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By Pretoria Gordon RNZ

A survey of more than 30,000 of New Zealand’s Year 10 students has indicated that the perception of vaping is changing.

The number of teenagers who vaped regularly – once a month or more – had tripled between 2019 and 2021, peaking at 20.2%.

But the latest Action on Smoking and Health survey has found that number has halved since then.

“Vaping is not as cool as it used to be,” chairperson Emeritus Professor Robert Beaglehole told RNZ.

The number of teenagers who vape on a daily basis has also dropped to 7.1%, down from “peak vape” of 10.1% in 2022.

Fewer than a third had ever tried vaping too, Beaglehole said, “which is great news”.

He believed regulation had also made an impact – vaping products were widely available for teenagers until 2020, when the Government banned the sale to those under 18 – but feared that over-regulation could push people back to smoking.

“Vaping helps adult smokers quit and is much, much less harmful than smoking.”

Beaglehole said the country was raising a smoke-free generation, with a “negligible” number – about 1% – of young people smoking on a daily basis since 2021.

“This is a major global success which we should be celebrating ... we are leading the way.

“Youth smoking has almost disappeared, and vaping continues to fall.”

However, Otago University associate professor Andrew Waa feared teenagers had switched to oral nicotine products instead.

“Rather than talking about a smokefree future, we need to start thinking about a nicotine-free future for our young people,” he said.

Beaglehole has also called for more to be done to address the vaping rates for rangatahi Māori.

The last year had seen a significant decrease, he said, but 16.5% of Māori teenagers still vaped on a daily basis.

Waa said vaping products were too accessible for young Māori and Pacific – and the rates were “an entirely preventable inequity”.