Australias smoking rates have plateaued in recent years, as the current smoking prevalence for Australians aged 14+ has only declined slightly from 12.8% in 2018 to 11.8% in 2023.[xlvi] This is in contrast to Aotearoa New Zealands decline in smoking rates over the same period, where current smoking prevalence dropped from 15.1% in 2017/2018 to 8.3% in 2022/2023.[xlvii] It has been suggested that this slowing in Australias smoking cessation rate is partially associated with Australias total ban on commercial sales of nicotine products, excluding tobacco cigarettes.[xlviii] [xlix] Australias vaping prevalence has seen a significant increase over the same period, jumping from 1.4% in 2018 to 8.9% in 2023.[l] The Director of Action for Smokefree 2025 has emphasised: The only policy difference between Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia during this period has been that we allow nicotine vaping sales to compete with cigarettes, whereas Australia has taken a prescription model that puts much safer vaping out of the reach of most people.[li] What have government and health organisations' messaging been around vaping for harm reduction
Soft pack cigarettes in Asia are not just a product
As for exploratory correlations, the inverse association between nadir CD4+ cell count and WB SUV indicates that a history of severe HIV infection results in greater neuroinflammatory processes (as previously proposed [72])
Smoking destroys the body systematically and progressively
E-cigarettes have become very popular as a safer alternative to cigarette smoking without exposure to tobacco and substances known to cause detrimental effects including lung cancer
We know that some strokes are related to the constrictive effects that happen in some people who frequently use cannabis
