New Zealand Researcher Receives International Award

Embargoed Release - 05:00 Friday 15 June 2018

Renowned tobacco control researcher Dr. Marewa Glover today was the recipient of the INNCO Professional Advocate of the Year Award for her support of tobacco harm reduction at the Global Forum on Nicotine in Warsaw, Poland.

"Dr. Glover stood out for the award because of her dedication to tobacco harm reduction specifically for Maori and Pasifika in New Zealand and her efforts to have the voice of vapers enter into the discussion, where they had been previously disregarded," said Nancy Sutthoff, President of The International Network of Nicotine Consumers.

On accepting the award, Dr. Glover said “Much of my work over the last 25 years has been about bringing forth the voice and experience of people who smoke to understand and provide what they needed to help them to quit. To be given an award by a group representing consumers is an immense honour.”

“What vapers have told me has totally changed how I think about smoking,” said Dr Glover.

“I used to support increasing the tax on tobacco and imposing more and more restrictions on where people could smoke. I knew it made life harder for people who couldn’t stop smoking but there seemed to be no effective alternative motivating quitting.”

“Vaping and social media have changed everything. There is a huge global network of vapers online and they are reaching more smokers than tobacco control ever could. The future of helping people stop smoking is in the hands of the consumers now. They are the best ones to help their peers understand which of the innovative harm reduced nicotine products to try, whether it’s e-cigarettes, heat-not-burn products, snus or whatever they invent next,” said Dr. Glover.

“My role now is to help bring tobacco control and the consumers together. Raising awareness of the harmful effects of some of our policies, like excessive tobacco tax and preventing access to harm reduced products hopefully will help health professionals and academics stuck on smoker-bashing to rethink what they’re doing” Dr. Glover said.

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