‘You can smell it when you’re approaching the bathroom’: Concern as vaping on the rise in schools

Daily vaping use was highest among 18–24 years at 22.9 per cent, Māori at 17.6 per cent and Pacific people at 16.8 per cent. Photo / Bevan Conley

There are concerns about students vaping at high schools around the region, as the number of young people taking up the vape nationally is on the up.

An Action for Smokefree 2025 survey showed regular vaping rates among Year 10 pupils almost doubled from 12 per cent in 2019 to 20.2 per cent in 2021.

Whanganui Girls’ college principal Nita Pond said it was definitely prevalent in the school.

“It is something all secondary schools are aware of, and it’s a huge concern,” Pond said.

She said education was key for parents and students.

“Students know we’ve taken a hard line and have a stand-down process if students are caught vaping on site.

“Obviously, it’s illegal, and it’s considered part of the drug and alcohol section.”

She said when the students returned from being stood down staff would have a hui with them and their whānau about how to best support them.

A Whanganui Girls’ College student who did not want to be named said many students vaped in the school bathroom every day.

“You can smell it when you’re approaching the bathroom.”

She said kids of all years would vape, starting from Year 9.

“It’s weird, you walk past a group of gangsters and they smell like strawberry.”

She said she didn’t see students smoking cigarettes at school.

“I think people do smoke but just not at school because it’s easier to get caught.”

The New Zealand Health Survey 2021-22 showed daily smoking among adults is at 8 per cent, down from 9.4 per cent the previous year and 16.4 per cent in 2011-12.

Whanganui Girls' College principal Nita Pond said vaping was definitely prevalent in the school. Photo / Bevan Conley

The recent survey also showed 8.3 per cent of adults were daily vapers, up from 6.2 per cent the previous year and 0.9 per cent in 2015-16.

Daily vaping use was highest among 18–24 years at 22.9 per cent, Māori at 17.6 per cent and Pacific people at 16.8 per cent.

“No one is advocating vaping as a long-term behaviour, but as a means to stop smoking,” Whanganui Stop Smoking Service _ Ngā Taura Tūhono manager Dr John McMenamin said.

Another high school student who did not want to be named said there was a sort of “black market” for vaping at their school.

“They sell vape juice and new vape pods and make money off it,” he said.

Sometimes the money was for their families, he said.

The student said on a sunny day there would be big groups on the school field vaping.

“And last week I went past a Year 7 from another school vaping.”

McMenamin said the work done in the stop smoking space had been effective.

“Any smoking is dangerous and around 5000 people die from smoking every year in New Zealand,” McMenamin said.

He said “vaping to quit” was a strategy the service used to reduce smoking.

Vaping has been shown to be even more successful at helping smokers quit than traditional nicotine replacement therapy, McMenamin said.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s smoking or vaping, they’re both highly addictive and it’s hard to stop.”

He said everyone is concerned about the increasing uptake of vaping among young people.

“The good news is smoking in young people is at an all-time low, but the problem is vaping is increasing.”

McMenamin said there needed to be more regulations on vaping.

“Public health measures to prevent young people from having access to cigarettes have been very effective, and it’s reasonable to expect we will be able to considerably impact young people’s access to vaping by using regulatory approaches.”

He said it wouldn’t completely solve the problem as people still had access in other places, but it would help.

A student’s mum said it was all about cigarette smoking when she was in school.

“The difference is you can smell cigarettes from a mile away, but vaping just smells like body spray or scented candles so it’s really easy to conceal.

“There are also no butts to pick up, lighters lying around, and they smell pretty nice.”

She said it was vastly different to when she was younger.

“Ten years ago a 30g Port Royal pouch cost me $20, now it’s $75. I can’t afford that,” she said. “Now I buy two vape juices a week for $20.”

She said vaping was designed for smokers to stop smoking but now kids who had never smoked before were taking it up.

Asthma and Respiratory Foundation NZ chief executive Letitia Harding said there were now more specialist vaping retailers than community pharmacies throughout New Zealand. Photo / Supplied

The Asthma and Respiratory Foundation of New Zealand said the Ministry of Health was not striking the right balance between protecting young people from the harms of vaping, but also making the products available for current smokers to use to quit smoking.

“The foundation is concerned by recent comments from the Ministry of Health revealing it has no plan to cap the growing number of specialist vape retailers or to reduce the nicotine levels allowed in vapes,” Asthma and Respiratory Foundation NZ chief executive Letitia Harding said.

“We now have more specialist vaping retailers than community pharmacies throughout New Zealand, meaning these products continue to be widely accessible and visible to our young people.”

She said there were 1063 specialist vape retailers now across New Zealand, an almost doubling of the 666 stores there were in February.

“The other issue of concern to the foundation is the ministry’s statement that it had no plans to decrease the nicotine limit in vape products, despite New Zealand’s limit of 50mg being significantly higher than the EU’s limit of 20mg.”