Can Easier Access to Vaping Save Some Money to Governments?

The Otago University study also estimates if people stopped smoking and took up vaping instead, they would gain 236,000 healthy years cumulatively.

Professor of Public Health at Otago University Nick Wilson told Larry Williams they built a product with 16 tobacco-related diseases inside it to be able to get these figures and compared smoking with vaping.

“Whenever we ran that model for your New Zealand population until everyone inside it dies, those would be the numbers that came up.”

He says they’re impressed by the impact of switching to vaping.

While current research suggests vaping is a wholesome option than smoking, it still has some harmful elements in it.

“We actually included that harm, as vaping continues to be more dangerous than being fully a non-smoker, so we could capture some of the harm,” Wilson says.

Vaping products have now been legal in New Zealand going back a year, and Wilson is certain that the degree of contaminants in these products will dramatically reduce over time.

He hopes that the Government encourages more smokers to give up tobacco products.

“We’ve got to guard young people and reduce young people amongst teenagers.”