Fewer teens vaping, but concern remains for children as young as 10

A new survey shows the numbers of teens taking up vaping is dropping - but advocates say older students are falling through the gaps.

The Asthma and Respiratory Foundation has surveyed nearly 11,000 intermediate and high school students about vaping.

The survey shows that on a given week this year, 12 percent of young people aged 10 to 18 vaped, down from 27 percent in 2021.

The Foundation's Chief Executive, Letitia Harding, said that it showed regulation and education have had an impact - but the number of young people vaping was not zero yet, and younger students were still being exposed.

About 3.7 percent of year 7 students surveyed - aged between 10 and 12 - said they had vaped in the last week.

"That's quite a high number for a group that should be getting nowhere near vaping products. That is of concern, and even year 9 to 11, almost 9 percent are vaping in the last seven days," Harding said.

"Some of these younger students are accessing these products, and that's something we need to be concerned about and keep that education up on."

Meanwhile, the number of older students vaping was still rising - with 20 percent of year 12 students, and 26 percent of year 13 - aged between 15 and 18 - reporting vaping in the last week.

That's up 3 percent percent for year 12s, and 13 percent for year 13s, compared with 2021.

Harding said those students were exposed to vaping before it become illegal for under-18s to purchase in 2020.

"We've got a group here of young teens who look like they are addicted to nicotine, and when we hear sad stories of these teenagers waking in the middle of the night to vape, that they feel themselves they are addicted to vapes, then we need to be really having a focused support to help them quit vaping."

Of the students who said they had vaped in the last week, nearly half reported they felt addicted to vaping and that it had negative effects on their health.

Marnie Wilton, a co-founder of Vape Free Kids, said the survey showed some improvements, but it was not all good news.

"The increase in year 12s and 13s [vaping], the fact that students are waking up in the night having to vape, and that the levels of nicotine that our students are using is really high."

She said it also cast light on inequality - the number of Māori students vaping every week was almost twice that of Pākehā.

Wilton said the government needed to make good on a promise to crack down on the thousands of vape stores in New Zealand, and limit it to 600.

"I drive past three vape stores on the way to my kid's school to drop them off in the morning. I know the parents in our group who are struggling with their children who are addicted to vaping tell us the same thing over and over again: reduce the number of stores."

Associate Minister for Health Casey Costello said the government's smoke-free environment bill will crack down on youth vaping, by increasing the fines for sales to under 18-year-olds, banning disposable vapes and limiting how close new stores could be to early childhood education centres.

She said it will help reduce the number of young people exposed to vapes - but she admitted the government was playing catch-up on addiction.

"There was nothing in place until sort of 2021, so we [are] really behind the eight ball."

"There is some programs that already exist about helping to quit vaping - like we've done a lot of work in the quit smoking, but there hasn't [been] a lot. There is some stuff available, but we do need to grow that capacity to deal with nicotine addiction and get people away from vaping."

Costello said vapes are still less harmful than smoking.

"Vaping is about 5 percent of the level of harm of smoking. By no means am I suggesting you vape, but our young people aren't smoking.

"If you look at the Health Survey results, we're under the 5 percent threshold for under 24-year-olds."

Costello said she is working on regulating all controlled products with a consistent approach.

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