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The Ministry of Health is not striking the right balance
between protecting young people from the harms of vaping and
making vapes available for current smokers to use as a quit
smoking tool says the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation of
New Zealand.
The Foundation is concerned by recent
comments from the Ministry of Health which reveal it has no
plans to cap the number of specialist vape retailers or to
reduce the nicotine levels allowed in vapes.
“We were
very disappointed to read in a recent public statement from
the Ministry of Health that there is no plan to halt the
growing number of specialist vaping retailers. With 1063 of
these retailers now around New Zealand, up from 666 in
February this year, the rapid proliferation of vaping stores
in our communities is obvious. We now have more specialist
vaping retailers than community pharmacies throughout New
Zealand, meaning these products continue to be widely
accessible and visible to our young people.” Ms Harding
says.
The other issue of concern to the Foundation is
the Ministry’s statement that it had no plans to decrease
the nicotine limit in vape products, despite New Zealand’s
limit being significantly higher (50mg) than the EU (20mg).
Ms Harding points out that this seems to contradict what
Associate Minister of Health Ayesha Verrall said in an
interview last month.
In the interview, with TV
One’s Breakfast programme, the Minister said: ‘…when
we reduce the nicotine in cigarettes, which is what the
Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Amendment Bill
will do, then at that point it wouldn’t be right to keep
the level of nicotine in vapes as high. So, there will be a
point at which we will need to adjust that too
‘.
However, in its recent statement, the Ministry
continued to argue that higher nicotine concentrations are
needed for vapes to be a successful smoking cessation tool.
The Foundation disputes this claim and points out that 50mg
is a particularly high level of nicotine. For comparison, an
average pack of cigarettes has between 22 to 36mg of
nicotine.
“The maximum level does not need to be this
high, and concerningly, as recent media reports have shown,
the levels in some products could have been even higher due
to confusion over labelling rules,” Ms Harding points
out.
Ms Harding says that while the Ministry’s
recent youth education campaign about vaping harms is a
welcome development, it needs to go hand in hand with
reducing the availability and addictiveness of vapes to
truly protect our rangatahi.
“The Ministry needs only
to talk to parents, schools or young people around the
country to realise that the current vaping regulations are
inadequate and failing to protect young New Zealanders from
harm,” she
says.
© Scoop Media
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