University of Otago-led research shows the country’s bid to reduce smoking has slowed for Māori, Pacific and European adolescents since vaping and e-cigarettes started hitting the market, and recent policies that enable easy access to vaping products is exacerbating the problem.
Almost 600,000 year 10 students (aged 14-15) were surveyed between 2003 and 2024, as part of the Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) year 10 Survey.
Researchers from the Universities of Otago, Auckland and Sydney, along with the Daffodil Centre in Australia, compared smoking trends from 2003-09 (before vaping became common in New Zealand) with those from 2010-24 (when vaping became increasingly common).
Rates of regular smoking among 14- to 15-year-olds declined significantly for Māori, Pacific, European and Asian adolescents between 2003 and 2024, but the declines slowed for Māori, Pacific and European youth after vaping emerged in 2010.
Senior author and University of Otago (Wellington) public health researcher Associate Prof Andrew Waa said the findings were especially concerning for Māori and Pacific youth, who already had much higher rates of smoking and vaping than their peers.
He said vaping had been floated as a way to reduce or stop smoking among Māori and Pacific youth, but the results showed the opposite.
"Rather than supporting claims that vaping reduces harms for Māori and Pacific youth, vaping has substantially added to them.
"It has become a major additional source of nicotine dependence, carries its own health risks and appears to have led to more adolescents smoking."
In 2024, regular smoking among 14- to 15-year-olds was about 6.2% for Māori, 3.3% for Pacific and 2% for Europeans.
However, the study found if each group’s pre-2010 smoking trend had continued, the estimated 2024 prevalences would have been 4.2% for Māori, 1.8% for Pacific and 0.7% for European adolescents.
Prof Waa said the implications extended beyond biomedical harm, and into indigenous rights and obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi and international frameworks.
He said the government had duties under the Treaty and the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to reduce health inequities and protect Māori youth from commercial determinants of health.
"Policies that enable easy access to vaping products don’t just miss the mark on health, they also fall short of Te Tiriti o Waitangi commitments and of Aotearoa’s international obligations to address inequities affecting indigenous peoples."
He said urgent action was needed to align government policy with these obligations.
"We should be closing the door on all sources of nicotine dependence, not opening new ones.
"Protecting all young people is a core public health responsibility."
