By MARTIN JOHNSTON health reporter
The number of adult smokers increased last year but on average they sucked on almost one cigarette fewer each day, according to the latest statistics.
Twenty-six per cent of respondents aged 15 and over told an ACNielsen survey last year that they were smokers, up from 25 per cent in 1998.
But a 3-percentage-point increase was noted for those aged 15 to 24, and a 2-point rise for Maori, the ethnic group in which the killer habit is still most prevalent, at 51 per cent.
The amount of tobacco, excluding cigars, imported and manufactured here last year was the equivalent of 1312 cigarettes a year per person over 15, down from 1377 in 1998. That roughly translates to an average 14.3 cigarettes a day for smokers last year, down from 15.1 in 1998.
Health Minister Annette King attributed the consumption drop to the 50c increase in May 1998 in the excise tax on a pack of 20 cigarettes. She said the further increase of $1 last month was expected to deliver another cut in use.
Trish Fraser, the director of anti-tobacco group Action on Smoking and Health (Ash), said after the release of the figures by the Ministry of Health yesterday that the decline in consumption was good but the prevalence trend was worrying.
"The figures overall are looking like trending upwards."
She pegged the consumption drop on public demand for more smokefree areas and said it was vital for the Government to resuscitate the proposal to ban smoking in bars.
And she rejected Mrs King's assertion that it would be hard to enforce a ban in cafes and restaurants while allowing smoking in bars.
Trish Fraser said the legislation needed only to define bars and restaurants clearly, which could be done simply.
The Hospitality Association chief executive, Bruce Robertson, agreed with Mrs King, saying that restaurants and bars now blended into each other so much that finding a dividing line was often impossible.
Mrs King has said her proposal to ban smoking in bars is unlikely to get enough support in Parliament, with most Alliance MPs against it. She is pressing on with a cafe/restaurant smoking ban, despite seeing its flaws.
More smokers, smoking less
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