NZ e-cigarette decision gives hope to Australian vapers

SIAN POWELL
May 11, 2018
The Australian

New Zealand has effectively legalised e-cigarettes and nicotine vaping products, bringing the nation into line with other governments such as Britain and the US and further isolating Australia, where e-cigarettes and vaping remain illegal. 

The New Zealand Ministry of Health this week failed to appeal a recent district court decision ruling the products could be legally sold, imported and distributed. This default legalisation has been hailed as a victory by vaping and e-cigarette champions on both sides of the Tasman Sea. 

The court decision in the ‘‘Philip Morris v Ministry of Health’’ case found all tobacco products — except chewing and dissolving tobacco products — could be lawfully sold under the Smoke-free Environments Act. Philip Morris, one of the world’s largest tobacco retailers, launched the legal ­action to protect its ‘‘heat-not-burn’’ tobacco products.

The New Zealand health ministry declared the regulation of vaping and heated tobacco products would be further considered while the ministry “plans to consider how best to apply risk-­proportionate regulation to all tobacco and vaping products”.

Dr Attila Danko, a Melbourne GP and the medical director of the New Zealand-owned firm ­Nicovape (which markets vaping products), said big tobacco interests, including companies such as Philip Morris, had a few vaping and ‘‘heat-not-burn’’ products on the market. “They’ve never really had anywhere close to 50 per cent of the market anywhere,” he said. “But harm reduction through vaping has basically been framed as a big tobacco plot, so everyone has tended to treat it that way. The Labor party, both here and New Zealand, has tended to be more sceptical of it. The reality is that the vast majority of vaping products are from independent, innovative companies.’’

Dr Danko said he thought the New Zealand decision would ­increase the pressure on Australia to develop a proportionate, sensible, regulatory framework.

“At the moment, it’s not,” he said. “Basically the most harmful product (tobacco) is legally able to be sold everywhere, including the corner milk bar, but the safer product (e-cigarettes and vaping products) isn’t.’’ 

University of NSW professor Colin Mendelsohn, whose recent paper on e-cigarettes was published in the Internal Medicine Journal of the Royal Australian College of Physicians, said the New Zealand decision was a ­“victory for common sense”.

The paper cited research that found smokers who switched to e-cigarettes had significant health improvements in asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, blood pressure, cardiovascular health, lung function and pneumonia risk. 

“What they’re recognising is that combustibles (tobacco products that are burned) are very different to non-combustibles (prod­ucts such as e-cigarettes, which are heated and the steam inhaled),” Dr Mendelsohn, said. “Combustibles have much higher risks, whereas e-cigarettes and heat-not-burn products have lower risks.’’