Our Work

Objectives

To be a collective voice and advocate for the manufacturers, importers, exporters and retailers.
To promote the vaping industry as a technology-led and innovative industry to increase New Zealand’s economic and export wellbeing.
To provide a means by which the vaping ndustry can come together to identify and prioritise key issues.
To promote industry cohesiveness and coordination.
To promote the growth of a New Zealand-led export industry.

To positively represent the interests of the vaping industry to local and central government for evidence-based policymaking.
To enhance the image of the vaping industry as professional but creative experts.
To work with colleagues right across industry domestically and internationally.
To ensure the New Zealand vaping industry has the right skills, knowledge and abilities from the education system to grow.
To provide Members with services and support.

Regulatory

The New Zealand Vaping Industry is highly regulated and our role is to ensure that regulation is evidence-based and risk proportionate to ensure that a Smokefree Aotearoa can be achieved in this decade.

The Vaping Regulatory Authority, part of the Ministry of Health, is our regulator while we operate under the 2020 amendment to the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act 1990 the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Regulations 2021, as well as the Electricity (Safety) Regulations 2010 in respect of vaping devices. The industry is safety conscious and reports any adverse reactions to New Zealand Pharmacovigilance Centre.

The 2020 amendments to the Act struck a balance between ensuring that vaping products are available for Kiwi smokers who want to switch to less harmful alternatives while introducing controls about marketing and availability. The Regulations expand in more detail about packaging, product safety (including ingredients), and the responsibilities of manufacturers and importers.

Tobacco Harm Reduction through Vaping

The late Professor Michael Russell famously observed I in the 1970s that ‘people smoke for nicotine but they die from the tar’. This is the genesis for tobacco harm reduction. It is the third way to reducing harm from cigarettes as opposed to a sticks and sermons approach based upon plain packaging, stigma and taxing smokers who are generally poor to begin with.

Vaping is a market-led solution which has seen tens of millions of smokers worldwide convert to it because it is not just a cheaper way to consume nicotine, but is safer and more enjoyable than cigarette smoking. While nicotine is highly addictive, it is not in itself, unsafe whereas cigarette
smoke is.