(Photo from Mayo Clinic)
An FYI
As new leaders come to the table and negotiate, do deals etc, they will talk about and justify pet interests and differences, Nat - incl. tax in foreign investment, ACT incl. the Waitangi Treaty referendum NZ First incl. Covid enquiry (he mentioned this morning). Hopefully they won't lose sight of their claims and primary roles to work together and govern well on health, education etc.
Vaping, the current epidemic in New Zealand, must be a priority! not the can kicked down the road as unavoidable or excusable where our youngsters just have to be sacrificed to a bigger cause, as the argument has been in essence and still is, with criminal lies, no support for vape addicts etc.
It can still be one of the strategies for quitting smoking, but not by drenching every NZ community in vape marketing and outlets.
So - this was sent to the 3 parties' heads, the Director of Health and the media:
Warning - please excuse the inevitable repetition here of concepts about which you already have heard much.
Also, it is recognised that not all signers would agree to all of this of course eg activity number 7.
I am not an authority in these areas, eg of addiction, but do from my career have experience in sourcing most reputable and current resources and data in health matters.
Dear Future Leaders
You three can, as mentioned, follow the UK as Labour has done, ensuring an increase in intensity of the vaping epidemic in New Zealand. The tsunami of health, social and economic problems from vaping has begun.
Or, save lives of young and old, smokers, vapers and let the rest of us sigh with relief..
This email is perhaps helpful for getting further clarity on what to do. There is some inevitable repetition of previous information provided.
Respiratory disease costs New Zealand an estimated 7 billion dollars per year (1). Vaping is particularly a risk for respiratory disease (2), but also affects the cardiovascular system and has been shown to impair brain function and development (3).
The 2021 statistic of one in five school children who vape daily (3) will be considerably worse now. eg School 'stand downs' due to vaping increased 300% between 2019 and 2022, 447% in Wellington (4).
As stated previously in communications, the American Cancer Society and FDA consider vaping too hazardous to be used even as a tool to quit tobacco smoking (5). Dr Bryan Betty, chair of GPNZ, states they must be only pharmacy-available (6).
(Many more references and more specific scientific peer-reviewed papers can be provided if required for each pathology issue above.)
So, vaping is a huge costly 'elephant in the room' problem.
What to do? The Australian model? The Asthma and Respiratory Foundation are calling for that including dedicated 'quit vaping services' (7).
(As the search in the last update of the 'Ban vape shops' petition revealed, and presented in the earlier email below, NZ does not currently have a 'quit vaping service'.)
National know the acute problems but said they will see what the Australian protocol effects are there. This would be great if we were talking about something like options for a child's play area (But) this is urgent, serious, and needs an urgent serious response now.
As said before, NZ has followed the UK, with the NZ Dept of Public Health quoting almost word for word UK government 'dogma', which also resembles some of that touted by 'big vape', including Philip Morris, and also VIANZ (vaping industry assoc NZ), that extreme vape marketing is necessary for countering tobacco smoking. The Te Whatu Ora simple one sentence description of vaping as 'a way of getting nicotine without the toxins that are made by burning tobacco' infers they are fine, and it is typical of the criminally misleading messaging, and misinformation, presumably to encourage vaping.
Simple answer to above question: deal with the nicotine addiction while reducing vape visibility.
Longer answer, undertake the following.
The 7 activities needed, ideally concurrently, but all within first 100 days (activity 7 may be the last).
Activity 1. large media campaign advising public of risks of BOTH tobacco and vapes. It should describe what a vape contains re nicotine, water, flavouring, other chemicals for delivery of nicotine along the long branching delicate pathways to millions of tiny air sacs etc, what lung inflammation is and some of the irreversible conditions a vaper is at risk of, what lung function change means for the patient's quality and length of life, the effects of nicotine on the brain, the environmental impact of vapes etc
Activity 2. Large media campaign about addiction to vapes and nicotine, how to quit
Activity 3. Establish vape and nicotine quitting services (see previously, the description of the lack! of this in NZ.
Some links to useful resources for this and for the activities 1 and 2 are in the links in the prev email added below
Activity 4. Close SVRs and all other vape retail outlets (except for pharmacies).
Activity 5. Put vapes (3 flavours only) in pharmacies only, with no visible advertising, with R18 regs.
Activity 6. Put vapes in plain packaging with health warnings.
Activity 7. Make vapes prescription only, with vape-related GP consults free or subsidised.
(Activity 8. Given the toxicity of vapes, ban them, only allowing other nicotine delivery products eg gum, patches)
1.https://www.asthmafoundation.org.nz/research/key-statistics
2. https://www.lung.org/quit-smoking/e-cigarettes-vaping/impact-of-e-cigarettes-on-lung
4. https://www.asthmafoundation.org.nz/news-events/2023/vapings-clouded-future-as-election-looms
7.https://www.asthmafoundation.org.nz/news-events/2023/make-vaping-a-priority-call-to-new-government
Kind regards
Mary MacGibbon
(address and contact details below)
Previous message sent 2 days ago:
Dear All
A simple online search revealed this - see link below.
The NZ government is currently acting as if at the bidding of Philip Morris, other vape corporations and vape dealers, like the UK which also has a massive youth vaping epidemic.It gets 15% off each deal.
It understates risks to the public.
It does not provide online advice or help for those trying to quit.
Colourful specialty vape retail shops (SVRs) are through all the shopping centres and vapes can legally be sold and colourfully displayed by any vape retailer (see photo below) and these are all a constant reminder for those trying to quit
A youth vaping addiction epidemic is raging through New Zealand, placing each vaper at risk of respiratory, oral, cardiovascular and other system disorders, setting up a future 'tsunami of health problems'.
NZ government departments know of the problems, do a collective wringing of hands, concede that vaping is rife, but are not reducing visibility of the thousands of SVRs, not advising of the real risks etc etc. The messaging is that vapes are not totally harmless, although what the harm is is not described, and is how vapes are much better than tobacco cigarettes (see previous email from me in this re implication that they do not contain toxins.)
!!!????
Is this misinformation and great visibility all justified by helping tobacco smokers quit??, a 'reasonable balance'. Absolutely not! Vapes can be available but out of the public eye, as cigarettes are. SVRs should be closed immediately. A major advertising campaign of information about vaping risks and how to quit vapes should be undertaken immediately, and vapes put in plain packaging with health warnings and into pharmacies. The public should be told in clear layperson language what the clinical respiratory specialists are deeply worried about, and about nicotine addiction, and how to quit both cigarettes and vapes. Listen to the Chair of GPNZ (General Practice NZ), Dr Bryan Betty as in this :
(link was provided)
The current misinformation and vape availability is criminal.
The link below to the petition provides more detail and references.
Kind regards
Mary MacGibbon (PhD)
The last 2 updates were added, with their refs etc.