Youth smoking rates at all-time low but vaping rates continue to climb

Smoking rates are at an all-time low, but vaping is becoming more prevalent among teenagers. Photo / Michael Craig

The youth smoking rate has reached an all-time low, but Whanganui medical professionals are concerned at the sharp increase in teens vaping.

The 2021 Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) Year 10 Snapshot survey was published last Monday.

The study surveys 20,000 to 30,000 Year 10 students every year on their smoking and vaping behaviours and attitudes.

The survey showed New Zealand's daily smoking rates continue to decline across all ethnicities.

Smoking rates among 13 and 14-year-olds has dropped to an all-time low, which was at 2 per cent from 2015 to 2019 to 1.3 per cent in 2021.

Māori students led the way with a decrease of 40 per cent in daily smoking rates since 2019.

However, there was a steep rise in vaping from this group. Daily vaping increased from 3.1 per cent in 2019, to 9.6 per cent in 2021.

The number of Year 10 students experimenting with vapes has also increased, from 37.3 per cent in 2019 to 42.7 per cent in 2021.

Dr John McMenamin, clinical director of the Whanganui Stop Smoking Service, said it was concerning seeing vaping rates increase because the nicotine levels in vapes were generally far higher and could be very addictive.

"When vapes contain nicotine they are addictive and the habit can be as hard to break as smoking."

McMenamin was pleased to see the smoking rate continue to fall and credited the Government's commitment to introducing legislation around smoking.

"Smoking is such an addictive habit and starting young results in years of cumulative damage to a person's health."

The Asthma and Respiratory Foundation NZ (ARFNZ) welcomed the all-time low smoking rate, but was greatly concerned about the increase in daily vaping.

"This is good news, and the foundation fully supports all progress toward New Zealand's Smokefree 2025 goals," chief executive Letitia Harding said.

"This dramatic increase shows that vaping isn't just replacing smoking, as we didn't start off with 10 per cent of Year 10s smoking daily when vaping was introduced.

"It is unclear how much vaping has contributed to the decline in smoking - if vaping was the breakthrough intervention, we would have expected to see a sharp decline from when vaping hit the markets, which isn't evident in the data."

Whanganui medical officer of health Dr Patrick O'Connor said it was important parents had open and honest conversations with their teenagers regarding the risks of vaping.

"It would seem, in general, cigarettes aren't introducing young people to nicotine addiction, but possibly vaping is."

He said there was evidence that smoking through a cigarette was much worse for health than vaping, but vaping wasn't without its problems.

"You are still taking a substance into your lungs and when it contains nicotine, you open the pathway to addiction."

O'Connor said the main benefit of vaping was to help people who were already addicted to nicotine.

"It is a healthier delivery system of nicotine. It is a very useful pathway to those that already have an addiction.

"But, it is very unfortunate if it is becoming the gateway to the addiction.

"Any addiction brings problems. Any addiction is a restriction on your freedom."

This year, ARFNZ is partnering with the Life Education Trust to offer its expertise and resources for the trust's in-school programmes, which will educate children and young people about the harms of vaping.