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Our sailing vacation taught us how to navigate life This doctor left his practice for 18 months to sail the Carribean with his wife. The couple came back with some [...]

Background In 2010, the New Zealand (NZ) government introduced an annual 10% tobacco excise tax increase. We examined retailers' adherence to recommended retail prices (RRP), and whether the RRP included the full tax increase. Methods We collected price data on three British American Tobacco (BAT) factory-made cigarette brands, (premium, mainstream, and budget), and one roll-your-own tobacco brand before and after the 2014 tax increase from a sample of tobacco retailers. We examined price increases in each tobacco brand and compared these with the RRP. The extent to which the excise tax increases had been included in the RRP since 2010 was estimated using data sourced from the Ministry of Health and NZ Customs. Findings The median increase in price from before to after the tax change was only 3% for the budget brand (461 retailers). This contrasted with the median of 8% for the premium brand (448 retailers), and 11% for both mainstream and roll-your-own brands (471 and 464 retailers, respectively). While many retail outlets made changes according to the RRP set by BAT, several did not comply. Our analyses suggest BAT may be undershifting excise tax on the budget brand, and overshifting tax on brands in other price partitions. Conclusions Tobacco companies do not appear to be increasing the RRPs of budget brands in line with tobacco excise tax increases. The increasing price differential between budget brands, and mainstream and premium brands may undermine cessation and impede realisation of New Zealand's Smokefree 2025 goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In New Zealand, around half of the lowland water bod-ies do not meet water quality standards, primarily due to widespread changes in land use. Riparian restoration has been occurring in New Zealand for over 30 years in an effort to minimize this impact, however, little monitor-ing of restoration effectiveness has been undertaken. This study evaluated the impact of riparian plantings on water quality of lowland streams in the Lake Ellesmere catch-ment. A paired-catchment design on four river reaches was used to compare restored riparian buffers with con-trol sites upstream. Chemical water quality sampling was used in conjunction with a macroinvertebrate community assessment. Equivocal benefits of riparian restoration were observed, with improvements in some variables but not in others. Riparian restoration had a positive effect on water quality in terms of increasing dissolved oxygen and decreasing turbidity. However, conductivity increased at planted sites and no changes were observed in other vari-ables. These findings may be affected by the insufficient width of all four buffers, and gaps in the buffer sys-tem contributing to poor water quality. Although variable responses were seen in invertebrate community composi-tion, this research suggests that even narrow planted buffer strips may be effective in improving some water qual-ity parameters. The overall mixed results present a fair assessment of the benefits of riparian restoration that may be expected within a relatively short time following veg-etation establishment. Even when no baseline data have been established prior to restoration, this research showed monitoring can demonstrate the effectiveness of riparian restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]