Parent Information

There is increasing concern about the prevalence of vaping among young people under the age of 18.

Recent research has suggested that 1 in 5 Year 10 students in NZ are vaping.

An Action for Smokefree 2025 survey showed regular vaping rates among year 10 pupils has increased from 12.0% in 2019 to 20.2% in 2021. Vapes were designed as a tool to help cigarette smokers cut down or give up smoking, however, a new issue has been created with young people becoming addicted to the nicotine contained in the vape juice. Dealing with this problem requires a multi-faceted approach. This would involve education about the short and long term health risks of vaping, exploring strategies to deal with peer pressure to vape, teaching replacement behaviours to cope with stress, parent education about vaping, tighter regulations regarding the supply of vapes and vaping products, further advertising regulations, collaboration between education and health services (such as our Health Nurse) to develop individual health plans to help young people reduce, then eliminate their nicotine addiction. Smoking cessation programmes are funded, but vaping cessation is not, despite both habits involving nicotine addiction. The issue is nicotine addiction, not just the method used to ingest this. OGHS is part of the Tūturu Project. Tūturu helps NZ schools to implement school-wide changes that improve the wellbeing of their students and develops their critical thinking. The first focus area of Tūturu is reducing alcohol and other drug-related harm in ways that promote student engagement and wellbeing. https://www.tuturu.org.nz/

Inhaling too much nicotine can lead to nicotine sickness or being "nic sick'". Nicotine primarily affects the heart and central nervous system, regardless of the amount you use. Too much nicotine can lead to toxicity.

Symptoms may include:

• nausea
• vomiting
• increased blood pressure
• abnormal heart rate
• dehydration
• loss of appetite
• extreme fatigue
• dizziness
• headache
• anxiety
• hearing and vision changes

https://vapingfacts.health.nz/the-facts-of-vaping/side-effects-of-vaping.html

Below is the link to an interesting webinar. While it refers to Australian legislation, it does have some useful information about vaping and its effects.

https://positivechoices.org.au/teachers/webinar-vaping-where-to-from-here