Tag: New Zealand

CAPHRA Calls for Dismantling Regulator

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The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) is calling for the disbanding of the Ministry of Health’s Vaping Regulatory Authority (VRA) in light of the recent court case involving VAPO. The Ministry of Health admitted to incorrectly threatening vape retailers, resulting in a legal victory for VAPO.
“CAPHRA believes that the VRA’s incorrect interpretation of regulations and subsequent actions against vape retailers demonstrate a lack of competence and effectiveness in fulfilling its role and responsibilities,” said Nancy Loucas, a prominent New Zealand public health consumer advocate and executive coordinator of the CAPHRA.
The organization emphasizes the potential negative impacts of the Ministry of Health’s actions on public health and the vaping industry as well as the need for a more effective regulatory body.
Loucas states, “The recent court case involving VAPO highlights the VRA’s inability to effectively regulate the vaping industry. It is time for the Ministry of Health to disband the VRA and establish a more competent and effective regulatory body that can protect public health and support the growth of a responsible vaping industry and includes consumer stakeholders.”
“Hiding behind Article 5.3 of the WHO’s [World Health Organization] Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and not engaging with those affected is a blatant cop-out and seeks to cover up their own incompetence,” said Loucas.
The court case involving VAPO revealed that the Ministry of Health had incorrectly interpreted regulations, leading to the court’s declaration in favor of VAPO. This outcome raises concerns about the VRA’s ability to effectively regulate the vaping industry and protect public health.
“CAPHRA urges the Ministry of Health to take immediate action to disband the VRA and establish a more effective regulatory body that can better serve the interests of public health by being inclusive of all stakeholders, including the vaping industry and consumer stakeholders,” Loucas said.
September 5, 2023
New Zealand Sets Youth Vaping Regulations

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New Zealand has set new regulations to limit youth vaping, effective Sept. 21, reports the Xinhua News Agency.
New specialist vape shops will be banned in locations within 300 meters of schools and Maori meeting places, according to Health Minister Ayesha Verrall.
“Vapes will need child safety mechanisms, and names like ‘cotton candy’ and ‘strawberry jelly donut’ will be prohibited,” Verrall said. Only generic names like “orange” or “berry” that accurately describe the flavors will be allowed.
The new regulations also set the maximum allowed nicotine level and require that all vaping devices have removable batteries.
“We’re creating a future where tobacco products are no longer addictive, appealing or as readily available, and the same needs to apply to vaping,” Verrall said.
August 22, 2023
New Zealand Urged to Reject Australia’s Model

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The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) is calling on the New Zealand government to reject Australia’s approach to vaping and continue to follow the science and evidence.
CAPHRA has submitted comments on New Zealand’s proposals for the smoked tobacco regulatory regime, which include tightening current restrictions on vaping product safety requirements and packaging and reducing nicotine levels in disposable vapes as well as restricting the location of specialist vape retailers.
“CAPHRA believes that the regulations, as they are, work perfectly well, and that further restrictions will only serve to limit access to safer nicotine products for adult smokers seeking less harmful alternatives to combustible tobacco,” says CAPHRA executive coordinator and prominent New Zealand public health consumer advocate Nancy Loucas.
“The announcement that New Zealand would not follow Australia’s lead to a full prescription model for nicotine vaping further reinforces the need for a harm reduction approach that is based on science and evidence, not scaremongering by crowing Australians.”

CAPHRA believes that the regulations, as they are, work perfectly well, and that further restrictions will only serve to limit access to safer nicotine products for adult smokers seeking less harmful alternatives to combustible tobacco.
Nancy Loucas, executive coordinator, CAPHRA
In a press note announcing its submission to New Zealand’s proposals, CAPHRA cites an article in The Critic, “The Vape Scare Down Under,” which describes the Australian government’s approach to vaping is misguided and based on fear rather than evidence. The article argues that the government’s proposed ban on flavored e-cigarettes is not supported by the evidence and will only serve to drive vapers back to smoking. The article also highlights the success of vaping in reducing smoking rates in countries like the U.K. and New Zealand.
“Unfortunately, the vaping debate has become highly political instead of being about the science or the evidence which continues to show that vaping is reducing smoking rates around the world,” says Loucas.
CAPHRA continues to urge the New Zealand government to take a risk-proportionate approach to regulations that protect public health while ensuring the availability of these products for adult smokers seeking less harmful alternatives to combustible tobacco.
“New Zealand should not follow Australia’s policy on vaping, and instead continue to follow a harm reduction approach that is based on science and evidence. Harm reduction should be the driving force behind tobacco policy, and regulations should be risk-proportionate and protect public health while ensuring the availability of these products for adult smokers seeking less harmful alternatives to combustible tobacco,” Loucas said.
June 29, 2023
22nd Boosts Cultivation for New Zealand

Photo: Vasiliy Koval
22nd Century Group has accelerated a major seed cultivation project for its proprietary reduced nicotine content tobaccos to support local authorities as they work to implement New Zealand’s new reduced nicotine content law starting from this year. The seed will be used to rapidly scale the availability of 22nd Century’s reduced nicotine content tobacco leaf to manufacture cigarettes compliant with New Zealand’s new reduced nicotine content law.
“New Zealand’s groundbreaking new law will require a sizeable expansion of reduced nicotine content tobacco leaf production to address market needs,” said John Miller, president of tobacco products for 22nd Century Group, in a statement.
“22nd Century’s ultra-low nicotine content tobaccos are the only commercial scale naturally grown tobacco varieties ready to meet the New Zealand law today. We are moving immediately to ensure sufficient leaf capacity of our reduced nicotine content tobacco to serve the entire New Zealand market as the new law is implemented.”
22nd Century’s proprietary reduced nicotine content tobacco varieties grow with 95 percent less nicotine than the commercial tobaccos used in making cigarettes for the New Zealand market. Significantly, 22nd Century’s non-GMO tobacco varieties are already compliant with the New Zealand law, which requires all combustible cigarettes to contain less than 0.8 mg of nicotine per gram of tobacco, inclusive of testing variance.
22nd Century’s expanded growing program, centered in the heart of the U.S. tobacco belt, will produce additional seed sufficient for approximately 2 billion sticks, the entire annual New Zealand cigarette market volume.
“New Zealand has taken the global lead in tobacco control through its new law, which will reduce the harms of smoking and improve public health and health equity, particularly among minority communities that are disproportionately burdened with the health and economic harms of smoking,” said John D. Pritchard, vice president of regulatory science at 22nd Century.
“As we increase quantities of our reduced nicotine tobacco seed, 22nd Century is demonstrating conclusively that the tobacco supply chain will pivot quickly to support the ramp up of the national-scale public health program,” Miller added.
February 22, 2023
New Zealand Solicits Feedback on New Rules

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New Zealand’s government is seeking feedback on measures to help reduce the number of young people vaping, reports The Times Online.
According to Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall, vaping is becoming increasingly popular among New Zealand youth, including among youngsters who have never smoked.
“Vaping has a role to play in ensuring smokers who wish to quit smoking can do so using vaping products; however, youth vaping rates are too high, and we need to strike a better balance,” she was quoted as saying.
The proposed measures include proximity restrictions for all new specialist vape retailers, so they are not near schools and sports grounds; restrictions on flavor names to avoid attracting youth; and restrictions on single-use vaping products, which are cheaper and more easily accessible than other e-cigarettes.
In addition, the government wants to reduce the maximum concentration of nicotine salts in single-use products from 50 mg/mL to 35 mg/mL and require vaping companies to print serial or batch numbers on their products to make them traceable.
The consultation document is available on the Ministry of Health website with submissions closing at 5 p.m. on March 15.
January 11, 2023
Kiwi Lawmakers Pass Generational Ban

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Lawmakers in New Zealand passed legislation today that makes it illegal to sell tobacco to anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 2009, reports the South China Morning Post.
“There is no good reason to allow a product to be sold that kills half the people that use it,” Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall told Parliament, adding that New Zealand’s healthcare system would save billions of dollars in the cost of treating sick smokers.
New Zealand’s pioneering law means that the minimum age for buying cigarettes will increase year after year. For example, somebody trying to buy a pack of cigarettes 50 years from now would need to prove they were at least 63 years old.
In addition to its age provision, the law will also cut the number of retailers allowed to sell tobacco by 90 percent and require companies to reduce the level of nicotine in combustible products.
The new legislation is part of New Zealand’s drive to become “smoke-free” by 2025, a situation in which fewer than 5 percent of the population smokes, according to the government definition.
Opponents of the legislation said the bill would force many small corner shops, known in New Zealand as dairies, out of business because they would no longer be able to sell cigarettes. They also predicted it would boost illicit tobacco sales.

“Denying adults the right to buy cigarettes legally will infantilize future generations and could make cigarettes more [and] not less desirable.”
Simon Clark, director, Forest
Smokers’ rights group Forest called the generational tobacco ban “absurd.”
“Banning younger adults from buying cigarettes legally won’t stop people smoking. It will merely drive the sale of cigarettes underground with consumers buying unregulated cigarettes on the black market, like any other prohibited product,” said Forest Director Simon Clark.
“Absurd policies like this are what happens when governments set targets for countries to become smoke-free,” he added. “Denying adults the right to buy cigarettes legally will infantilize future generations and could make cigarettes more [and] not less desirable.”
The share of people in New Zealand who smoke cigarettes daily has dropped to an all-time low of 8 percent, down from 9.4 percent this time last year, the annual NZ Health Survey revealed in November. By comparison, OECD data shows 25 percent of French adults smoked in 2021.
The decline in smoking has been accompanied by a rise in vaping. Some 8.3 percent now use e-cigarettes daily compared with 6 percent 12 months ago.
22nd Century Group, an agricultural biotechnology company that has invested heavily in reduced-nicotine cigarettes, applauded New Zealand’s plan to lower nicotine levels. “This policy is exactly what we were hoping for and more, particularly considering the inclusion of ‘testing variance’ in evaluating nicotine content,” said John D. Pritchard, vice president of regulatory science at 22nd Century, in a statement.
By including testing variance in the maximum permitted nicotine content of smoked tobacco products, New Zealand is compelling cigarette makers to target an average value of approximately 0.5 mg of nicotine per gram of tobacco content, which, according to Pritchard, also happens to be the level achieved by 22nd Century Group’s VLN products.
December 13, 2022
New Zealand Smoking at All-Time Low

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The share of people in New Zealand who smoke cigarettes daily has dropped to an all-time low of 8 percent, down from 9.4 percent this time last year, reports The New Zealand Herald, citing figures from the annual NZ Health Survey.
The decline in smoking has been accompanied by a rise in vaping. Some 8.3 percent now use e-cigarettes daily compared with 6 percent 12 months ago.
And while the daily smoking rate for Maori, at 19.9 percent, remains far higher than that for the population at large, this figure, too, is down; one year ago, the Maori smoking rate stood at 22.3 percent.
The Aotearoa Vapers Community Advocacy (AVCA) said the latest numbers are evidence that New Zealand’s tobacco harm reduction (THR) strategy is working.
“New Zealand’s smoking rates are now half of what they were 10 years ago. In the past year alone, the number of people smoking fell by 56,000. That is amazing when you consider the extra stress on people with the pandemic and increasing cost of living,” said AVCA co-founder Nancy Loucas.
AVCA says the government has done well making stop-smoking services more accessible and introducing tailored Maori and Pacific services.
“Other countries have seen a rise in their smoking rates during the Covid lockdowns and restrictions, but New Zealand has once again bucked the trend. That’s because our Ministry of Health and health providers have adopted a THR strategy, transitioning smokers to vaping as a safe and incredibly effective smoking cessation tool,” said Loucas.
“New Zealand is showing the world how to achieve smoke-free. These latest statistics are more proof that countries which adopt a THR approach to public health end up saving a lot of lives,” says Loucas.
November 18, 2022
Kiwi Generational Ban Gets First Reading

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A historic smokefree bill to ban smoking for next generation up for first reading in New Zealand, reports the NZ Herald.
Announced last year, the proposed legislation prohibits people born after Jan. 1, 2009, from purchasing tobacco products.
The plan is part of a push to drop daily smoking rates in New Zealand to less than 5 percent across all population groups by 2025. In 2019–2020, it sat at 13.4 percent.
Introduced by the labor party, the legislation already enjoys broad support in Parliament.
The sole voice opposing it outright is the ACT party, with health spokeswoman Brooke Van Velden saying prohibition will only fuel a black market.
Critics say the measure will likely fuel an already growing black market for cigarettes and that more support is needed for people to transition to vaping.
The Ministry of Health acknowledges as much. Its regulatory impact statement says there is already a growing illicit market and that the policy changes were “likely to exacerbate this.”
The government aims to pass the bill by December, meaning that, all going to plan, those aged 14 in 2023 will be banned from purchasing tobacco.
July 26, 2022
CAPHRA Condemns Anti-Vaping Campaign
“By stirring up anti-vaping hysteria, New Zealand’s Asthma and Respiratory Foundation will only send more minors back to smoking and put the country’s decade long Smokefree 2025 ambition in jeopardy,” says Nancy Loucas, executive coordinator of the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA).
Loucas’ comments follow the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation (ARFNZ) launching a video series titled, “Spotlight on Vaping.” The campaign claims New Zealand is experiencing an “epidemic” of youth vaping. Together with the Secondary Principals’ Association of NZ (SPANZ), it also claims over a quarter of students have vaped in the past week.
“What these sensationalized numbers don’t take into account is, if 26 percent of school students had in fact vaped in the past week, many would only be trying it, and secondly, almost all of them would’ve been smoking deadly cigarettes a generation ago,” says Loucas.
CAPHRA says while smoking-related illnesses kill around 5,000 New Zealanders every year, vaping has not reportedly caused one death in the country. In fact, vaping been widely attributed for positively contributing to New Zealand’s plummeting smoking rate. The overall adult daily smoking rate has fallen from 18 percent in 2006/07 to 9.4 percent in 2020-2021.
“What ARFNZ fails to mention is [that] the 2021 ASH Year 10 Snapshot survey that they selectively refer to confirms that vaping is not hooking nonsmokers. In that survey, just 3 percent of those who vape daily have never smoked. What’s more, while many may try it, very few ever become regular vapers, particularly non-smoking students,” she says.
Loucas says while ARFNZ attract headlines by alleging a “youth vaping epidemic,” University of Auckland researchers in 2020 came to a different conclusion: “Our findings do not support the notion of a so-called vaping epidemic in New Zealand or a large youth population dependent on vaping,” the researchers wrote
“While no one wants youth vaping, we are not seeing an ‘epidemic’ as ARFNZ would have the public believe.

June 17, 2022
Kiwi Health Director Urged to Permit Flavors

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The attitude and actions of the next director-general of health will be key to New Zealand achieving its smokefree ambitions, says the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA).
“This person could make or break Smokefree 2025. He or she advises the government, oversees regulation, and has the final say on new vape store licences. It’s an incredibly important position when it comes to New Zealand effectively addressing tobacco,” says Nancy Loucas, executive coordinator of the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Advocates (CAPHRA).
Current Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield will leave the job in July, with his successor yet to be appointed.
Loucas says that while New Zealand’s Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Vaping) Amendment Act 2020 is viewed internationally as relatively progressive, there are some provisions that the next director-general should review.
“The act claims to strike a balance between ensuring vaping products are available to adult smokers while protecting young people. Sanctioning it as an R18 product has helped achieve that. However, banning the most popular flavours from general retail is only stopping adult smokers from quitting deadly tobacco,” she says.
Since August 11, 2021, general retailers such as supermarkets, service stations and convenience stores have been limited to just selling three flavors–mint, menthol and tobacco. Only licenced specialist vape stores can sell a full range of more popular flavours.
“The next Director-General of Health must review this restriction on general retail. By the time he or she takes office, the flavor ban would have run a year and many of us strongly believe it’s hindering not helping New Zealand achieve Smokefree 2025.
“Adult smokers desperate to quit can go to a supermarket and choose any brand of cigarette under the sun, yet they can only choose from three vape flavors. That’s not enabling them to make the best decision for their health nor is it helping New Zealand reduce its smoking rate,” says Loucas.

This person could make or break Smokefree 2025. He or she advises the government, oversees regulation, and has the final say on new vape store licences. It’s an incredibly important position when it comes to New Zealand effectively addressing tobacco.
Nancy Loucas, executive coordiinator, CAPHRA
With youth smoking at a historic low and 9.4 percent of adults now daily smoking, New Zealand’s goal of Smokefree 2025—where 5 percent or less of the general population smoke—is looking increasingly likely to be achieved.
CAPHRA says overall Bloomfield has been a supporter of New Zealand’s Tobacco Harm Reduction public health strategy. This has included approving and promoting messages on the ministry of health’s Vaping Facts website, which headlines “vaping is less harmful than smoking”—an approach that has been heavily supported across New Zealand’s health sector.
Late last year Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall released the government’s Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 Action Plan.
At the time, CAPHRA and other THR advocates raised concerns that vaping—a 95 percent less harmful alternative and New Zealand’s most effective smoking cessation tool—is largely absent from the government’s reinvigorated approach to stamping out smoking.
“The smokefree action plan makes tobacco less available and less appealing. It fails, however, to fully acknowledge the positive role vaping has played, and will play, in getting Kiwis off the cancer sticks. That’s a worry because we won’t get there without safer nicotine products,” she says.
CAPHRA says top of mind for the next director-general of health is that fact that over 5,000 Kiwis continue to die from smoking-related illnesses every year, and the job to reduce that is by no means done.
“The next director-general of health will need to keep a close eye on whether the government’s vaping regulations and Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 Action Plan are in fact delivering on their promise. With so many lives at stake, he or she will have no time to waste,” says Nancy Loucas.
April 25, 2022