Research led by the Cancer Society and the Canterbury District Health Board involved interviewing over 60 dairy owners or managers in Canterbury, and found two thirds of people interviewed perceived tobacco to be important or very important to their business.

Cancer Society Manager of Health promotion and IT services, Martin Witt says if we are to reach the smoke free 2025 target supply needs to be looked at.

"All the work we have done today has been about reducing the demand and the normalising to make it less attractive, the time has come to seriously start."

Witt believes more research needs to be done to reassure dairy owners that their businesses can be viable and smoke free.