Less restrictive regulation on vaping could improve public health outcomes

University of Queensland researchers have found smoking rates have declined twice as fast in New Zealand as in Australia, suggesting less restrictive regulation on vaping could improve public health outcomes.

Emeritus Professor Wayne Hall from UQ's National Centre for Youth Substance Abuse Research said adult daily smoking rates in New Zealand dropped by 10 per cent per year between 2016 and 2023, in contrast to Australia's smoking rate that declined by only 5 per cent per year.

The larger decline in smoking in New Zealand closely mirrors vaping rates: in 2023, 9.7% of New Zealand adults vaped daily, compared to only 3.5% of Australian adults.

While Australia has a highly restrictive medical-only model to limit access to vaping products, New Zealand has endorsed vaping as a tool to help stop smoking and allows regulated sales through licensed retailers, similar to other countries like the UK, USA, and Canada.

These findings highlight that increasing access to nicotine vaping products could improve public health, reduce social inequalities and diminish the illicit vaping market."

Emeritus Professor Wayne Hall, UQ's National Centre for Youth Substance Abuse Research

Professor Hall said tobacco smoking was still the leading preventable cause of death and disease in Australia and New Zealand, making it an urgent public health priority.

"We saw the greatest decline in smoking in both countries occurred in the younger adult age groups, who also had the highest rates of vaping," he said.

This supports the conclusion that more people are shifting from cigarettes to vaping.

"We also found the greatest reductions in smoking rates were in the most disadvantaged populations in New Zealand with high smoking rates."

Co-author Associate Professor Gary Chan said the study noted Australia's restrictive model on vaping products might have contributed to a thriving and increasingly violent black market, which now supply more than 90 per cent of products.

"Restrictions on vaping requires a balancing act to help reduce youth access to products while also not deterring smoking adults to switch to vaping on their path to quitting.

"Under a less-restrictive model, the study suggests that appropriate measures could be introduced to minimise the rise in youth vaping, such as restricting the sale of product to licenses retail outlets, strict age verification, banning flavour names and images that appeal to young people, and restricting advertising to adolescents."

Co-author Professor Ron Borland from Deakin University's School of Psychology said there could be potential benefits of more permissive vaping regulations.

"If vaping is driving the rapid decline of smoking in New Zealand, these findings suggest that regulated retail sales to adults, while framing vapes as a better alternative, is more effective in reducing smoking, particularly among high-risk groups," Professor Borland said.

"If Australia were to adopt a similar model to New Zealand, it could accelerate the reduction in smoking rates, improve public health, reduce health disparities for disadvantaged and Indigenous populations, and curtail the illicit vape market."

The research is published in Addiction.