Health NZ has distributed over 7000 vaping devices and 67,000 refills in just two months as it ramps up its free vape programme for smokers.
It comes after health officials signed a contract with a New Zealand-owned vape company to provide the devices, which come in flavours including tobacco and peach mint.
Health NZ began a pilot to provide vaping devices to quit-smoking services across the country last year – with varying degrees of success.
Newstalk ZB revealed that between last January and July, 3000 people received a kit, with just over 1400 of those successfully quitting smoking.
That’s a 47% quit rate. That seems pretty good to me.
Asthma and Respiratory Foundation chief executive Letitia Harding said comparing the harms of smoking to vaping is like comparing one extremely harmful drug to a less harmful one.
“It’s still a drug. We know that vaping causes harm to the lungs, to the heart. We don’t know the long-term data – that’s the big unknown.”
She said other nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) options, like nicotine gum or patches, should be tried ahead of vapes.
I agree NRT is less harmful than vaping, but it seems to be far less effective. From what I can tell they have around a 15% quit rate – so less than a third of the 47% quit rate for vaping. So if your goal is to get people off the incredibly harmful tobacco smoking, then the quit rate for vaping speaks for itself.
She said it’s “crazy” that the health system will fund a product with no medical approval like vapes – but doesn’t fund new Medsafe-approved tools like QuickMist, which sprays a mist with a low level of nicotine to assist those wanting to quit.
Again a good product but only has a 15% quit rate, compared to 47% for vapes.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders
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