Chris Bullen: Auckland University Public Health Professor on the increase in people wanting to quit vaping

More people are wanting to give up vaping, for a variety of reasons. 

Almost 16,000 people reached out to Quitline last year, with a quarter enrolled in the Quit Vaping programme. 

Māori make up 23 percent of those seeking support.

Auckland University Public Health Professor Chris Bullen says vaping is less harmful than smoking, but also has negative impacts.

He explained people are considering costs, potential long-term health effects and if they want to be addicted to something. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
New data shows more kiwis are looking to kick the vapes.
Quitlines saw four thousand people sign up to its quit
Vaping program last year. That is a quarter of all enrollments.
The service says it's a clear sign more people, including
those who have never smoked but have vaped, are now
looking for help to quit. So Chris Pullen Professor Chris
Pallen is the Aukward University Professor of Public Health and

(00:38):
is with us this morning. Good morning to you, Chris,
Good morning. So does this show a shift and attitude
towards the vape.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Yeah, I think there's been enough people vaping for a
while now to see numbers like this, People who both
as you mentioned, the people who have never smoked who
took up vaping wanting to quit, as well as people
who've moved from smoking to vapes now wanting to get
off or forms of nicoteen.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
People who have never smoked but did vakee. They're really
the canary in the coal mine because they've come to
the decision that vaping is bad for them. Whereas the
people who did smoke and then use vaping to quit
the smoking, they felt that they were doing themselves less damage.
So this is kind of proof that vaping is not harmless.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
Oh no, And I don't think anyone anywhere would say
that vaping is without potential for harm. It's just that
relative to smoking, the evidence stacks up strongly still in
favor of smoking being incredibly harmful, vaping somewhat harmful, but
less harmful and a lot less harmful. But there are
other considerations for people, you know, the cost of vaping,

(01:49):
the uncertainty about the long term health effects that you've
been vaping for a few years, and the perhaps feeling
that you're addicted to something you try to get off
it and you can't without support.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
So here's the thing. The four thousand people wanted to quit.
Was that a health decision or do you think it
was mostly an economic decision because of the cost of
of living, Because if it is a health decision, that's
a far better sign than purely an economic one. They
may go back.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
Yeah, so vapes are relatively cheap compared to cigarettes. We've
got amongst in the world. New Zealand's cigarettes legal cigarettes anyway,
and are very expensive, and so a lot of people
made an economic decision when they switched to vaping. We
don't have a tax yet. We thought we might see
one on a new budget, but we don't have a
tax on vapes apart from GST, so they're still very

(02:38):
cheap compared to smoking. But nevertheless, in these constrained times,
I guess people are looking at every which way to
cut down in something that they don't really need to
spend money on.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
How difficult is it coming off vapes compared to smoking, Well.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
Both of nicotine dependents, and nicotine is a highly addictive substance.
I mean, there are the occasional people who can just
quit cold turkey, but most people overwhelmingly find it extremely difficult.
But relative to smoking, smoking does have other substances in
cigarette smoke that may make your addiction to cigarettes much

(03:17):
more likely. And there was at the time that people
started smoking, it was normal in society. It's less normal
so now, but vaping has become more normalized, So there's
a sort of a social pressure, perhaps in your social
group to continue vaping. So there's all of these factors
involved in addiction, not just the chemical side of it.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
All right, Professor Cris Ball and I thank you so
much for your time today and Auckland University Professor of
Public Health.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
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