A smoke free advocate claims vape manufacturers are finding ways around the new rules the previous government imposed last year in a bid to discourage young people taking up the habit.
Action for Smokefree 2025 director Ben Youdan told Breakfast he doesn't understand the ban's "arbitrary rules".
In June 2023, the Labour government set out new regulations such as limiting vape flavours that attract young people, as well as restricting the sale of cheap disposable vapes. They also ruled that new vape stores will be unable to open within 300 metres of schools or marae.
From December retailers, distributors, New Zealand manufacturers and importers were required to sell single-use vaping products that met nicotine limits of 20mg/mL, had a removable battery, a child safety mechanism and met labelling requirements.
But Youdan said he "doesn't understand the point" as he questioned whether or not the rules really make it harder for young people to vape.
"This is potentially making things more hazardous, because you're suddenly taking a device that was designed to be sealed, or designed to have a rechargeable battery inside it, and now you're making it into something that can be removed... it would probably be more hazardous to have someone who is not an expert in that technology taking a battery out."
Youdan said there may have been a misconception that cheap vape prices meant the devices were disposable, with some vapes costing as low as $10 while still meeting the rules and regulations.
He said the cheap vapes did have their role, for example, helping people move from cigarettes to vapes, but the vapes themselves should be outside of "pocket money prices" to help stop children being able to afford them.
"Other solutions could have been having a bottom price level for a disposable, which still kept it cheap, but put it out of pocket money prices."
He said the inclusion off the kiddie lock — where the user needs to click the on button on the vape five times in rapid succession in order to turn the vape on— does little to help stop teenage vaping.
"Teenagers know how to unlock the vape... it's not about whether they can unlock the vape, we need to be understanding what's happening with young people and vaping."
Director of Vapo and member of the Vaping Industry Association New Zealand Ben Pryor told the Bay of Plenty Times a complete ban on disposables was the best way to reduce youth vaping.
“Manufacturers have created a way to drive down the prices within the new regulations by introducing pod-style disposable vapes.
‘‘These vaping devices are more cost-effective to produce than an entire disposable device as the buyer only needs to replace the small battery.”
He said non-compliant vaping products still remained on shelves.
Youdan said New Zealand was "very late in the day" to have regulations on vaping.
"It wasn't until about three years ago that we had rules in place around who they can be sold to, and how they can be advertised."
He said that New Zealand need to do so much more to get young people to stop vaping.
"What we need to be doing now is actually doing much more about enforcing and improving how we are stopping young people accessing vapes, we need to be much more supportive about making a safe space to talk to young people about living in a world where vapes are available and how to navigate that.
"The risk when we are in a situation where we are seeing these big increases for stand downs [in schools] for vaping, the solution becomes more harmful than the problem we are trying to solve and I think that's indicative of a lack of support for schools and those working with young people."
He said in an additional statement to 1News that he understands students are being stood down for vaping related issues.
"We know stand downs should be a last resort as the evidence is that punitive approaches, and exclusions can have harmful consequences. Not least discouraging young people to have honest conversations about vaping because they fear the consequence."
Associate Health Minister Casey Costello said to the Bay of Plenty Times that the Government is "concerned about the attractiveness of vapes to young people."
"The National-New Zealand First Coalition Agreement has a commitment to reform the regulation of vaping products... New Zealand has seen some of the largest drops in smoking rates in the world recently – 55,000 stopped smoking last year – and that wouldn’t have been achieved without access to vaping products."
She said the balance is proving people access to vapes to help stop smoking while ensuring younger people aren't getting hooked on the vapes.
"We want to make the regulatory regime more effective and improve enforcement.
When approached by 1News, Education Minister Erica Stanford said in a statement: "I am concerned with the number of students vaping in schools, particularly in our primary schools. As Education Minister, I will be working with the Associate Minister of Health on this matter."
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