Regular vaping among Northland year 10 students almost doubled from 2019 to 2021. Photo / Tania Whyte
Regular vaping among Northland year 10 students almost doubled from 2019 to 2021. Photo / Tania Whyte
The percentage of young Northlanders vaping daily has increased almost fourfold in the last two years, and the experts say it's down to Covid-19.
On one hand, the public health staff responsible for the health promotions or law enforcement with vaping retailers have been deployed into Covid-19 contact tracing roles,and a significant increase in the number of vaping stores on the other has pushed Northland youth closer to vaping.
The latest ASH (Action for Smokefree 2025) Year 10 Snapshot Survey on vaping and smoking reveals the percentage of 14 and 15-year-old school-going Northland students vaping daily has jumped from 3.4 per cent in 2019 to 13.8 per cent in 2021.
The percentage reflected the 1408 Northland students who took part in the ASH survey.
The national increase during the same period was from 3.1 per cent to 9.6 per cent.
Ngā Tai Ora – Public Health Northland's smoke-free adviser Bridget Rowse blames the increase of vaping retailers and the lack of education around the harmful effects of vaping.
"A lot of students do not know whether there is nicotine in their vapes.
"Most are available at petrol stations or dairies. Most of them do contain nicotine."
Rowse said vaping was potentially more harmful than smoking a cigarette since vaping did not have a natural end.
"One cigarette is equivalent to four puffs of vaping, whereas these kids are puffing away so frequently they are actually getting more nicotine in their system than they would if they smoked a cigarette."
World Smokefree May led up to the celebration of World Smokefree Day today.
Rowse said while the Government was working towards the 2025 Smokefree Action Plan to reduce the density of smoking retailers, similar work should be done for vaping retailers.
Young kids were getting addicted to vaping, while many parents had no clue because of the size and shape of the pods, said Rowse.
"...some of these pods do not even have a big smoke coming out of them."
Rowse said some of the behavioural problems in schools were also linked to vaping.
"The kids are acting up because they are going through nicotine withdrawal, but people are putting it down to 'oh, they are just teenagers and acting naughty'."
With regards to smoking tobacco, the percentage of young Northland smokers remained consistent at 3.6 per cent in 2019 and 2021, while the national average percentage declined from 2.1 to 1.3 respectively.
Ngā Tai Ora - Public Health Northland's smoke-free adviser Bridget Rowse says nothing has been done in the vaping space in the last two years. Photo / John Stone
The high rate of smoking tobacco was because of a large proportion of Northlanders coming from low socioeconomic backgrounds, especially Māori, said Rowse.
"That is why we have the high tobacco rates, which is also reflected in other areas with similar demographics such as Tairāwhiti."
However, when it came to vaping, Rowse said they found more children from an educated background taking it up.
The Smokefree 2025 Action Plan consultation will be open by the end of next month. Rowse said if people wanted to see changes to vaping they should have a say during the consultation process.
