(photo image from Unsplash+)
1. NZ First 2023 Policies - vaping
This online Policies document has one heading 'A healthier New Zealand' and a sub-title 'GPs know best what their patients' needs are', while its vaping policy supports neither regarding our vaping epidemic.
Check this out - scroll about 2/3 down to 'vaping'.
https://www.nzfirst.nz/2023_policies
NZ First is wanting to do the opposite overall to the advice of the Head of GPNZ, the US FDA, the American Cancer Society.
NZ First robustly supports vaping, is cancelling subsidies for the safer nicotine delivery products like gum and lozenges, and has no policies for supporting quitting vapes or nicotine.
It is however strangely suppporting one NRT product, Snus (i.) a tobacco product placed between the lip and the gum for extended periods, and is banned in Australia, NZ, all EU countries except Sweden, where it originated but allowed in the US.
A systematic review of its use, published in July in the International Journal of Cancer, concluded it is carcinogenic. (ii.)
i. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snus
ii.https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ijc.34643
Nicotine is mentioned once in a heading but not in any strategy.
As said, it very much endorses vaping, and
there is no mention of quitting services for vaping or nicotine addiction.
NZ First are wanting to axe Labour's tobacco outlet reduction and low nicotine tobacco, and the 2024 tobacco excise.
Overall, it seems NZ First also need to look to reputable clinical authorities and 'the science' as well as listening to what is happening with youth vaping in New Zealand.
2. Propylene glycol
This is the chemical in all vapes, added to make an aerosol to carry chemicals in the lungs, through the millions of tiny tubes to the air sacs. It causes inflammation and damage in these tubes.
Some of the studies:
Propylene glycol, a component of electronic cigarette liquid, damages epithelial cells in human small airways | Respiratory Research | Full Text
https://respiratory-research.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12931-022-02142-2
Effects of Electronic Cigarette Constituents on the Human Lung: A Pilot Clinical Trial | Cancer Prevention Research | American Association for Cancer Research
3. A Vaping Facts sheet - a reliable one - from one of the top US hospitals, the Cleveland Clinic
(Clear and thorough with their quitting advice, supplied in a previous update.)
Vaping (E-Cigarettes): What It Is, Side Effects & Dangers
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/21162-vaping
and NZ resources! : (supplied previously)
https://vapingfacts.health.nz/the-facts-of-vaping/what-is-vaping/
and
Quit: Vaping
https://quit.org.nz/vaping#vaping
Quitline - video jokes about scaremongering regarding popcorn lung, which is rare - doesn't refer to the other more common pathology.