New Zealand announced on Wednesday that it would ban disposable electronic cigarettes, or vapes, and that anyone caught selling them to minors will be fined 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, raising the age limit by one year each year.
New Zealand’s Deputy 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 teens use disposable vapes because “they’re cheap and still too easy to get.”
“While vaping has contributed to a significant decline in our smoking rates, the rapid increase in youth vaping is a real concern for parents, teachers and health care professionals,” Costello said in announcing the changes to New Zealand’s Smoke-Free Environments and Regulated Products Act.
Under the new law, retailers who sell vapes to children under 18 will face fines ranging from NZ$10,000 (£4,700) to NZ$100,000 (£47,000). ).
The Health Minister said the New Zealand Government was committed to tackling youth vaping and continuing its work to reduce smoking rates.
They hope to achieve the smoke-free goal of less than five percent of the population smoking daily by 2025 – as of last year, she said, almost seven percent of the population smoked daily.
Under the new law, retailers who sell vapes to children under 18 will face fines ranging from NZ$10,000 (£4,700) to NZ$100,000 (£47,000). ), according to Time.
Individuals are expected to be fined NZ$1,000 (£476).
Costello said New Zealand’s Cabinet had also confirmed a range of other smoking-related regulations which were due to come into force on March 21.
These include “banning vaping products with images of cartoons or toys on packaging, and limiting flavor names to generic descriptions” likely to appeal to young people.
Meanwhile, reusable vape products will have until October 1 this year to include removable batteries and child-resistant mechanisms.
But not all New Zealanders agree with the ban, with some fearing the immediate reduction would have several negative effects on the country.
Connor Molloy, a spokesperson for right-wing lobby group New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union, spoke to X, formerly Twitter, and warned the ban could lead to “a black market in unregulated products”.
“We welcome the proposed changes to tougher penalties and enforcement for those who illegally sell vaping products to minors, but extending this crackdown to a ban on disposable vapes will only push people back toward smoking and encouraging a black market in 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 continue or start smoking again, or to use black market vaping products whose risks are completely unknown.”
In February, New Zealand repealed a world-first law banning the sale of tobacco for future generations.
The measure was due to come into force in July and would have been the world’s toughest anti-smoking rule, reducing the number of tobacco retailers by more than 90 percent.
But the new coalition government elected in October quickly repealed the law copied by Britain, despite warnings from several researchers and activists that people could die from it.
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 present 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 strengthened to deter young people, which was announced today.
The changes should be in place by the end of the year, reports RNZ.