investigator on the New Zealand arm of the International Tobacco Control ( ITC ) Evaluation project and co-director of the Whakahā o te pā harakeke research programme.
Registration
Registration is required to attend the 2023 Annual State of Public Health Lecture.
We reserve the right to exclude tobacco industry employees and affiliates from events such as seminars and webinars organised by ASPIRE Aotearoa.