Trust gives up helping people quit smoking over refusal to promote vaping
A New Zealand trust ends its stop-smoking service because it refuses to promote vaping as an alternative to smoking.Summary
Wellington's main stop smoking service, Takiri Mai Te Ata Trust, has ended its operations after more than 30 years. The decision was made because the trust refused to promote vaping as an alternative to smoking to maintain its government funding. Regional manager Catherine Manning stated that the trust's tikanga, values, and responsibilities to its community made it impossible to continue delivering services in a way that aligned with its principles. She argued that providing vapes to smokers sent a message that they should stop smoking but had no problem with addicting them to something else. Manning highlighted the astronomical levels of addiction to vapes, even among children, and cited evidence of devastating harm from vaping. In contrast, Action for Smokefree 2025 supports vaping as a means to quit smoking, citing high-quality evidence that it is effective. Director Ben Youdan acknowledged the trust's concerns but noted that other services working with Māori had found real success using vaping to help people quit smoking. Health NZ stated that it had worked extensively with the trust to explore options but could not reach an agreement, leading to the mutual termination of the contract. Health NZ maintains that while vaping is not risk-free, it is less harmful than smoking.
(Source：Rnz Co Nz)
