More action on vaping needed

Greater action to reduce access to vapes for young people is needed the Paediatric Society of New Zealand/Te K ai Arotamariki o Aotearoa says.

“The society and my child health colleagues are extremely worried by the level of youth vaping in New Zealand,” Paediatrician Dr Colette Muir says.

“10.1% of Year 10’s in the ASH

Year 10 Snapshot survey are vaping daily.

“While the health policy intention regarding vaping was to reduce smoking it is now clear that vaping is causing significant harm to Aotearoa’s tamariki and rangitahi.

“More needs to be done to prevent youth who do not smoke taking up vaping in the first place.”

“The data shows the importance of trying to find a better balance between supporting people who smoke to move to less harmful options, while protecting young people who have never smoked from taking up vaping,” Dr Muir says.

“My Paediatric Society colleagues and other Child and Youth Health professionals are particularly concerned at the impacts of vaping such as when symptoms of nicotine withdrawal affects learning and behaviour.

“We are concerned that an alarming number of high school students are trying or taking up vaping because their friends do it and they’ve heard it’s safe and are curious. But your lungs are designed to breathe air, not smoke or vape.

“There is no safety data for e-cigarettes and there is evidence of harm.

“While the Vaping Amendment Act which came into force in November 2022, aims to make e-cigarettes less appealing and available to teens, we feel more needs to be done to prevent youth taking up e-cigarettes, particularly e-cigarettes that contain nicotine,” Dr Muir says.

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