Smoking is down in Pasifika communities, but concerns about the long-term impact of vaping abound
Research has found while vaping has uses as a smoking cessation tool, Pasifika communities say a lack of information on the pros and cons has created widespread concerns – especially as a disproportionate number of young Pacific people reach for the e-cig.
The Te Whatu Ora-commissioned report was undertaken by Pasifika-focused research company Matada, which interviewed 60 Pasifika people and found communities are worried about potential long-term health impacts of vaping and exploitation of Pacific youth.
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The report recommended immediate health promotion aimed at Pacific peoples detailing the benefits of vaping as a tool for smoking cessation, the exploration of further regulation of vape availability and greater involvement of Pasifika in smoke-free initiatives.
Matada director Gerald Naepi said Pasifika were uneasy about the prevalence of vaping in their communities, but acknowledged it was the “lesser of two evils” when put up against smoking.
Concerns about the high number of vape shops in areas with high Pasifika populations were also common.
“They see vaping appearing and don’t want it in the community,” Naepi said. “They don’t want the next generation to vape but this is difficult with the number of vape shops popping up everywhere.”
Naepi said the role of vaping as a tool for quitting smoking needed to be emphasised, while providing information on the potential drawbacks for young people picking it up in culturally appropriate ways.
"What we found is Pacific people are engaging with vaping through their social circles,” he said. “But the understanding through the community is they don't have enough information to make a really robust, informed decision when compared to smoking.”
He said the involvement of community leaders could help government or health promotion agencies get the facts across.
"We are a very social and family-oriented community, we are influenced by the people around us, our friends and family,” he said. “It should be a really concerted community effort with our leaders involved, not only health professionals but also leaders of our community groups and our churches ... it should be more of a holistic approach.”
This could allow the contrasts between vaping as a health practice or a recreational pastime to be more easily understood. Naepi said the two were a bit muddled at the moment.
“Definitely if we set our goal as being smokefree in the next couple years, we need to draw a definitive line in the sand and really double down on vaping as a smoking cessation tool,” he said. “Because I fear the way it looks now is it’s more of a commodity people use to make money from less fortunate populations, and those happen to be Pacific people.”
Research shows a decrease in Pasifika people smoking over the past four years, but an increase in vaping, especially among young people.
Survey data from 2014 to 2019 found 14-15-year-old Pasifika students were around 1.5 times more likely to have tried vaping or smoking compared to non-Māori or non-Pacific students.
Naepi said the “youth vibe” of vaping didn't help, with youthful branding and flavours like bubblegum drawing in adolescents.
New rules come into action next month to ban most disposable vapes, prevent vape vendors from setting up near schools and enforce generic flavour descriptions.
Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall said the new rules were “to strike a balance between preventing young people from starting to vape, at the same time as having vapes available as a cessation tool for those who genuinely want to give up smoking”.
So out are names like ‘cotton candy’ or ‘strawberry jelly donut’ – but ‘orange’ and ‘berry’ remain fair game.
The Matada research found Pacific people were worried vaping was too accessible and alluring for young people.
One Fijian respondent spoke about how her under-10 children were already responding to vaping.
“They already know it, but they love it. They like to smell. They like to inhale it. I mean, they’ll see the juice just sitting there, and they’ll want to smell it. They pick up the vape.”
It’s a comfort and familiarity people attributed to targeted marketing.
“They’ve marketed it so well that it almost looks more popular than cigarettes now, because it’s also such a cool thing,” one anonymous respondent told researchers.
“The ages that they’re targeting are, I think, younger, because everyone loves to see all this big smoke coming out. And then, again, there’s the flavours, there’s the cool vaping, the tools, you’ve got different pipes, you’ve got the pen … and it won’t smell like a cigarette, you can do it in your car, and it’ll smell like mango or Coca-Cola or something.”
