Smoking rates could fall below 20 per cent this year as thousands of Kiwis are expected to kick the habit. Quitline's Bruce Bassett said adult smoking rates could fall to the lowest levels since records began. He said 21 per cent of adult New Zealanders smoked and about 9000 people were expected to use Quitline services in January. "It's going to be really busy."
He said more than a fifth of those who used quitting services stayed smoke-free.
Leone Landells chose to stop smoking cheap Davidoff cigarettes just before the New Year brought a wave of resolutions and a price rise reaching more than $15 for popular packs of 20.
"I feel so much better," she said. "I didn't realise how unwell I felt as a smoker." Landells, 53, said seeing her close friend's mother suffer from emphysema was the tipping point.
