item details
Overview
This collection of cigarettes and tobacco packets (including contents) dates from the 1980s. They were all purchased from retail shops in New Zealand, and represent the majority of what was on sale at the time.
They were acquired by DSIR to help Public Health investigators identify the brand of cigarette butts found in food. Public Health investigators helped companies producing affected food to identify what and where contamination occurred. Identifying the brand helped narrow down the possible culprit and where to focus on sorting out the problem.
As smoking became less prominent from the late 1980s, and was banned from enclosed public hospitality venues from 1990, the incidents of cigarette butts in food became a thing of the past.
Smoking history in Aotearoa
Smoking was initially considered therapeutic, and acceptable in most public spaces. Nearly half of New Zealand’s adult population smoked by the end of the Second World War (1939-1945). But by the 1950s, international research had established the link between smoking and lung cancer.
New Zealand's Department of Health published its first warning against smoking in 1945, but generally, the government was slow to control the tobacco industry. Tobacco consumption peaked in 1953, and was part of everyday life in most places.
From 1963, anti-smoking advertising campaigns began. Health warnings on cigarette packets appeared from 1974, with stronger messages from 1988. Control programmes started in 1984 (the year in which Māori had the highest rates of lung cancer in the world). Quit smoking campaigns and smoke-free workplaces had much political support, and overall, numbers of smokers dropped.
In 1990, the Smoke-free Environments Act was passed to protect people from second-hand smoke; to reduce the harm caused to individuals by their smoking; to restrict access to smoking products by under 18 year olds; to promote a smoke-free lifestyle; and to regulate the marketing of tobacco products and events.