Casey Costello: Associate Health Minister on the crackdown on disposable vapes, youth vaping

The Government's confident it's getting on top of youth vaping, with more rules coming in today. 

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

It's in an effort to clamp down on youth vaping, with around 10% of teenagers currently regular vapers. 

Associate Health Minister Casey Costello told Mike Hosking she believes we'll see further declines in youth vaping. 

She says Action for Smokefree data shows youth vaping rates have declined over the last three years. 

However, she says New Zealand isn’t ready for a full crackdown, and Australia’s prescription only approach won’t work here.  

She says Pasifika and Māori continue to have the highest smoking rates, and reducing availability for those who aren't engaging with the health system is problematic. 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The battle of a smoke free in our approach to

(00:01):
vaping has another chapterated to it. Today new rules apply
all disposable vapes of band advertising rules of being tightly.
The Associate Health Minister Casey E. Costello is with it's
Casey morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Good morning, makee.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
How much of this whole thing is being driven by
hard data and you know it will eventually work versus
a sort of a suck and scene and let's give
it a go.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
The hard data really is the fact that we have
to acknowledge the contribution vaping had made to people stopping smoking.
So we saw two hundred and thirty thousand people quit
smoking from twenty twenty to twenty three three, massive decline,
more than we've seen in the whole period since we
started the smoke free campaign. So we know vaping needs
to accurre what we don't have in place and didn't

(00:45):
have in place with regulation to control vapes. And that
was the part that has been this on the fly
policy development. What we now know is that there is
an attractiveness to vaping and that's why the US target
that has been targeted, and that's why we're targeting the
display component to ensure that we're not enticing. And you've

(01:06):
seen them. I've seen them. The attractiveness of these vaping stores.
They look like a smiggle shop, you know, that sort
of stuff is.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Try Is this material? So is what's happening today a
game changer and all material in the battle?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
It is a step forward, and that's the part that
we have to you know, we we have to keep
moving forward. We've got another advisory group about what's the
next state that we need to move to. But this
is stepping in the right direction and listening to those
that are concerned about use vaping. With increased penalties, with
increased enforcement, we're now attacking the displays. And this legislation

(01:45):
was passed last year. We've just given a six months
lead in time to get off the ground.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
I was reading some numbers the other day. There needs
to be to be truly smoke free, which I never
thought we were going to get there anyway. But be
that as it may, it needs another eighty thousand people
to quit that I don't think they're going to. We're
about where we're at, aren't we. I mean, we've done
pretty well.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
I think we will still see further declines. I think
we're looking really good. And if you think of that,
you know, three years we had two hundred and thirty
thousand people quit smoking, So you know that's that's that
eighty thousand the year is feasible. It's possible. And what
we don't know is that we've got the figures from November.

(02:22):
From June twenty twenty four to twenty twenty five, we
won't know those results to all about November this year
once the survey data comes out. What is encouraging though,
is that from the ASH year ten Health Survey data,
which has been ongoing for a number of years, they
have seen, for the third year in a row, use
of vaping numbers decline, and that is the encouraging part.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
You were you were never attempted to go to the
Australian script route.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
No, we're still we were very keen to maintain availability
for those that have quit smoking. And that's the trouble
is that we're dealing with those demographics that are harder
to reach. The PACIFICA and Marti community still remain to
be the highest smoking numbers and reducing availability to those
that aren't regularly engaged with the health system was going

(03:10):
to be a real problematic deterrant to accessing the quit
smoking tools that I think they need.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Those shops, do you reckon they're laundering money? There's so
many of them, and you think, how is it possible
with a reducing customer base. There's so many shops opening
up with so much the fit out on some of
those shops. Case, you've got to wonder where the doos
coming from, don't you.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Well, given my work on organized crime, I'd be really
concerned if that was the case.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
But I think you want to pass one of those
shops and thought old on there. That doesn't match the
customer base.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
And the other thing is that you've got to look
at their legitimate businesses. So they are being audited, We
have increased enforcement, they are being ordered, they are paying taxes,
all of those sort of things. We have to monitor
the works that they're doing. But they have contributed to
reducing smoking. And I'm not saying every vaping star is

(04:06):
the best in the world, but they have contributed to
the position where and now, so we need to work together.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
Good stuff, Appreciate your time as always. Casey Cassello, the
Associate Health Minister for more from the MIC asking breakfast
listen live to news talks it'd be from six am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio