Smokefree advocates question Government’s vaping plan

Vaping starter kits are to be supplied to stop-smoking services from next week. Photo / 123rf

By RNZ

The Government’s plan for smokers to swap their cigarettes for free vapes to help them quit smoking has come under fire from respiratory advocates.

Associate Health Minister Casey Costello said vaping starter kits would be supplied to stop-smoking services around the country from next week to help adults quit.

She said vaping had played a key role in reducing smoking rates and she wanted to support adult smokers to switch to a product less harmful than cigarettes.

But Asthma and Respiratory Foundation chief executive Letitia Harding said the use of vapes to quit cigarettes was controversial and that the announcement came as a shock.

“These products have not been approved for smoking cessation by the World Health Organisation, the FDA (United States Food and Drug Administration), or Medsafe here in New Zealand.

“So to have these basically handed out as a therapeutic product and not go through the proper rigorous process of consultation is really strange,” she said.

“And the fact they’re rolling out next week just seems crazy.”

Harding said the plan was lacking in detail and simply shifted people from one product to another, with no clear exit strategy.

“What products are actually going to be funded and then how are they actually going to get off nicotine addiction with vaping products in the long term?

“We could be sitting at a ‘Vape Free Aotearoa” in a decade or couple of decades to come."

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