Kaipara District Council is seeking support for a national crackdown on vape sales - with some Dargaville locals aghast at having 13 vape retailers within one kilometre in their town.
B'arch Wear owner Jonette Bartlett. Photo: RNZ / Katie Todd
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Other councils will be asked this month if they think vape retailers should all be R18, and if there should be national 'proximity limits' to prevent the clustering of such stores.
A 150-metre stretch of Dargaville's main shopping street Victoria Street features three different speciality vape retailers.
Within a kilometre radius, another 10 stores identified by the local health agencies - and verified by RNZ - sell plainer mint, menthol and tobacco flavoured vapes, alongside other goods.
They include dairies, petrol stations and two-dollar-stores.
The town is home to fewer than 5000 people.
Locals told RNZ they were surprised and disappointed that vapes were so readily available.
"I didn't realise we had that [many] shops here for vaping... I think we only need one. One shop," one resident said.
"The young ones are smoking more and more and it's bad for them, but it's actually becoming normal for them," another said.
Some residents who noticed the increasing prevalence of vape sellers last year - and became concerned - contacted three local health organisations.
Those organisations, Te Hā Oranga, Public Health Northland, and the Cancer Society, then petitioned Kaipara District Council for an intervention.
However, they hit a roadblock when Kaipara District Council responded.
It said it couldn't block any more vape stores because that would be beyond it's "existing policy frameworks".
"The product and the registrations and of those products is very much in an unregulated space. So they're just shops. Anyone can put up any shop anywhere," Kaipara District Mayor Jason Smith said.
Instead, the council had escalated the issue by creating a remit for the AGM of Local Government New Zealand, later this month, Smith said.
It asked Local Government New Zealand's members if they thuoght vape stores should all be R18, and if there should be 'proximity limits' to prevent clusters of vape retailers.
Already, the Far North District Council, Whangārei District Council and Northern Regional Council have given their nods of approval.
If enough other councils agree, Local Government New Zealand will lodge a request with the government for tighter legislation - likely as part of a planned vaping amendment bill.
Smith said he was keen for change.
"Kaipara District Council is concerned about vaping and it is very concerned about the absence of national laws and guidelines to help us control this, which we see as an epidemic."
Photo: RNZ / Katie Todd
Dargaville vape seller: Customers just want to quit smoking
At Dargaville vape retailer B'arch Wear, the owner Jonette Bartlett explained vaping products could be helpful in the short-term for people wanting to wean off cigarettes.
"And a lot of customers have done that," she said.
She could provide special products and advice that general stores could not, she said.
"You start on a high strength nicotine and then work all your way down, say like 18mgs nicotine down to 11, eight, six, three, one-point-five and then zero. So there's no addiction there - they're slowly doing that transition and then next minute, they're not vaping," she said.
"Yeah, we're losing customers but it's not about money. Its about helping people out in the long run."
However, some recent studies have indicated the reverse can happen: vaping can be a gateway to smoking.
A team from Australian National University reviewed the results of nearly 200 studies and found non-smokers who vape are three times more likely to take up regular smokes, than non-vapers.
Another study in New Zealand found young vapers were consuming the equivalent nicotine to a pack, or a pack and a half of cigarettes each day.
The Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) has also warned they might be unwittingly sucking up
harmful bacteria and chemicals.
Concern over youth vaping rates
It's these kinds of studies, and these young people that are a key concern in Dargaville.
Bridget Rowse, who is the Northern Region's Smokefree and community development advisor for the National Public Health Service, was particularly worried about how easy it was for young people to stroll into a dairy or store in town and be enticed to buy a vape.
"We're seeing lots and lots of youth vaping. It's unusual, because the people that you do see people vaping, you actually think 'did you smoke? I can't remember you smoking'," she said.
"Within our schools, there's all sorts of schools complaining, throughout Northland as well as in Dargaville. They're always messaging saying 'can you come and present to our schools - we've got kids who are vaping', or 'we're standing kids down for vaping, how do we deal with it?'
Northern Region's Smokefree and community development advisor for the National Public Health Service, Bridget Rowse. Photo: RNZ / Katie Todd
Bridget Rowse said the ideal outcome was no more vape stores in Dargaville, and also no more vape products for sale at dairies, petrol stations and two-dollar-stores.
She said it was important to move swiftly.
"New Zealand currently has almost 800 vape retailers. When we did this petition and this remit we only had 713. So there is a huge amount of growth in the vaping industry," she said.
Local Government New Zealand will put the remit to its members at its AGM on 28 July.