Added 27 November

New government, new policies..

See latest update about the extraordinary admission by the new finance minister to using an estimated billion dollars revenue from high ongoing tobacco addiction to pay for tax cuts. 

Clearly no programme, let alone a greatly needed campaign, is planned to assist all the New Zealanders addicted to nicotine or vaping to quit. The opposite is in play.

The current quitting programmes just encourage tobacco users to switch to vaping, with no support for vape or nicotine quitting. Big tobacco/vape corps are happy with this as they sell both, and the government makes money from both too unless you factor in enormous health costs when it all stops making sense, economic or otherwise.

Added 20 November

In the last fortnight some of the gov messaging has changed to  vaping is 'with fewer toxins'. 

Still there is

• no clear message of risks • no govt programmes to quit vaping or quit nicotine   • weak referendum allowing any retailer to display and sell vapes (that is you or me if we are selling something else) etc

So, there is still assured increase in vaping in NZ, increase in harm, increase in costs, terrible increase in children and adults addicted to nicotine, huge profits for 'big tobacco' like Phillip Morris..

Govt must, or otherwise betray us all, do a major campaign now, tell NZ the truth about vaping as well as tobacco, create nicotine cessation programmes, move vapes out of public view into plain packaging etc etc It isn't rocket science!

Stop talking nonsense about 'waiting for evidence' or without the vaping displays or the lies, understating vaping risks, that everyone will smoke cigarettes..

Update 7 November

Online government information about vapes is still criminally understating risks, with the main messaging stating the benefits of vaping compared with tobacco smoking and just that it is not harmless. (Risks are only described in the later 'small print' refs)

Eg Under what is vaping: 'Vaping gives you nicotine without the toxins that are made by burning tobacco.'

This obviously implies vaping does not involve toxins. (see petition update with photo of this site.)

Added 12 October "..." due to Ministry of Health site change.

"It no longer states, as quoted below in the petition, the 'unlikely to cause harm' comment.

It now states 'There is general agreement that electronic cigarette use exposes the user to fewer toxicants and at lower levels than  smoking cigarettes'.

This is still potentially inaccurate given all the constituents in vapes, although correct re tar and carbon monoxide, and the heading is still not stating that these 'put the health of the user at risk'. As it stands it is just a positive about vapes, and the heading could be interpreted as stating that vapes are not a problem healthwise. 

It then does include, at the time of writing this, 4 references, two of which contain reasonably accurate material about risks, even if in one it is embedded on page 218 of a 240 page article unlikely to be read by many, so an inappropriate choice. One of the 4, a more accessible one, is seriously misleading to a layperson.

There is later a general statement advising against taking up vaping if a non-smoker, so some very mild concession to harm.

The government has made a minor change, redressing a little, but is still not providing a clear message to the public regarding the health risks of regular vaping."

(An earlier addition to the original petition:           "Referring to inhaled substances the NZ Ministry of Health vaping advice states the toxicants are at 'levels unlikely to cause harm'. This is the opposite to that of the American Lung Association and the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, that 'using e-cigarettes causes health risks' referring to the same toxicants at levels in vaping. https://www.lung.org/quit-smoking/e-cigarettes-vaping/impact-of-e-cigarettes-on-lung ")

Original petition:

The health and lives of young New Zealanders are now at risk due to their increasing addiction to vaping. The weak legal amendment to the smoking Act simply and effectively supports the vape industry. 

Vaping is smoking. It is inhalation deep into the delicate respiratory system of a heated vapour containing hazardous chemicals*. The marketing and access of vape products, including under the planned amendment, breach the essence of the 'Smokefree Environment and Regulated Products Act'.  

As a therapy for smoking addiction it should be available in pharmacies, not in the attractive packaging, outlets and flavours encouraging vulnerable children and adolescents, our tamariki and rangatahi, to start vaping.

We request the NZ government promptly exercises a proper duty of care, with regulations matching the stated intent, that the sale of vape products in New Zealand is permitted only as a measure to stop cigarette smoking.

*The American Lung Association advises that the following toxic substances have been found in e-cigarette vapour

Nicotine - a highly addictive substance that affects adolescent brain development

Propylene glycol - a common additive in food and used to make products like paint solvents, antifreeze, artificial smoke in fog machines

Carcinogens - substances known to cause cancer, here including formaldehyde and acetaldehyde

Acrolein - a herbicide primarily used to kill weeds and can cause irreversible lung damage

Diacetyl - a chemical linked to a lung disease called bronchiolitis obliterans, aka 'popcorn lung'

Diethylene glycol - a toxic chemical used in antifreeze and linked to lung disease

Heavy metals such as nickel, tin and lead

Cadmium - a toxic chemical found in traditional cigarettes and which causes breathing problems and disease

Benzene - a volatile organic chemical (VOC) found in car exhaust

Ultrafine particles that can be inhaled deep into the lungs

*https://www.lung.org/quit-smoking/e-cigarettes-vaping/whats-in-an-e-cigarette