Daily smoking rates have hit an all-time low, but vaping rates are on the rise.
Nineteen-year-old Gemma Kirk started vaping four years ago because “all the other kids were doing it”.
She says it was a few months before she realised she was hooked.
"I did not know what a nicotine addiction was."
It’s becoming a more popular habit among Kiwis - 8.3% of Kiwis are vaping daily, up from 6.2% last year, while many are ditching cigarettes, according to the latest NZ Health Survey results.
"It’s amazing news that the daily smoking rate’s down to 8%, it puts us amongst some of the lowest smoking rates in the world," says Ben Youdan from smokefree campaign organisation ASH NZ.
But there’s concern about the number of young people taking up vaping – almost a fifth of 15 to 24-year-olds are using them daily.
"We’re even hearing from parents with kids in year 8 and 9, who are vaping," says Letitia Harding from the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation.
She says many of these kids have never smoked.
“Kids who are vaping in the shower, getting up in the middle of the night, they’re dependent on these vapes."
Legislation is going through Parliament that would decrease the number of retail outlets able to sell tobacco, drastically reduce the level of nicotine in cigarettes to non-addictive levels and ban anyone born from 2009 from ever buying them.
Harding’s calling for similar regulations for vapes.
"We don’t need 50 milligrams of nicotine in a vape and I think that’s the problem. I think a lot of the kids still aren’t aware of those high doses and that’s when they become dependent."
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