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Speaker 1: A new University of Otago study, first of it's kind

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Speaker 1: study in New Zealand revealing worrying misconceptions amongst our teenagers

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Speaker 1: about vaping. Around fifteen percent of fourteen to fifteen year

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Speaker 1: olds of vape monthly, and that's despite those who were

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Speaker 1: interviewed being well aware of the risks. Dr Jude Ballers

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Speaker 1: with US University of Otago Senior a search fellow, Drew,

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Speaker 1: good morning, Good morning. What are the misconceptions that the

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Speaker 1: teenagers who do vape have?

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Speaker 2: Well? I do want to emphasize that the majority of

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Speaker 2: young people don't vape, and as you said, most young

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Speaker 2: people are quite clued up about the risks of vaping.

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Speaker 2: But we did find a widespread misconception not only among

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Speaker 2: those who vape, but also some who didn't, who thought

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Speaker 2: that use of vaping was going to help them with

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Speaker 2: stress and anxiety and we're using it as a coping tool.

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Speaker 2: And that's concerning because there's overseas evidence that medium to

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Speaker 2: long term use of high doses of nicotine actually is

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Speaker 2: likely to make mental health problems worse.

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Speaker 1: That's an interesting one because if I mean, isn't their

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Speaker 1: self reporting the only way to tell whether it relieves

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Speaker 1: their stress or anxiety. I mean, if they say it

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Speaker 1: relieves their stress and anxiety, are they not right?

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Speaker 2: Sure? They are right in the moment, certainly that rush

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Speaker 2: of dopamine can make you feel calm, and once you've

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Speaker 2: become addicted, of course, having a vape reduces the you know,

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Speaker 2: the agitation that you have when you feel like you

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Speaker 2: really need a vape. But it's the long term impacts

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Speaker 2: that's likely to be problematic. You know, just like drinking

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Speaker 2: to relieve stress might feel good in the moment, but

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Speaker 2: you know, it can get out of controlling, can become Actually,

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Speaker 2: part of the problem.

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Speaker 1: Is vaping as widespread with young people as smoking was

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Speaker 1: when smoking was at it's worse for their parents.

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Speaker 2: It's similar, if not higher. So we've got really high

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Speaker 2: rates of use vaping in New Zealand, higher than Australia,

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Speaker 2: the US, England. So although the rates have gone down

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Speaker 2: slightly in the last couple of years, it's still a

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Speaker 2: major issue here.

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Speaker 1: What did they say about their mates and vaping. If

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Speaker 1: you're you know, if your friends are vaping, are you

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Speaker 1: more likely too? Or is there that pre pressure sort

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Speaker 1: of not exists like it used to.

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Speaker 2: I think kind of both. So what we found is

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Speaker 2: that vaping kind of happened within peer groups, so either

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Speaker 2: everyone vaked or no one baked. Typically, but there is

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Speaker 2: a subtle peer pressure to vape, and partly that's because

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Speaker 2: there's a perception that everybody vapes, even among people who

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Speaker 2: say I don't vape, my friends don't vape, but they

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Speaker 2: still had a sense that vaping was totally normalized in

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Speaker 2: their age group.

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Speaker 1: Are we talking about it too much? Then? Do we

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Speaker 1: need to just shut up about vaping?

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Speaker 2: I think that's not the issue. I think the issue

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Speaker 2: is so visible, it's so everywhere. And some of the

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Speaker 2: moves that the government have made to ban disposable vapes

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Speaker 2: and to make vaps less visible in shops, I think

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Speaker 2: that's a good move in a step in the right direction.

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Speaker 2: But we do need a more comprehensive approach, in particularly

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Speaker 2: one that addresses the fact that vape stores are everywhere

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Speaker 2: all right. You know, most suburbs have got at least

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Speaker 2: two or three vape stores, and they're in young people's

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Speaker 2: face every day.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean they're not supposed to get them from there, though,

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Speaker 1: are they That's the point that they're meant to be

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Speaker 1: rat But I mean, clearly they're.

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Speaker 2: Not it's not working, is it. I mean, it's only

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Speaker 2: supposed to be those stores that sell the frugi flavors.

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Speaker 2: But we know that those frugi flavors are what young

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Speaker 2: people are using, so they're certainly getting them somehow.

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Speaker 1: All right, Dr dud Ball, appreciate your time. University of

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Speaker 1: Otago's Senior Research Fellow.

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