Regulators’ attempts to create a smoke-free New Zealand
have allowed vaping to emerge as a public health threat
which has now reached “epidemic” levels among youth, an
anaesthesia conference has been told.
Taranaki-based
anaesthetist Dr Trent Cutts was speaking at the Aotearoa NZ
Anaesthesia ASM 2023 in Dunedin, and said the health sector
was only now recognising the emerging threat of a
low-regulation environment on vaping uptake.
“It’s
a push fuelled by recognition that our youth or rangatahi,
in New Zealand haven’t been considered enough in the
strategy to make Aotearoa smoke-free.
“There’s now
without question a youth vaping epidemic around the world
but particularly in New Zealand.”
Dr Cutts
highlighted differences between New Zealand and Australia,
which he said employed some of the strictest vaping
regulations in the world.
In particular, the two
countries took different approaches to vaping
promotion.
“In Australia, vaping nicotine liquid is
by doctor’s prescription only and it’s illegal to
possess any vaping product without a prescription – and
the messaging from Australian health authorities is really
heavy on the warnings.
“And then there’s New
Zealand where we’ve fully embraced vaping as a smoking
cessation tool and it’s been actively promoted. Devices
are freely available and up until recently there’s been
few restrictions on flavours and nicotine
strengths.
“The World Health Organization released a
report that among other things looked at how different
countries around the world were affected by vaping.
Alarmingly, they singled out New Zealand as the country that
has shown clear increase in use of nicotine and non-nicotine
vaping products.”
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Data also showed New Zealand
teenagers were not getting their vapes from specialist vape
stores but from dairies, and were predominantly using
products with high nicotine concentrations.
The main
clinical evidence of the health impacts of vaping showed
negative effects on respiratory and cardiovascular
health.
Additionally, there was an “unrecognised
epidemic of trauma and burns” associated with
malfunctioning vapes, mainly related to their batteries.
Heating coils in vaping devices were a possible source of
heavy metals and the composition of flavours was also of
concern.
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