Nancy Loucas, co-founder of the Aotearoa Vapers Community Advocacy (AVCA), has stated that the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (RNZCGP) has completely deviated from the truth in the Smokefree Environments Bill submitted to the Parliament's Health Select Committee, as e-cigarettes are not harmful products in themselves.
Advocates for reducing the harms of tobacco indeed warned lawmakers and officials from the beginning that some may attempt to use the Smokefree Bill to attempt to adjust the 2020 legislation on e-cigarettes. Ms. Loucas stated that the dire warnings of RNZCGP medical director were almost useless and did not reflect reality.
The AVCA has stated that while the RNZCGP's emphasis on e-cigarettes as a part of the country's smoking cessation strategy is positive, its concern regarding the number of rangitahi or young people involved is unfounded.
Ms. Loucas highlighted that the latest ASH Year 10 Snapshot survey examined the smoking and e-cigarette use behavior and attitudes of 26,000 13- and 14-year-old New Zealand students.
As expected, electronic cigarettes have become popular, but what's important is that they haven't attracted non-smoking young people. Only 3% of daily e-cigarette users have never smoked before. Furthermore, while many may try it, few become regular e-cigarette users," she said.
According to the 2021 survey by ASH, only 1.3% of 10-year-old students smoke daily, which is lower than the 2% reported in 2019. "No one wants minors to use electronic cigarettes. When rogue retailers are caught selling to children under 18 years old, AVCA has been calling for stronger enforcement. However, we should not exaggerate the number of non-smoking children using e-cigarettes. It is very, very small. The vast majority of e-cigarette users in schools are young people who were already smoking from the beginning," she said.
Ms. Lucas stated that this fact is not an isolated incident. A comprehensive survey released last month by UK ASH revealed that among their 4.3 million electronic cigarette users, approximately 2.4 million were former smokers, 1.5 million were current smokers, and 350,000 people (8%) had never smoked before.
The AVCA expressed disappointment that the RNZCGP stated there is no data or research regarding the potential long-term effects of e-cigarettes.
Electronic cigarettes have been around for almost two decades and have been key in reducing New Zealand's smoking rates by half in recent years. If RNZCGP's predictions about their destructive potential were true, our hospitals and morgues would be flooded with electronic cigarettes. On the contrary, every year 5,000 New Zealanders still die from smoking-related diseases, while there have been no reported deaths from using electronic cigarettes in the country." She said.
In response to RNZCGP's attempts to issue warnings about nicotine addiction, VCA states that scholars from the University of Otago are also advocating for efforts to eliminate nicotine from New Zealand society. "Nicotine may be addictive, but it won't kill you. RNZCGP needs to continue focusing on processing combustible tobacco. After all, smoke is the main source of carcinogenic and toxic chemicals.
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