[Associate Health Minister Casey Costello] told RNZ she had “never met with anyone from the tobacco industry”, but had taken advice from smoking cessation groups – including ASH – and health officials on the matter.
She was unable to say which group in particular advised her to defer the child-proofing and battery requirements, except to say she had “received a range of advice on these issues, volumes of it”.
“And that’s how we came up with the decision that we’ve made.”
The government planned to ban single-use vapes and introduce bigger fines for retailers who sell to under-18s.
Costello said the need to stop youth taking up vaping had to be balanced with ensuring smokers got the help they needed to quit.
“The fact is our addicted smokers are in some of the poorest and lowest socioeconomic groups in New Zealand, and I’m not going to turn my back on them when we’ve got something that can help them stop smoking.”
Vaping Industry Association chairperson Jonathan Devery said its members had prepared for the removable battery and child proofing changes to be implemented from 21 March, which involved “significant investment”.
“We were unaware until the minister made her announcement that the date would be pushed out to 1 October.”
He said however the timeframes were too short.
“This was a concern to industry, as some companies were looking at having to dump large volumes of product should they be unable to sell noncompliant product through or find alternative markets.”
RNZ
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