The first country to impose a one-time "ban"? And demand to lead to "replaceability"?

Oceania's New Zealand Electronic cigarette "New Seven" has been launched, which will ban the sale of some disposable Electronic cigarette, clearly requiring removable batteries for future products. The new Electronic cigarette policy will also be implemented in August this year.

This basically means the birth of the first country to impose a "ban" on disposable products, as well as a comprehensive "knife wielding" ban on disposable batteries that cannot be disassembled or replaced. And even the maximum nicotine strength allowed for disposable Electronic cigarette is required to be reduced.

The first to issue a one-time ban measure?

It is understood that the New Zealand government has recently announced a series of measures, and this policy has also been released on the official website of the Ministry of Health of the country to curb young people's smoking of Electronic cigarette, including restricting the sales near schools and banning some disposable Electronic cigarette, while expanding the anti smoking campaign. The government department stated that it is expected that the new regulations will be formulated in August 2023 and gradually implemented over time, while providing more operational details. It also clearly stated that the policy will also need to be reviewed by the Special Committee, including modifications to better support the implementation of the plan.

What exactly are the requirements?

Core "Seven Principles":

1. Partial one-time ban. Since August, it will be implemented in six months. All Electronic cigarette sold in New Zealand should have removable or replaceable batteries;

2. Restrictions on store opening distance. Require newly opened electronic stores to maintain a distance of at least 300 meters from schools and community venues; This means that the new Professional Vape Store (SVR) will not be able to be opened near schools and halls. Because a quarter of primary and secondary schools in the country have Electronic cigarette stores nearby;

3. Requirements for child locks. Electronic cigarette will need to have a child safety mechanism;

4. Packaging requirements. Prohibit the use of attractive names such as' cotton candy 'and use minimalist packaging. Emphasize that Vape products and their packaging will only have a general taste description; Including Electronic cigarette limited to tobacco, mint or mint flavors.

5. Nicotine content limit. Reduce the maximum nicotine intensity allowed by disposable Electronic cigarette, thereby reducing their addiction; As mentioned, the final product testing requirements will be determined so that starting from April 1, 2025, we can ensure that only very low levels of nicotine products are sold. Full strength tobacco contains approximately 15-16 mg/g of nicotine, while low nicotine tobacco has a nicotine content of no more than 0.08 mg/g, greatly reducing product addiction;

6. Quantity control of tobacco retailers. The new policy requires adjustments to the final standards and plans of tobacco retailers, placing responsible persons, business locations, safety, security, and training at the top of all considerations. The plan will take effect from July 1, 2024, when the number of tobacco retailers will be reduced to no more than 600; This means a significant reduction in scale from 6000 to 600;

7. Retail venues require that sales in supermarkets and gas stations be recorded. New Zealand requires that after regulations are established, general retailers such as dairy stores, supermarkets, and gas stations will need to notify the Director General of Health if they sell products that should be notified.

New Zealand e-cigarette policy

New Zealand belongs to Oceania, next to Australia, located in the southwest of the Pacific Ocean, is also a member of the Commonwealth, a highly developed capitalist country. The island country, with a population of 5.12 million and a GDP of more than 1.5 trillion yuan a year, is known as the "pasture under the blue sky", and animal husbandry is its important pillar industry. Wages are also particularly high, with New Zealanders earning an average monthly salary of NZ $4,750, or about 21,000 yuan.

It can be seen that New Zealand has made adjustments to the requirements of electronic cigarettes, with the aim of limiting the supply of portable disposable electronic cigarettes preferred by young people. Its health minister, Ayesha Verrall, also said in a statement: "We want to keep e-cigarettes as far away from children and young people as possible." "We are creating a future where tobacco products are no longer addictive, attractive or readily available, and the same should be done for e-cigarettes."

New Zealand Health Minister Aisha Veral

New Zealand has long believed that e-cigarettes can exist as an alternative to smoking, but because too many young people are using e-cigarettes, the measure was introduced.

What is concerning is that more than two-thirds of New Zealanders previously wanted to ban recreational e-cigarettes, following the example of Australia's "prescription" purchase of e-cigarettes, but the New Zealand Health minister denied the "prescription purchase of e-cigarettes" policy. Now it seems that New Zealand in Oceania still recognizes e-cigarettes, and plans to become a "smoke-free country" by 2025, and promotes the use of e-cigarettes to help smokers quit.

The data also shows that the current smoking rate in New Zealand is already very low, only 8%. This process has an impact on e-cigarettes, such as the majority of daily e-cigarette users aged 15 or older are ex-smokers (56%), and almost all daily e-cigarette users aged 25 or older are ex-smokers (64%) or current smokers (26%). But the number of never-smokers who use e-cigarettes has also skyrocketed, from 7% in 2017 to 18% now.

The country has a system of tobacco control, such as last year also approved nearly 700 electronic cigarette retail licenses, the mainstream e-cigarette giants Vapo, Taki, Alt and other brands. Online e-cigarette sales are also growing very fast, more than 30%.

New Zealand's ban on one-off also allows countries around the world to see different countries' one-off treatment measures, the direction is around one-off measures to attract young people, social environmental protection and other concerns. The move is expected to have an impact on changes to disposable products. That is, what kind of one-time product design can adapt to regional policies and market needs is also a major challenge. In fact, in the face of the ensuing social problems, disposable replaceable cartridges (remember last year Yuzu talked about this topic, when YOOZ yuzu said it had fully abandoned the traditional non-replaceable disposable electronic cigarette market, promoting environmentally friendly disposable cartridges), rechargeable, environmentally friendly detachable these categories have entered the market, which also shows that manufacturers are also optimizing products. Adapt to policy and market changes.

The one-time change is not only in the form, but also is stimulating the future category changes of electronic cigarettes, and has generated waves in the market. For example, some European countries think that the one-time will turn to the trend of changing bombs? However, whether it will be replaced once depends on whether the policy is done and whether the market accepts it. Even a one-time ban, whether it will boost the growth of the black market, are worthy of attention!