Government planning youth vaping crackdown
The Government is proposing a further suite of vaping restrictions in a bid to stop young people starting the habit. Vapes For Smoking
Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall told 1News the Ministry of Health is now seeking public feedback on the proposed regulations in response to rising youth vaping rates.
"We need to strike a better balance – vaping’s useful to help people quit smoking but we don't want kids to be starting vaping straight up," she said.
It's illegal to sell or give a vaping product to anyone under 18.
The proposals include stopping new specialist vape retailers from opening near schools and sports grounds; labelling flavours which appeal to children under generic descriptions on packaging; introducing a range of safety requirements for all vape products; and reducing the maximum nicotine salt concentration allowed in disposable vapes from 50mg/mL to 35mg/mL.
On the proposed flavour packaging restrictions, Verrall said it's about stopping the targeting of young people.
"Calling something 'gummy bears' suggests it's candy – these products aren't lollies," Dr Verrall said.
She said the Ministry of Health expects to hear from the vaping industry and the public on the proposals.
"We know we really need to tighten up on youth vaping."
In a press release, Verrall quoted a recent Australian study which found the majority of those who had vaped before had used disposable vape products.
Bishop Viard College principal Chris Theobald is welcoming the measures, saying staff at his school see the impact of vaping on multiple parts of a student's life.
The disposable maximum nicotine strength reduction is a turnaround from when Verall told Fair Go in August she had no plans to review vape strengths after the programme found several vape shops prepared to sell products to underage teenagers.
"We need to continue supporting people who smoke tobacco to successfully switch to less harmful products. Reducing nicotine levels in vaping products may hinder this,” Verrall stated to Fair Go at the time.
In December, after further questioning from Fair Go about labelling and nicotine concentrations, a review by the Vaping Regulatory Authority found some products contained too much nicotine.
Over 300 products have since been taken off shelves, while a further 1800 are under review.
Consultation on the proposed measures for the Smoked Tobacco Regulatory Regime closes on March 15.
The Government is proposing a further suite of vaping restrictions in a bid to stop young people starting the habit.
Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall told 1News the Ministry of Health is now seeking public feedback on the proposed regulations in response to rising youth vaping rates.
"We need to strike a better balance – vaping’s useful to help people quit smoking but we don't want kids to be starting vaping straight up," she said.
It's illegal to sell or give a vaping product to anyone under 18.
The proposals include stopping new specialist vape retailers from opening near schools and sports grounds; labelling flavours which appeal to children under generic descriptions on packaging; introducing a range of safety requirements for all vape products; and reducing the maximum nicotine salt concentration allowed in disposable vapes from 50mg/mL to 35mg/mL.
On the proposed flavour packaging restrictions, Verrall said it's about stopping the targeting of young people.
"Calling something 'gummy bears' suggests it's candy – these products aren't lollies," Dr Verrall said.
She said the Ministry of Health expects to hear from the vaping industry and the public on the proposals.
"We know we really need to tighten up on youth vaping."
In a press release, Verrall quoted a recent Australian study which found the majority of those who had vaped before had used disposable vape products.
Bishop Viard College principal Chris Theobald is welcoming the measures, saying staff at his school see the impact of vaping on multiple parts of a student's life.
The disposable maximum nicotine strength reduction is a turnaround from when Verall told Fair Go in August she had no plans to review vape strengths after the programme found several vape shops prepared to sell products to underage teenagers.
"We need to continue supporting people who smoke tobacco to successfully switch to less harmful products. Reducing nicotine levels in vaping products may hinder this,” Verrall stated to Fair Go at the time.
In December, after further questioning from Fair Go about labelling and nicotine concentrations, a review by the Vaping Regulatory Authority found some products contained too much nicotine.
Over 300 products have since been taken off shelves, while a further 1800 are under review.
Consultation on the proposed measures for the Smoked Tobacco Regulatory Regime closes on March 15.
Daily smoking rates have hit an all-time low, but vaping rates are on the rise.
Nineteen-year-old Gemma Kirk started vaping four years ago because “all the other kids were doing it”.
She says it was a few months before she realised she was hooked.
"I did not know what a nicotine addiction was."
It’s becoming a more popular habit among Kiwis - 8.3% of Kiwis are vaping daily, up from 6.2% last year, while many are ditching cigarettes, according to the latest NZ Health Survey results.
"It’s amazing news that the daily smoking rate’s down to 8%, it puts us amongst some of the lowest smoking rates in the world," says Ben Youdan from smokefree campaign organisation ASH NZ.
But there’s concern about the number of young people taking up vaping – almost a fifth of 15 to 24-year-olds are using them daily.
"We’re even hearing from parents with kids in year 8 and 9, who are vaping," says Letitia Harding from the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation.
She says many of these kids have never smoked.
“Kids who are vaping in the shower, getting up in the middle of the night, they’re dependent on these vapes."
Legislation is going through Parliament that would decrease the number of retail outlets able to sell tobacco, drastically reduce the level of nicotine in cigarettes to non-addictive levels and ban anyone born from 2009 from ever buying them.
Harding’s calling for similar regulations for vapes.
"We don’t need 50 milligrams of nicotine in a vape and I think that’s the problem. I think a lot of the kids still aren’t aware of those high doses and that’s when they become dependent."
Smoking and vaping drove a jump last year in the number of school children punished with a stand-down of up to five days.
By John Gerritsen or rnz.co.nz
But an anti-smoking advocacy group said punishments that excluded students from school would not solve the problem.
Ministry of Education figures showed schools stood down 15,968 students 20,980 times in 2021.
That was about 2800 more stand-downs in 2021 than in 2020, but 1302 fewer than in 2019.
The report said smoking and vaping were the main reasons for the increase in 2020.
"Breakdown of the smoking or alcohol category indicates that the number of stand-downs due to smoking has increased from 1210 in 2020 to 2865 in 2021," the report said. "This accounts for 59% of the increase in stand-down cases between 2020 and 2021."
The effect was even larger when vaping was included with smoking.
"The data shows that for 75% of [the] increase in stand-downs from 2020 to 2021, smoking or vaping was cited as part or all of the reason."
Action for Smokefree 2025 director Ben Youdan told RNZ's Morning Report that while they do not want young people vaping or smoking, they do not want schools to stand pupils down for it and that doing so could be counter-productive.
"There's plenty of evidence from other drug and alcohol use that actually excluding kids for those things doesn't discourage them from using them and can even increase harmful use as well," Youdan said.
"That's because it's saying to kids 'you don't belong here because of that behaviour'. Kids need somewhere to feel like they belong, and they can have safe and open and honest conversations about vaping and smoking and other substance use as well, and if the school is excluding them it's not creating the space to deal with it as a health issue."
He said the best approach was for schools to talk to young people about things they were being exposed to help them understand the risks and feel empowered to say no to them and to give them a way to access support to help change their behaviour or manage addiction.
"Smoking is now so low for young people, we're down to the 1 or 2%... but vaping we've seen that really big increase, I think because it's novel, kids are curious about it... for a long time it was very unregulated."
New legislation was put in place late last year aimed at making it harder for young people to access vapes containing nicotine, and marketing, advertising and promotions for vapes were cracked down on the year before.
This month, Parliament passed a new law to ban the sale of tobacco to anyone born after January 1, 2009.
Youdan said there had been a recent shift in vaping use among young people.
"We're seeing probably about 10% of young people are vaping daily, and a lot more experimenting or using it regularly, we have seen an increase in that over the last two or three years.
"But actually for the first time this year, we started to record that number flatlining and even starting to go down.
"I think the Government regulations are starting to have an impact on stopping young people accessing vaping and starting to understand a bit more about what vaping is and potentially the novelty is not quite there that it used to be."
Last year, physical assault was the main reason for stand-downs, at 28% of all stand-downs and 24% of all suspensions, the ministry report showed.
There were 2442 suspensions involving 2266 students last year.
Māori accounted for nearly half the stand-down cases and suspensions. The peak age for stand-downs and suspensions was 14.
The figures showed 733 students under the age of 16 were excluded from schools last year, about the same as 2021 but about 3000 fewer than in 2019.
A further 100 students 16 or older were expelled from schools, the lowest figure in the past 21 years.
"Continual disobedience and physical assault on other students were the main reasons for exclusions," the report said.
"These behaviours accounted for 55.5% of all exclusions. Physical assault on staff was the next highest behavioural reason at 7.6% of all exclusions, followed by drugs - including substance abuse - at 7% of all exclusions."
West Coast schools had the highest stand-down rate at 57.9 per 1000 students, followed by the Chatham Islands at 56.2, Manawatū-Whanganui at 41 students and Southland at 40.1.
Northland had the highest rates of exclusion at 2.9 per 1000 students, and of expulsion at 4.3 per 1000 students aged 16 and above.
The report said a stand-down removed a student from a school for no more than five days in a school term, and suspensions removed pupils until a school's board could consider their case.
Exclusion or expulsion formally removed a student and prevented them from returning to a school, but exclusions applied only to students under the age of 16, who were required to enrol at another school.
The Government has put out an urgent safety alert for some vape products.
The nicotine vapes are too strong and retailers are being told to check the products and potentially pull some off shelves immediately.
Vapes in New Zealand can have up to 50mg/mL of nicotine salts – but some have been interpreting that as allowing 50mg of nicotine – which is much stronger than the law intended.
Fair Go has been investigating the issue and put it all to the Ministry of Health this week.
Just hours ago it sent an alert to retailers and manufacturers.
A copy seen by Fair Go shows the Vaping Regulatory Authority says in some cases, notifiers appear to have provided false or misleading information in their product notifications with regards to the quantity of nicotine in a product.
The urgent alert is telling retailers to check the labelling of their products, pull offending ones off the shelves or face enforcement action.
The Ministry of Health has confirmed this could be a fine of up to $400,000 if it goes to court.
China's healthcare authorities declined to include Pfizer's Covid-19 treatment drug in a national reimbursement list that would have allowed patients to get it at a cheaper price throughout the country, saying it was too expensive.
Paxlovid, an oral medicine developed by New York-based drugmaker Pfizer, has been widely sought after in China since the country began phasing out its "zero-Covid" restrictions and a surge of infections started sweeping through the country.
Although it is supposed to be prescribed by medical professionals, that hasn't stopped people scrambling to purchase it on their own through any means at their disposal — including buying generic Indian versions of the drug through the internet, according to local media reports.
Healthcare policymakers can leverage bulk purchases to lower prices in negotiations with pharmaceutical companies that, in turn, can net a steady source of revenue.
A drug must be included on the reimbursement list to be covered by the national insurance scheme. China will include two other Covid-19 drugs: the Chinese-made antiviral Azvudine and the Chinese herbal blend medicine Qingfei Paidu Granules said the National Healthcare Security Administration in a statement Sunday.
Paxlovid will still be available for use for those patients who can afford it. Paxlovid and Azvudine are prescription drugs used to prevent mild Covid-19 cases from becoming more severe.
While the Chinese government has blocked the import of non-Chinese-made vaccines like the Pfizer mRNA shot, relying on domestically made vaccines, it nonetheless approved the company's Covid-19 drug for import in February 2022.
The country is grappling with a major COVID-19 wave, as the virus has swept through major cities like Beijing and Chengdu. Sunday marked the first day in almost three years that visitors would no longer have to quarantine when travelling into China.
The United Nations is hosting a conference to help Pakistan cope with the fallout of last summer's devastating flooding that killed more than 1,700 people and displaced about 8 million, a disaster blamed in part on the impact of climate change.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif was joining UN Secretary-General António Guterres in person. World leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, were taking part virtually as countries chip in to help Pakistan pull together an estimated NZ$25.4 billion that's needed to help rebuild and recover.
Authorities in Pakistan hope about half of that funding need will come from the international community.
The conference has shaped up as a test case of just how much the rich world will pitch in to help developing-world nations like Pakistan manage the impact of climatic swoons and brace for other disasters.
Many scientists, policymakers and others say emissions of heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, mostly by industrialised countries, over generations are largely to blame for a warming global climate.
Thousands of Pakistanis are still living in open areas in makeshift homes and tents near the stagnant water in Southern Sindh and in some areas in southwestern Baluchistan, the two worst-flood-hit provinces in Pakistan.
Sharif tweeted on Sunday while en route to Geneva, saying he would "take the opportunity to present the case of flood victims before the world" and highlight steps his government has already taken to provide relief and rehabilitation.
Pakistan has played down initial expectations of big-ticket contributions and has downgraded what was originally billed as a pledging conference to a "support" conference — in anticipation that donors will offer up not just funding.
Organisers hope the conference will underpin a recovery and build resilience after the punishing floods between June and October, which also damaged 2 million houses and washed away 13,000 kilometres of roads. At one point, a third of the country was submerged.
Pakistani authorities last week cited a UN-backed assessment that the total damage amounted to more than NZ$46.8 billion.
The world body says funding raised so far for Pakistan’s flood victims will run out this month, and an emergency appeal launched in October has garnered only about a third of the NZ$1.2 billion sought for food, medicines and other supplies for Pakistanis.
Pakistan plays a negligible role in global warming and emits less than 1% of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, but like other developing countries, it has been vulnerable to climate-induced devastation, experts say.
Belgium's David Goffin has ousted fifth-seeded Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-4 in the first round of the ASB Tennis Classic in a match which produced an engrossing clash of styles.
Goffin, a baseliner who won his seventh ATP singles title last year on clay in Marrakech, used touch and placement to move his bigger opponent around the court.
Bublik, ranked 38, 17 places ahead of Goffin, deployed a powerful serve which often clocked in around 220km/h. But Goffin broke him four times, including at match point in the 10th game of the second set.
His groundstrokes were crisp, and he often worked Bublik wide out on the backhand side to open the court before hitting a winner down the line.
"His service pressure is just amazing, like 220 (km/h) all the time, close to the line," Goffin said. "So I’m very pleased with the way I returned.
"I broke him three or four times. It was not easy, especially in the second when he started to hit the ball and be more aggressive to be a breakdown. To finish with a break at 6-4, I'm very happy."
Goffin first broke Bublik for 4-3 in the first set, finishing the game with a neatly placed inside-out forehand into an open court.
Bublik then broke Goffin in the third game of the second set, but Goffin broke back to level the set at 3-3. Goffin went up 5-3 with another break and served for the set, but Bublik gave himself two break points and converted the second.
Bublik was 30-0 up at the start of the 10th game, but Goffin fought back to break again and take the match in 1 hour, 13 seconds.
"He started to hit the ball really well, and he's very dangerous when he’s relaxed and 3-1 up," Goffin said. "That was a crucial game (at 3-3) to win the match."
Goffin believes he took some momentum out of the recent United Cup in Australia, though Belgium didn't fare well at the tournament.
"I had two very tough matches playing for my country," he said. "It was not easy. I played some good matches there, and I think I'm ready for this tournament. It’s a good start with a first win here, and I'm happy, so let’s keep it rolling."
Earlier, Constant Lestienne of France beat Pedro Cachin of Argentina 6-1, 6-3.
Richard Gasquet beat New Zealand wild card Kiranpal Pannu 6-3, 6-1, and American Jensen Brooksby beat Fabio Fognini 6-7 (2), 6-1, 6-3
The Suez Canal Authority said Monday that a cargo ship that went aground in the Egyptian waterway has been refloated.
Canal services firm Leth Agencies said the vessel, MV Glory, ran aground near the city of Qantara in the Suez Canal province of Ismailia. The firm said three canal tugboats had been working to refloat the vessel.
Officials had no details on what caused the vessel to run aground. Parts of Egypt, including its northern provinces, experienced a wave of bad weather Sunday.
Officials had no details on what caused the vessel to run aground. Parts of Egypt, including its northern provinces, experienced a wave of bad weather Sunday.
Satellite tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press showed the Glory in a single-lane stretch of the Suez Canal just south of Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea.
A spokesperson for the Canal Authority declined to comment, saying a statement would be released.
It wasn't the first vessel to run aground in the crucial waterway. The Panama-flagged Ever Given, a colossal container ship, crashed into a bank on a single-lane stretch of the canal in March 2021, blocking the waterway for six days.
The Ever Given was freed in a massive salvage operation by a flotilla of tugboats. The blockage created a massive traffic jam that held up NZ$14 billion a day in global trade and strained supply chains already burdened by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Joint Coordination Center listed the Glory as carrying over 65,000 metric tons of corn from Ukraine bound for China.
The Joint Coordination Center inspected the Glory off Istanbul on January 3. The centre includes Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian and United Nations staffers.
Opened in 1869, the Suez Canal provides a crucial link for oil, natural gas and cargo. It also remains one of Egypt's top foreign currency earners. In 2015, the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi completed a major expansion of the canal, allowing it to accommodate the world’s largest vessels.
The Glory is 225 meters long. It wasn’t clear if the vessel had become wedged into the canal like the Ever Given, which complicated freeing that vessel.
Three people are trapped after a ute became stuck in a river in Gisborne this evening.
Emergency services were called to the scene near Waiapu Rd around 7.45pm, police say.
The driver had been attempting to cross the river when the vehicle became stuck.
"Emergency services are currently at the scene, working to secure the vehicle so that the occupants can be rescued," a police spokesperson told 1News.
The Chinese military held large-scale joint combat strike drills starting Sunday, sending warplanes and navy vessels toward Taiwan, both the Chinese and Taiwanese defence ministries said.
The exercises coincided with the visit of a group of German lawmakers who landed in Taiwan on Monday morning. Leading the delegation is the Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, who leads the German Parliament's Defense Committee.
The German lawmakers will meet with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, as well as Taiwan's National Security Council head and the Mainland Affairs Council, which handles issues related to China.
China has stepped up its pressure on Taiwan's military in recent years by sending warplanes or navy vessels on an almost-daily basis toward the self-ruled island. China claims sovereignty over the island, which split from the mainland in 1949 after a civil war.
Sunday's exercises have continued into Monday, Taiwan’s defence ministry said, monitoring Chinese warplanes and navy vessels on its missile systems.
China's actions "have severely disrupted the peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits and surrounding waters," the ministry said.
Over the course of 24 hours between 6 a.m. Sunday to 6am Monday morning, China's People's Liberation Army flew 57 warplanes and four ships toward Taiwan, Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense said in a statement Monday morning. Twenty-eight of those planes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, an unofficial boundary that both sides had previously stood by.
China announced the drills around 11pm Sunday, saying their "primary target was to practice land strikes and sea assaults," according to a statement from Shi Yi, a spokesperson for the PLA's Eastern Theater Command.
At the end of December, China sent a record 71 planes and 7 ships toward Taiwan, the largest such scale exercise in 2022.
Taiwan will hold its annual two-day military drills starting Wednesday. The exercise ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays is aimed at showcasing its defence capabilities.
A tropical depression that is forecast to strike New Zealand from tomorrow night, has been upgraded.
It comes as bad weather continues for parts of the country, cancelling two ferry sailings out of Wellington today.
Cyclone Hale is currently located southwest of New Caledonia but is expected to head for the northeast of the North Island from Monday night to Thursday, bringing heavy rain, severe gale winds and hazardous coastal conditions.
A severe weather watch is already in place for the Coromandel Peninsula, Gisborne and Hawke's Bay for Tuesday and Wednesday.
The latest storm comes as the Coromandel tries to clean up from slips and flooding that sent holidaymakers packing during the week.
Meanwhile, Gisborne suffered around 40 millimetres of ran last night that caused sewage overflows.
The Interislander's Kaiarahi ferry has cancelled its 1.30pm and 6.30pm sailings out of Wellington on Sunday due to the weather.
The Bluebridge interisland ferry service website said it was also cancelling some sailings later today between Wellington and Picton.
And the bad weather meant a cruise ship due to sail out of Wellington harbour yesterday, had to moor at the port overnight.
The US Noordam arrived in Wellington on Saturday morning and was expected to set sail the same day, but on Saturday night there was heavy rain and gale force winds in the region.
The ship was expected to set sail on Sunday morning, but had still not left by midday.
The week of heavy rain and wind in various parts of the country is expected to make travelling difficult for motorists returning home from the Christmas break.
The Thames-Coromandel District Council said extreme care is needed on the region's roads as soggy ground continues to bring down slips and trees.
Further north, Waka Kotahi said road users should expect delays on State Highway One from Bombay to Manukau, northbound, due to holiday congestion.
Traffic management and temporary speed restrictions are in place on State Highway three in northern Taranaki due to resurfacing work.
And speed restrictions are also in place on State Highway 59 between Pukerua Bay and Paekakariki north of Wellington, due to slip control works.
In the South Island, there is a drop out on State Highway Six from Rai Valley in Marlborough, to Havelock due to extreme weather damage.
Former All Black Aaron Cruden has been red carded for a dangerous ruck clean-out on Springbok Faf de Klerk in Japanese club rugby.
Cruden, on his debut for Suntory Sungoliath, connected with his shoulder to de Klerk's head in the 18th minute, leaving the match officials no choice but to send off the No10.
Cruden, who had earlier scored a try, shook hands with Canon Eagles player de Klerk on his way off the pitch.
Despite being a man down for most of the match, Suntory won 32-23, which moved them to third on the League One standings.
Cruden's sanction was very different to that received by England first-five Owen Farrell for a high tackle in a recent club game.
Farrell, playing for Saracens against Gloucester at Kingsholm in the Gallagher Premiership, escaped a red card for a high shot on Gloucester’s Jack Clement.
Why wasn't Owen Farrell's high tackle on Jack Clement looked at? 🤔@BrianODriscoll and @BenjaminKayser explain why a miscommunication could have been at fault and consider possible sanctions for the Saracens and England star.#GallagherPrem pic.twitter.com/58MLHArf43
Farrell has long been criticised for his dangerous tackling technique.
To add insult to injury, Farrell kicked a long-range dropped goal to help his side to a 19-16 victory, which led to the Gloucester fans singing: "Same old Saracens, always cheating".
Three people are trapped after a ute became stuck in a river in Gisborne this evening.
Emergency services were called to the scene near Waiapu Rd around 7.45pm, police say.
The driver had been attempting to cross the river when the vehicle became stuck.
"Emergency services are currently at the scene, working to secure the vehicle so that the occupants can be rescued," a police spokesperson told 1News.
2500 Puff Vape Here's the latest track map for Cyclone Hale, which is still forecast to cross the North Island from the north on Wednesday https://t.co/7wKJumOqMX ^PL pic.twitter.com/8jxhoE8lwM