Increase in Youth Vaping and Labour's Proposed Restrictions w/ Janet Haok and Leitu Tufunga: August 28th, 2023

This week for Tomorrow’s world we’re focusing on health issues as we get closer to the election, more specifically the increase of youth vaping in Aotearoa.

The Ministry of Health, in their most recent statistics, found that 1 in 12 people over the age of 15 are vaping daily. In response to this, Labour released a set of proposed policies last week to tighten the rules around vaping. This includes restricting vape shops to 600 worldwide, increasing fines up to 15,000 dollars for retailers that sell to youth and making vape products less visible in shops. 

Rawan spoke with Otago public health professor Janet Hoek about the current and potential health impacts of youth vaping, the efficiency of Labour’s proposed policies and what more we need to do.

Rawan also spoke with Leitu Tufunga, the chair of Health Coalition Aotearoa’s smoke free expert advisory group. They discussed  current community concerns around youth vaping, especially tactics that are being used to encourage vaping in youth culture. Leitu also talked about how labour’s policies will work and why the Health coalition is in support of stricter rules.