Vaping Hospitalisations Revealed For The First Time

Official Information Act data confirms that vaping has resulted in no primary hospital admissions, despite tens of thousands vaping for at least a decade.

“We’re speaking out because vaping has become a punching bag where the more outrageous the claim, the greater the coverage it seems to get,” says Sunny Kaushal, Chair of the Dairy and Business Owner’s Group Inc.

“So, we asked Te Whatu Ora Health NZ the most obvious question - how many Kiwis have been hospitalised due to vaping? That answer is none.

“No one has been admitted to hospital where vaping was the primary diagnosis, ever since New Zealand adopted a code in 2019. Those claiming ‘it’s killing our babies’ cannot be more wrong.

“In 2023, an Otago University-led study said vaping was just as harmful as legal kava is. Both were given 4 harm points versus cannabis at 32 harm points, cigarettes at 49, meth at 71 and alcohol, higher still.

“Vaping may not be harmless but if it is just as harmful as kava, which, incidentally, Australia also bans and vaping has put no one into hospital here, we must ask whatever happened to evidence-based policy making?

“Emotion-based kneejerk policy making could reverse everything.

“While there’s no primary use of the vaping code in admissions here, it has been used in secondary diagnosis. Where vaping didn’t cause the hospitalisation, but it was noted as potentially impacting treatment.

“From July 2022 to May 2023 there was no secondary use of the vaping code. None. In all of 2022, the code was used just four times and arguably reflects the vaping regulations that came into law in August 2021.

“In 2021, secondary use of the vaping happened 35 times. Okay, a mere fraction out of one million hospital admissions, but vaping was only regulated in August of that year. In 2020, there were 14 secondary uses of the code but the Act itself was only changed in August 2020.

“In 2023 it’s a double zero for primary and secondary diagnosis while the number of ex-smoking vapers has vastly increased. This is the ’why’ smoking has dropped and ‘why’ vaping has shot up.

“As no one has been hospitalised from vaping and even secondary use of the code declined to zero, it should also show we’ve got something right.

“Yes, vapes contain nicotine but nicotine is no more harmful than caffeine from a cup of coffee. Yes, we need to stop youth vaping but begins and ends with the families who provide the lion’s share of access to them.

"We also ask how much supply has come from the 96,000 plus retail burglaries, thefts and robberies last year? A 44% jump on 2021 and with 43,000 retail offences already in the first five months of 2023.

“Contrast this with how highly law-abiding dairies, service stations and supermarkets are as sellers. It is this compliance and contact with smokers, which has contributed to record falls in smoking. Cigarettes were a retail product so ending smoking needs the same retail approach,” Mr Kaushal said.

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