NEW ZEALAND VAPING ALLIANCE OPPOSES UNI VAPING BAN
The vaping ban by Otago University sadly shows the University is out of touch with the latest research on e-cigarettes
and vaping says the New Zealand Vaping Alliance.
“It is very surprising to hear Otago University’s HR director Kevin Seales scaremongering about risks of e-cigarettes,
and that vaping attracts non smokers to vaping and then onto cigarettes when the overwhelming evidence completely
dismisses those views,” said NZVA President QJ Satchell.
“Only last month the UK Government’s Public Health England released an expert review of the latest evidence concluding
that e-cigarettes are around 95% safer than smoked tobacco and they can help smokers to quit.”[1]
The Public Health England report said that ‘e-cigarette released negligible levels of nicotine into ambient air with no
identified health risks to bystanders’ and that ‘the risk to the health of bystanders from exposure to vapour from
nicotine vapourisers is extremely low’.
“We’re not sure who Mr Seales has spoken to, because according to Michael Siegal, Professor at Boston University’s
School of Public Health and leader in tobacco control has said that “the gateway hypothesis (that e-cigarette use leads
to people taking up cigarette smoking) is a myth. The primary reason people use e-cigarettes is to quit or cut back on
smoking conventional cigarettes,” said Mr Satchell.
The NZ Vaping Alliance believes that a vaping ban is a step in the wrong direction, and is calling on Otago University
to reconsider its vaping ban as the move risking causing more harm than good.
“Increasingly the evidence is showing that more and more New Zealanders are quitting smoking by using e-cigarettes,
which has to be a good thing. But putting barriers in their way by way of vaping bans is certainly not welcomed nor
warranted,” Mr Satchell said.
ENDS