Dr Jude Ball: Aspire Aotearoa Tobacco Control senior research fellow on the new regulations set to impact vaping

There's questions over how well vaping regulations will be monitored.

New rules come in tomorrow, including stricter advertising restrictions for vape retailers and a ban on disposable vapes

Aspire Aotearoa Tobacco Control's Doctor Jude Ball says non-compliance is a problem overseas.

But she says the number of enforcement agents has increased, so she's expecting the rules to be enforced.

"These measures are designed to protect children and young people from a predatory industry, so without that enforcement, they're really meaningless."

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
No more cheap hits for your vaping friends. Ah, the
rules change from tomorrow, the disposable vaping products will be banned.
Dr Jude Hall is a senior Research fellow for the
Aspire ALCA or Tobacco Control Research Group. Hi, Jude, Hi,
this is not really a sector that's known for following
the rules. So are they going to follow the rules
from tomorrow? Do you think?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Well, that's a great question. And what we've seen overseas
is that non compliance has been a problem. So the
effectiveness of this rule, these rules are really going to
depend on whether they're strictly enforced or not. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
And how many enforcement agents have we got?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Oh, there's no question, I can answer off the top
of my head.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Not a lot.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Though the number has gone up, but it's still not
a lot. You're right.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
What do they do? Do they go around actually visiting
the vape shops?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Ah? Yes they do.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Okay, So do you expect it will be enforced?

Speaker 2 (00:47):
I certainly hope. So. I mean, these measures are designed
to protect children and young people from a predatory industry,
so without that enforcement they're really meaningless.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Is it also the case that from tomorrow there's basically
no advertising allowed.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah, that's right. So there have been some loopholes, but
from tomorrow the visibility of vapes and the way they're
marketed will be very much more like tobacco. But in
the dairies service stations that have to be out of sight,
and vape retailers can no longer email their customers with
discounts and clubs and you promoting new flavors and products

(01:29):
and so on.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
What about if they what about if you go onto
a vaping website? Can you actually buy something online? Can
you actually see what the product is that you're trying
to buy, because if it's not supposed to, if it's
not supposed to be displayed, it kind of it feels
like that may become a problem.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Well, the law does include websites, so from tomorrow websites
won't be able to display images of vaping products.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
How are people going to know what they're buying? I mean,
not that I can.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
It's a great question. So I mean it's going to
be less viable probably for people to buy online. They'll
be able to see the product name and the price
if it's something they're used to buying, fine, but otherwise
could be problematic.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Jude where are we at now. I mean, the science
around this is kind of, you know, evolving as we go,
but we are we still sure that vapes are better
than fags.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
Someone made the analogy to me. It's like, would you rather,
as a pedestrian, be hit by a motorcycle or hit
by a truck. You know, they're both bad, one's worse
than the other, but the healthiest thing is to be
vape free and slunk free.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Jude, thank you very much, appreciate it. Jude Ball, Senior
research fellow Aspire Altsia or Tobacco Control Research Group. For
more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news
talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio