Seven Canterbury retailers have been fined after selling vape products to underage teenagers.
In a statement today, Te Whatu Ora said the seven stores failed controlled purchase operations (CPO) in August and October. This is despite public health staff visiting the retailers prior to the CPO to ensure they were aware of their legal obligations.
It comes after a Fair Go investigation in August found just six vape stores were issued with infringement notices since under-18 sales were banned nearly two years ago, but a hidden camera investigation found three in one city in an afternoon.
Mystery shoppers wearing hidden cameras and microphones attempted to buy vape pods from dairies and specialist stores. Fair Go found three stores that was prepared to sell to a 17-year-old without asking for ID first and one that was prepared to sell to a 14-year-old.
Dr Cheryl Brunton, Waitaha Canterbury Medical Officer of Health, Te Whatu Ora National Public Health Service said the CPO is an important tool public health staff use to ensure retailers are compliant with the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act 1990, particularly in relation to under age sales.
“Unfortunately during recent CPOs seven out of 39 retailers failed to ask for identification and sold vape products to a 16-year-old,” Brunton said.
“Selling vape products to a minor is both illegal and unacceptable. These operations are carried out regularly for both tobacco and vape sales to protect our young people from the harmful impacts of vaping and smoking.”
The retailers who failed the CPO were: Discount Vapor (Woolston), Keyes Road Dairy, Better Life Dairy, Shosha (Riccarton), Shosha (High Street), Huff and Puff, and JDs Dairy.
All seven premises have been issued with an infringement notice by the Ministry of Health. If any of the retailers breach the rules three times they could face prosecution.
Brunton said the Smokefree Enforcement Officer in Canterbury has been working hard to educate retailers about their obligations.
“Prior to the CPO we received a number of complaints, so our public health staff visited all the retailers to ensure they were aware of their obligations under the Act.
“While it is frustrating that seven retailers failed CPOs in August and October, we will continue to work with the sector to prevent minors from being able to purchase vaping products.
“We take our compliance investigation role very seriously and we will continue to undertake general compliance testing of a range of retailers, particularly around age eligibility.”
Last week, the Government put out an urgent safety alert for some vape products amid a further Fair Go investigation.
The nicotine vapes are too strong and retailers are being told to check the products and potentially pull some off shelves immediately.
Vapes in New Zealand can have up to 50mg/mL of nicotine salts – but some have been interpreting that as allowing 50mg of nicotine – which is much stronger than the law intended.
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