Government planning youth vaping crackdown

The Government is proposing a further suite of vaping restrictions in a bid to stop young people starting the habit.

Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall told 1News the Ministry of Health is now seeking public feedback on the proposed regulations in response to rising youth vaping rates.

"We need to strike a better balance – vaping’s useful to help people quit smoking but we don't want kids to be starting vaping straight up," she said.

It's illegal to sell or give a vaping product to anyone under 18.

The proposals include stopping new specialist vape retailers from opening near schools and sports grounds; labelling flavours which appeal to children under generic descriptions on packaging; introducing a range of safety requirements for all vape products; and reducing the maximum nicotine salt concentration allowed in disposable vapes from 50mg/mL to 35mg/mL.

On the proposed flavour packaging restrictions, Verrall said it's about stopping the targeting of young people.

"Calling something 'gummy bears' suggests it's candy – these products aren't lollies," Dr Verrall said.

She said the Ministry of Health expects to hear from the vaping industry and the public on the proposals.

"We know we really need to tighten up on youth vaping."

In a press release, Verrall quoted a recent Australian study which found the majority of those who had vaped before had used disposable vape products.

Bishop Viard College principal Chris Theobald is welcoming the measures, saying staff at his school see the impact of vaping on multiple parts of a student's life.

"Students are very clearly addicted to the vapes, in some instances, so the actions that they have because of that addiction, that impacts their sleep, impacts their health, impacts their interactions with others," he said.

Theobald said changing the labelling of certain flavours that are "very directly targeting our young people" to generic flavour terms was a first step, but removing those flavours should be the next measure taken.

Asthma and Respiratory Foundation NZ chief executive Letitia Harding also welcomed the proposals, but wants to see all vape products restricted to having a maximum nicotine strength of 20 milligrams, which she says is the equivalent to a packet of cigarettes.

"We would still call for it to be 20 milligrams because it's the highly addictive nature of nicotine that gets our kids, rangatahi, actually addicted and dependant on these products," she said.

Harding said storefront advertising of vape products and stopping convenience stores being approved as specialist vape retailers are other areas that should be looked at by the Government to reduce the attractiveness of vaping to young people.

"Yes, it's a good start but we still need to go further."

Aotearoa Vapers Community Advocacy co-founder Nancy Loucas supports the nature of the proposed measures, but she said overall, a lack of enforcement of current regulations is the issue.

"We need to focus on our enforcement before we go imposing any more restrictions," she said.

She said she doesn't have a problem with the labelling of certain flavours changing.

"What I can see the market doing to circumvent that would be they'd have 'candy 1' or 'candy 2' or 'candy 3' – as long as it's not an actual restriction of actual flavours."

Loucas said the plan to reduce the maximum strength of nicotine salts in disposable vapes leaves her concerned reusable vape nicotine strengths will be reduced in the future.

"As long as it's quite specific that it's for the disposables, I'm OK with that," she said.

"High milligram disposable vapes can be a problem and if there's a way to mitigate that harm I wouldn't have a problem with that, as long as we're not severely restricting access and choice for adults."

The disposable maximum nicotine strength reduction is a turnaround from when Verall told Fair Go in August she had no plans to review vape strengths after the programme found several vape shops prepared to sell products to underage teenagers.

"We need to continue supporting people who smoke tobacco to successfully switch to less harmful products. Reducing nicotine levels in vaping products may hinder this,” Verrall stated to Fair Go at the time.

In December, after further questioning from Fair Go about labelling and nicotine concentrations, a review by the Vaping Regulatory Authority found some products contained too much nicotine.

More on this topic

Smoking falls to lowest rate ever, but vaping's on the rise

New Zealand now has one of the lowest smoking rates in the world, Action for Smokefree 2025 says.

Health

November 17, 2022

1:38

Govt sends out urgent nationwide alert on vaping products

Official notices have gone out to retailers and manufacturers to immediately check products and potentially pull some off shelves.

Health

October 27, 2022

2:37

Thousands of vaping products reviewed for safety

It comes after the Government sent out an urgent nationwide safety alert on some vape products last week.

Health

November 4, 2022

Over 300 products have since been taken off shelves, while a further 1800 are under review.

Consultation on the proposed measures for the Smoked Tobacco Regulatory Regime closes on March 15.