Vapeboss – E-cigarettes have been known since the early 2000s and were touted as a less harmful alternative to traditional cigarettes, which are packed with cancer-causing chemicals. However, emerging research has shown that vaping can also be highly addictive, and often leads young users back to smoking.

New Zealand has become the first country in the world to approve a smoking ban for young people. New Zealand also announced a ban on disposable vapes on Tuesday (6/6/2023). This ban is part of the country's efforts to tighten regulations on cigarettes, as it is also gradually moving towards a total ban on tobacco sales. New Zealand's Minister of Health, Ayesha Verrall, stated that disposable vapes would be banned starting in August. Ayesha Jennifer Verrall MP FRACP is also a New Zealand politician, infectious diseases physician, and researcher with expertise in tuberculosis and international health.

Verrall said the government wants to strike a balance between preventing young people from starting to vape and allowing people to use it as an aid to quit smoking. Six months ago, New Zealand announced it would make cigarettes permanently unavailable to anyone currently under the age of 14, effectively raising the smoking age every year until the entire population is covered.

Almost one in five school-age adolescents vape at least once a day in New Zealand, according to a 2021 study by the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation. The crackdown on disposable vapes comes a month after Australia took similar action, accusing tobacco companies of hooking the next "generation of nicotine addicts" by deliberately targeting young people.

This policy will be accompanied by a number of other measures to make cigarettes less affordable and less accessible, including dramatically reducing the legal amount of nicotine in tobacco products and forcing them to be sold only through specialized tobacco stores rather than convenience stores and supermarkets.

The number of stores legally allowed to sell cigarettes will be reduced to one-tenth of the current number—from 6,000 to just 600 nationwide. The bill passed its final reading on Tuesday night and will come into effect in 2023, as New Zealand aims to achieve its goal of making the country 'smokefree' by 2025.

"For decades, we've allowed tobacco companies to maintain their market share by making their deadly product increasingly addictive. That's disgusting and that's perverse," Verrell added. However, the new law will not restrict the sale of vapes. Data shows at least some New Zealanders have shifted their nicotine habits from cigarettes to vapes.

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