New Zealand on Wednesday said it will ban disposable e-cigarettes, or vapes, and anyone caught selling them to minors will be handed a fine of up to £47,000.
The move comes less than a month after the New Zealand government scrapped a plan to ban people born after January 1, 2009 from buying tobacco cigarettes – effectively raising the age limit by a year every year.
New Zealand’s associate health minister Casey Costello said e-cigarettes remain ‘a key smoking cessation device’ and the new regulations will help prevent minors from taking up the habit.
He also added that too many teenagers use disposable vapes because ‘they’re cheap and remain too easy to get’.
‘While vaping has contributed to a significant fall in our smoking rates, the rapid rise in youth vaping has been a real concern for parents, teachers and health professionals,’ Costello said while announcing the changes to New Zealand’s Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act.
Under the new law, retailers that sell vapes to children under 18 years of age will face an increase in fines from 10,000 New Zealand dollars (£4,700) to up to 100,000 New Zealand dollars (£47,000)
The health minister claimed the New Zealand government is committed to tackling youth vaping and continue their work in driving down smoking rates.
They are hoping to achieve the Smokefree goal of less than five per cent of the population smoking daily by 2025 – as of last year, she said, almost seven per cent of the population were daily smokers.
Under the new law, retailers that sell vapes to children under 18 years of age will face an increase in fines from 10,000 New Zealand dollars (£4,700) to up to 100,000 New Zealand dollars (£47,000), according to Time.
Individuals are set to be fined 1,000 New Zealand dollars (£476).
Costello said the New Zealand Cabinet also confirmed a range of other smoking-related regulations set to take effect on March 21.
These include ‘a ban on vaping products with images of cartoons or toys on the packaging, and limiting flavor names to generic descriptions’ that may appeal to young people.
Meanwhile, reusable vape products will have until October 1 of this year to include removable batteries and child-proofing mechanisms.
But not all New Zealanders are on board with the ban, with some raising concerns that the immediate cut will have several adverse effects on the country.
Connor Molloy, a spokesperson for right-wing pressure group New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union, took to X, formerly Twitter, and warned the ban may lead to ‘a black market of unregulated products’.
‘We welcome the proposed changes in relation to harsher penalties and enforcement for those illegally selling vaping products to minors but extending this crackdown to a ban on disposable vapes will simply drive people back towards smoking and encourage a blackmarket of unregulated vaping products as seen in Australia,’ she said.
‘This ban will simply [make] it harder and more expensive to quit smoking, instead encouraging people to remain or revert to smoking, or to consume black market vaping products where the risks are completely unknown.’
In February, New Zealand repealed a world-first law banning tobacco sales for future generations.
It was set to take effect in July and would have been the toughest anti-tobacco rules in the world, reducing the number of tobacco retailer by more than 90 per cent.
But the new coalition government elected in October quickly repealed the law that was copied by Britain, despite several researchers and campaigners warning that people could die as a result.
Costello said at the time the coalition government was committed to reducing smoking, but was taking a different regulatory approach to discourage the habit and reduce the harm it caused.
‘I will soon be taking a package of measures to cabinet to increase the tools available to help people quit smoking,’ he said.
He added that regulations on vaping would also be tightened to deter young people, which were announced today.
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