654 Results

  • Energy poverty: The lowest-income households pay more in Aotearoa

    … to rise significantly from 2025, due to a combination of factors putting pressure on Aotearoa New Zealand’s … a critical public health concern. The health consequences of energy poverty cost the health system over $38 million per … to broader well-being impacts and increases the risk of severe mental distress. 2 Living in energy poverty exposes …
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  • Public Health Solutions Series: Good health in childhood is vital for lifelong wellbeing: time for a preventive approach

    … action on childhood immunisation .   This blog is part of the Public Health Solutions series looking at effective … health system struggled with persistently high rates of preventable hospitalisations, ill-health, and large health … among children and young people. This is because of unacceptably high rates of child poverty, inadequate …
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  • The need for an expanded national smokefree law – just got more critical

    … A just released Judicial Review has opened up the question of how “open areas” of buildings (where smoking is permitted in New Zealand) are … practice. In this blog post we consider the implications of this ruling and why it heightens the need for an expanded …
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  • Death rates dropping – it is a good time to be alive

    … a book later this year ( The Healthy Country? A History of Life and Death in New Zealand ; AUP) that looks in depth at the fascinating story of mortality decline in New Zealand. The path to low … by looking at some data just released by the Ministry of Health on trends since 1945 in cause-specific mortality. …
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  • What the fizz! A week of dealing to sugary drinks in NY and NZ

    … A curious week in the world of soft drinks. The surprising darling of public health action on soft drinks, New York, suffered a … health board had gone too far in stopping sales of non-diet soda and other sugar-laden beverages in …
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  • Smoking prevalence and trends: important findings from the 2023-24 New Zealand Health Survey

    … November. For the first time in a decade, the prevalence of daily smoking did not decline in Aotearoa, sitting at 6.9% … Pacific peoples, and people experiencing higher levels of deprivation. These findings demonstrate that the … areas, we will not reach a daily smoking prevalence of less than 5% for all population groups by 2025.  Smoking …
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  • Worth its weight: Building insulation in New Zealand

    … that the NZ Government is still undervaluing the benefits of building performance and insulation standards. This is … and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Minister of Building and Housing is arguing against improving building performance. He suggests that the health benefits of improving insulation in rental housing from 1978 standards …
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  • Warmest New Zealand winter ever recorded – The Government should do more on climate change

    … to the 1860s ( full report ). This is good news in lots of ways. Warmer winters mean more comfort, more time … may become more common with climate change in some parts of NZ But fundamentally the changing seasons for New Zealand and elsewhere are symptomatic of an extremely serious problem, that of global climate …
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  • Chewing the fat on a saturated fat tax

    … Associate Professor Nick Wilson, University of Otago Wellington An article we published last week generated plenty of debate [1] (some thoughtful, some distortionary), and in particular debate on the complexities of taxing food. In this blog I argue that, yes, such tax …
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  • Beyond unhelpful dichotomies: a co-regulatory approach to protecting children from junk food marketing

    … It is a good time to reflect not only on the content of those approaches, but also the regulatory frameworks for … approach that could be applied to the strengthening of junk food marketing restrictions to children.   “Black and … But is it always so black or white? Take the current issue of junk food marketing to children. Food marketers are keen …
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Public Health Expert Briefing (ISSN 2816-1203)