Australia's anti-vaping campaign sparks debate: Could it work in NZ?

Australia's federal government has launched its first anti-vaping campaign, focusing on the threat of social harm rather than cancer to get the message across. The approach has sparked a debate among experts about whether a similar move could be effective in New Zealand.

The almost $70 million campaign will use advertisements across TikTok, gaming, and other platforms to communicate the harmful impacts of vaping to target the more than three million Australians who partake.

Australia's national data from 2022-23 showed one in every six high school students had recently vaped – four times the rate of students five years earlier.

Australia Cancer Council chief executive Todd Harper said: "It's distressing to report that we have received calls to our quit line from children as young as 12."

Instead of the usual graphic images of people dying in hospital beds or failed organs, the new videos focus on people who may have begun socially but find themselves soon hitting the vape routinely.

They show a teenager hiding in a school bathroom stall, a man wheezing as he sits in the gym, and a woman stressing as she tips out her handbag.

The messaging includes questions like, "why are we still doing this?", to statements like, "vaping addiction can creep up on you.... and before you know it, it can be hard to resist its pull."

Australian Health Minister Mark Butler said the aim of the campaign was to discourage vapers before they became too dependent.

"Nicotine is highly addictive and before you know it, what starts as an occasional thing becomes something much more serious. But it’s never too late to quit," he said.

Alongside its launch, support services helping people quit will also be expanded in the country, including funding for Quitline services, the development of an online cessation hub and the redevelopment of the MyQuitBuddy app.

"We're here to help all Australians quitting smoking or vaping. Our new digital hub will evolve to meet the needs of young people, those most targeted by the insidious Big Tobacco industry, intent on hooking a new generation of customers on nicotine," Quit director Rachael Andersen said.

"We want to remind people they're not alone in giving up for good."

The campaign has received mixed reactions from experts.

New Zealand's Action on Smokefree Group (ASH) said it was firmly against a similar approach in Aotearoa, adding New Zealand had a different approach to Australia's "war on vapes".

ASH said it supported vaping as a harm reduction tool helping to lower smoking rates.

Director Ben Youdan called the Australian approach "dated" and reminiscent of the failed anti-drug campaigns of the 1980s.

He added: "This approach will likely do more harm than good."

Co-founder of Vape Free Kids NZ Charyl Robinson disagreed.

"There's been this real focus on less harmful than smoking that seems to have been the only message that seems to be getting out there."

She said it was important that we changed the way we communicate about what was an issue for parents around the country.

Professor Janet Hoek from the University of Otago said she also supported the campaign and welcomed a similar approach in New Zealand.

However, she said that should not be at the cost of "good policy".

"Right now, I think that they should be getting vapes out of any kind of general retailer. Second thing that I would do is limit the number of stores. What I would do is get some really robust, effective bespoke youth vaping cessation programs in place."

In Australia, according to national records, almost one in 10 people aged 14 to 17 currently vape, a five-fold increase since 2019. For 18 to 24-year-olds, the rate has quadrupled to 21 percent, marking the first generation in 25 years to buck the trend of declining nicotine use.

At the start of this year, the federal government banned the import of single-use disposable vapes. It also passed laws targeting the sale, supply, manufacturing, and possession of non-therapeutic vapes.

Further legislation to ban the import and sale of any vapes outside of pharmacies is before parliament, due to be voted on in at the end of June.

If that bill passes, people will require a prescription.

In New Zealand, according to Aspire Aotearoa, 20% of people between 15 and 17 had vaped in the past month, with nearly 28% of Māori youth vaping regularly.

By law, vapes are a notifiable product and must not be sold to people under 18. However, unlike Australia, New Zealand does not require a prescription to access nicotine-containing vapes.

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