95bFM Are changes to vaping devices enough to target youth vaping statistics?
6 January, 2025
Interview by Sasha Mengazetdinov, adapted by Yesenia Pineda
CEO of the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation NZ, Letitia Harding, says that despite a significant decrease in youth vaping according to a recent study, more can be done to target youth vaping statistics.
The government has made changes to all vaping devices, such as ensuring vaping products have removable batteries and child safety mechanisms.
These changes follow the recent New Zealand youth vaping survey, conducted by the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation New Zealand (ARFNZ), Secondary Principals’ Association New Zealand (SPANZ), and New Zealand Association Of Intermediate Middle Schooling (NZAIMS), that show youth vaping rates have decreased by 50% in the past three years.
However, the survey shows youth vaping statistics have increased within older students, with 20% of year 12s and 26% of year 13s reporting having vaped in the past week, as opposed to 2021 statistics, which show 17% of year 12 and 13s have vaped in the same period.
CEO of the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation New Zealand, Letitia Harding, told 95bFM’s The Wire that despite the government’s changing to vaping devices, there are other ways to further decrease vaping statistics in young people.
“If we can reduce the nicotine content [and] if we can reduce the advertising [of vaping products], so [young people cannot look in] storefront windows and see all these shiny, amazing products, or go into just general retailers like dairies or petrol stations and see [vaping products] advertised as well; then we hope that that will have an impact.”
Harding says the organisation has been calling for stricter regulations to the amount of nicotine that can be available in vapes, wanting the country to cap the limit to 20 milligrams per millilitre — in line with restrictions the EU has implemented.
“[This] will be really important to reduce the addictive nature of the nicotine in them,” she says.
Harding acknowledges Aotearoa’s education around the implications of smoking cigarettes but says further education is needed for vaping, especially for younger people.
“We know there are younger students; year seven and eight, who are trying these products.”
“Close to 4% of our year sevens who have vaped in the last seven days is warranted for concern — you are talking about kids who are only 11 [and] 12 years old.”
She says it is important to care for those who have already “fallen through the cracks”.
“At this stage, what we need to do is support our kids; our rangatahi who are actually addicted to these products already.”
