Vape Park supervisor Matt Swinn says he and his partner will lose their jobs if there is a flavour ban. Photo / Stephan Parker
Vape Park supervisor Matt Swinn says he and his partner will lose their jobs if there is a flavour ban. Photo / Stephan Parker
Children as young as 11 using e-cigarettes have some calling for a restriction on flavours while others are worried about crippling the industry and leading people back to smoking.
Vapes, or e-cigarettes, are battery-powered and heat a flavoured e-juice to a vapour.
Associate Health Minister Jenny Salesa is currently workingthrough technicalities in the Smokefree Environments (Vaping) Amendment Bill.
The Bill will be introduced to Parliament shortly and will include regulation ability to restrict flavours which attract or appeal to young people and children.
Ministry of Health tobacco control acting manager Sally Stewart said proposals in the bill were designed to ensure vaping products were available to those who needed them, while protecting children and young people.
Associate Minister of Health Jenny Salesa. Photo / File
In September, New Zealand's director-general of health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, said the bill on vape regulation would limit flavours to tobacco, menthol and mint.
One vape shop employee said the change would have dire consequences for his household.
"Me and my partner will lose our jobs," said Rotorua Vape Park supervisor Matt Swinn, whose partner works at another vape shop. These were businesses from which customers could purchase hundreds of flavoured liquids.
He said the vaping industry would go under and some people who used vaping to quit smoking cigarettes would return to cigarettes.
"A lot of people will go back to smoking."
Swinn said only a few of his customers who used the device to quit smoking chose the tobacco flavour.
"Why not have a habit that's not killing you and have something that tastes nice at the same time?"
Rotorua Intermediate School Principal Garry de Thierry. Photo / File
He said limiting flavours would not stop children from finding or using vapes in the same way children previously accessed cigarettes.
Swinn agreed the industry needed regulating and said there needed to be manufacturing standards and regulations on the packaging.
Rotorua Intermediate School principal Garry de Thierry said there had been two incidents with students vaping earlier this year and both had been caught by teachers on duty.
The first was on the field and the second in the bathrooms where billowing smoke was a quick giveaway.
De Thierry said intermediate students were curious and, in both cases, one student brought the vape and told others about the flavouring, which sparked their interest.
Kaitao Intermediate School principal Phil Palfrey said although vaping could help people stop smoking, the flavours needed to be limited.
"It's going to be like cigarettes when people thought smoking was healthy."
He was surprised he had not seen any issues with vaping, but said the fact children were taking up vaping was "stupid", and the harm of putting something into their lungs was not worth it.
Kaitao Intermediate School principal Phil Palfrey supports the decision to restrict vape flavours. Photo / File
"Just go outside and kick a ball."
Dianne Dairy owner Sukhsit Singh said some children, aged 11 and 13, had approached him with a vape in their hand as they asked him for a refill.
When Singh said no, they told him they would pay him $15 extra for the liquid.
Dr Phil Shoemack, from Toi Te Ora Public Health, said there was evidence to suggest flavoured vapes, in particular, might help people quit smoking and vaping was a useful harm-reduction tool.
Dr Phil Shoemack, pictured at Rotorua Hospital, is the on-call medical officer of health at the Bay of Plenty's public health unit, Toi Te Ora, this week. 5 September 2019 Daily Post photograph by Ste
He said vapes needed to be regulated but it was up to the Government to decide what form such regulation should take.
Taxpayers' Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke said banning e-cigarettes would be "a massive own-goal for public health".
"Most vapers that quit smoking do so using flavoured e-cigarettes."
A petition to parliament to debate the proposal to restrict or ban flavours for nicotine e-liquid has 16,734 signatures after a month and a half.
Vaping to quit smoking
Ex-smoker Joe Fraser used a flavoured vape to quit smoking seven months ago and fears a ban on flavours would create a black market as people chase the sweet taste.
He said a restriction would hold deadly consequences for cigarette smokers and ex-smokers who now vaped.
Joe Fraser credits kicking his 25-year smoking habit to vaping. Photo / Stephen Parker
Fraser was a smoker for 25 years and, after multiple failed attempts at quitting, he took up vaping and has been off cigarettes for seven months. He said the flavours helped him make the switch from cigarettes.
Since then, his middle-of-the-night asthma attacks have stopped and he said he has more energy and strength in his daily life.
"I am sure a lot of people would not have gone to vaping if it wasn't for the variety of flavours."
Vape safety
• Intended for smokers only. • Not risk-free but it is safer than smoking. • Exposes users to fewer harmful chemicals than smoking cigarettes. • Ex-smokers should aim to stop vaping when they feel they will not relapse to smoking. • Buy vaping products from a reputable retailer. Do not risk vaping home-made or illicit products.
