One Tairāwhiti health provider has observed children “as young as 8 who are addicted” as the region continues to tackle youth vaping.
While youth vaping is decreasing in Gisborne and nationwide, nearly twice as many year 10 students in the Gisborne district still regularly vape when compared with the rest of the country.
Health providers in Tairāwhiti are heading into schools to educate young people around vaping to help them make informed decisions without shaming them.
A Snapshot Survey undertaken by Action for Smokefree 2025 (Ash) found 21% of Year 10 students in Tairāwhiti reported regular vaping (daily, weekly or monthly) in 2025. The national average is 11.2%.
The survey is an annual cross-sectional census of New Zealand 14 and 15-year-old school students’ smoking, vaping and associated behaviours.
It forms part of the Ministry of Health’s public health monitoring programme.
All schools with Year 10 students are invited to participate, and 20,000 to 30,000 students do so every year.
The survey found daily vaping of Year 10 Gisborne students was 13.6%, almost double the national average of 7.1%.
The proportion of Year 10 students who have tried vaping in Tairāwhiti is 48% compared with 31% nationwide.
National and regional figures have all decreased since 2022, when the number of Tairāwhiti students who had tried vaping and vaped regularly peaked at 65.8% and 36%, respectively.
Ash director Ben Youdan said Tairāwhiti had always had higher rates of both vaping and smoking than the national average.
Helping rangatahi make informed choices
Te Rau Keelan is co-head of the population health and research team at Ngāti Porou Oranga, where part of her mahi is to run training around vape harm.
“I go into the schools and wananga with the rangatahi about the real impacts of vaping. It’s not about shaming them at all. It’s just about giving them honest information so that they can make informed choices,” she says.
She has visited Waikiriri School in Kaiti and Ngata Memorial College in Ruatōria, working with youth to talk about the risks of vaping.
“Part of the appeal is the huge number of flavours available. I have met children as young as 8 who are addicted to vaping.”
Keelan believed vaping was a big problem in schools and more needed to be done to educate youth and help them quit.
Vapes ‘designed to look like a fashion accessory’ not helpful
Gisborne Girls’ High School principal Bindy Hannah said her school saw vaping as a much wider issue.
“Vaping is a billion-dollar industry and the fact that they can buy vapes in flavours such as bubble gum and watermelon, and the vapes are designed to look like a fashion accessory, is not helpful.
“The marketing is very clever, and no wonder students find them attractive. The availability of vapes in almost every dairy in Gisborne makes it look like it is socially acceptable.”
As reported in the Gisborne Herald earlier this year, Douglas Lush, a medical officer of health in the region, said vapes could be bought at more than 80 locations, not only specialist vape retailers, within Gisborne city alone.
Tairāwhiti now has a permanent compliance officer, who visits suppliers, educates them on the legislation and ensures they adhere to the rules.
“We’ve been far more active with vape sales than we have been in the past,” Lush said.
New Zealand law prohibits the sale or supply of any vaping product to anyone under the age of 18.
The infringement fine for selling to a minor, which can be given without prosecution, is $2000 for a manufacturer, importer, distributor or retailer.
Gisborne District Council updated its smoke-free and vape-free policy last July to include vaping and the city centre, in response to young people taking up vaping.
Research into potential risks of vaping ongoing
Last month, the New Zealand Herald reported on research that found vaping probably caused lung and oral cancer.
Speaking to Herald NOW, University of NSW’s Professor Bernard Stewart said there had not been sufficient time for studies to determine epidemiologically whether people who exclusively vape rather than smoke develop cancer.
The study looked at available scientific literature, which suggested vaping might cause cancer.
“This includes studies showing pre-cancerous development in vapers, that vapers are exposed to carcinogens or cancer-causing chemicals, and in the tissues of vapers there are changes on the pathway towards cancer. These are called biomarkers,” Stewart said.
“Added to that, vaping or vaping aerosol causes lung cancer in experimental animals, in mice.
“That evidence, along with mechanistic evidence, changes in cells and tissues exposed to vape aerosol, leads us to conclude, and we reflect the scientific community in this, the almost certainty that vaping will cause cancer in its own right.”
A research project began last year at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute to predict the long-term impact of vaping on lung function.
Associate Professor Kelly Burrowes is supervising two PhD students who are using a cell-based model to see how vaping will affect the cells and the immune system.
Through the team’s findings, they aim to highlight the potential harm vaping can cause to lung health and ultimately guide people away from the activity.
“Vaping has less dangerous chemicals than smoking, but it does still have known dangerous chemicals,” Burrowes said in an Auckland University statement about the research last year.
“It also has different chemicals to smoking, like flavouring chemicals. These are the same as the flavouring chemicals used in food typically, but it is not known how safe it is to breathe these in.”