A letter to the candidates - 'Why can your party not tell NZ about vape dangers?'
A letter I sent today to major candidates in my area. Subject: Why can your party not tell NZ about vape dangers?
You may like to send something similar to yours. It can take as little as a few minutes and may, if we all do it, save the lives of the vaping generation.
Now is the time to do this, and it merely takes some decent leaders to form an action group to drag NZ into the first world. Selling highly addictive toxic drugs to our youngsters unaware of the real risks and catering to big tobacco is not what any decent candidate would support.
' Dear Karuna, Craig, Julie-Anne, Kayla, Nicole and Gerald
You are asking to represent in government the electorate in which I live.
(Qiulae and Winston please forward to your respective candidates Kayla and Gerald, as I do not have the email address of either.)
Regarding the subject of this email, your party appears to have no intention to state clearly the risks of vaping, the major ones of which, as the following clearly demonstrates, have been known for years.
The US does, Australia does - as in this link, which is similar to the info of the Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic (2 of the most respected medical clinics in the world). We, criminally, do not.
Vapor Hiding Dangerous Ingredients: E-Cigarette Concoctions Are Far from Safe | American Lung Association
https://www.lung.org/blog/dangerous-vape-ingredients
All parties appear to be fine with our children remaining hooked and ignorant due to the following current scenario which none have promised to address
1. No proper support to quit, 2. Easy access and child-friendly flavours, and 3. Extreme promotion of vaping and not safer methods to quit tobacco, even though none of the above authorities do because it is so toxic, and 4. no clear statement of risk other than that of addiction to nicotine.
Mr Luxon just says it's great for quitting tobacco. It's an easy switch, but to another highly addictive inhaled product which is a great risk to lung health. Health insurance companies treat smoking and vaping the same in terms of risk to health.
All vapes present high risk to lung health due to the chemicals and heating involved in formation of the aerosol required to deliver nicotine to the lungds. The resulting mix and their concentrations are pro-inflammatory and carcinogenic.
The American Cancer Council said in 2019 that vaping is too toxic to adopt even as a tool to quit tobacco smoking.
Yet we, like the UK, are fine with attractive vape shops and other outlets near schools, and everything else which ensures our citizens and children keep hooked and vaping.
Paddy Gower last night only asked what Chris and Christopher thought about a sinking lid policy on vape oulets. Chris thought it a good idea, Christopher couldn't even agree to that.
Clearly neither major party is intent on addressing telling NZ the facts or any of the other 3 matters.
The Cleveland Clinic site is especially user-friendly and has excellent information on all these. A decent party would follow it.
As indicated, the smaller parties are not addressing this either.
Over 1/10th of NZ are regular vapers, and of these around 140,000 are school age.
(I have sent the Leaders of each Party further information.)
Regards
Mary MacGibbon (PhD)
(Retired lecturer in health sciences.) '