Source: Radio New Zealand
The number of teenagers who vape on a daily basis has dropped to 7.1 percent, down from “peak vape” of 10.1 percent in 2022. 123RF
A survey of more than 30,000 of New Zealand’s Year 10 students has indicated that the perception of vaping is changing.
The number of teenagers who vaped regularly – once a month or more – had tripled between 2019 and 2021, peaking at 20.2 percent.
But the latest Action on Smoking and Health survey has found that number has halved since then.
“Vaping is not as cool as it used to be,” chairperson Emeritus Professor Robert Beaglehole told RNZ.
The number of teenagers who vape on a daily basis has also dropped to 7.1 percent, down from “peak vape” of 10.1 percent in 2022.
Fewer than a third had ever tried vaping too, Beaglehole said, “which is great news”.
He believed regulation had also made an impact – vaping products were widely available for teenagers until 2020, when the government banned the sale to those under 18 – but feared that overregulation could push people back to smoking.
“Vaping helps adult smokers quit and is much, much less harmful than smoking.”
Beaglehole said the country was raising a smoke-free generation, with a “negligible” number – about 1 percent – of young people smoking on a daily basis since 2021.
“This is a major global success which we should be celebrating … we are leading the way.
“Youth smoking has almost disappeared, and vaping continues to fall.”
However, Beaglehole has called for more to be done to address the vaping rates for rangatahi Māori.
There was a significant decrease within the last year, he said, but 16.5 percent of Māori teenagers still vaped on a daily basis.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand