Tobacco and Vaping

Tobacco use causes 9.9% of premature death and disability in Aotearoa/New Zealand

15% of 15-17-year-olds vape daily

Aotearoa can be a Smokefree country, free from the harms of tobacco and the health inequity it brings.

We can be a country where vaping is effectively regulated and used only by people who are trying to quit smoking.

Health Coalition Aotearoa is committed to fulfilling this vision.

Tobacco use continues to take a catastrophic toll on New Zealanders resulting in disease and early death, while a growing number of young people are addicted to vaping.

New Zealand led the world in tobacco control with Smokefree 2025 (a goal of achieving less than 5% of smoking prevalence across all population groups).

We will only achieve this with the implementation of the 2022 Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment.

Greater regulations of the vaping sector are urgently needed to protect youth and never smokers from nicotine addiction.

Key facts

Tobacco:

Tobacco use and second-hand smoke causes about 5,000 premature deaths every year from cancer, chronic lung disease, stroke and heart disease.
6.8% (284,000) of Aotearoa/New Zealand adults smoke daily –equivalent to the populations of Wellington and Napier combined.
Māori are disproportionately harmed by smoking, with daily smoking rates (17.1%) – almost three times higher than New Zealand/European (6.1%).
One in four (22.6%) deaths among Māori are attributable to smoking compared to one in eight (12.3%) for non-Māori and non-Pacific people.

Vaping:

Vapes are not approved by Medsafe NZ as a cessation tool and come with known and unknown physical, social, and cultural harms.
Research to date suggests vaping is less harmful than smoked tobacco and some people who smoke switch to vaping to quit smoking.
Vaping among youth is increasing - 15% of 15-17-year-olds vape daily (New Zealand Health Survey 2022-2023) – double that of the previous year.
Many young people who vape have never smoked

About 7.3% of pregnant women are smokers, and smoking during and after pregnancy is the leading cause of Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy (SUDI)

Where should we be heading?

There are international and national goals to reduce tobacco and vaping harm:

Aotearoa’s Smokefree goal is that by 2025, smoking rates for all population groups will be less than 5%.

WHO issued a call to action on vapes in December, 2023 for “urgent and strong decisive action to prevent uptake of e-cigarettes… should be taken to protect children, as well as non-smokers”.

Reducing tobacco and vaping harm

These actions will help Aotearoa become Smokefree and effectively manage vaping:

Tobacco

The 2022 Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Act (SERPA) will bring substantial, rapid and equitable declines in smoking, and all of its measures must be fully implemented.
The Smokefree Generation – a measure to stop children and young people from ever smoking will protect future generations from smoking related harm.
Making it easier to quit and harder to become addicted by only having low-level nicotine smoked tobacco products (denicotisation) for sale and restricting product design features that increase their appeal and addictiveness.
Reducing the number of tobacco retailers by 90% will make tobacco less available. This will encourage more people to quit and prevent relapses.
Increase the capacity of Māori-led, whānau-centred and culturally appropriate cessation services.

Vaping

HCA advocacy on tobacco and vaping control is informed by a Smokefree Expert Advisory Panel whose members are leaders in tobacco control research and practice.

For more information on a Smokefree Aotearoa and research on tobacco visit: Cancer Society, Hāpai Te Hauora, and ASPIRE Aotearoa, and The National Institute for Health Innovation (NIHI)