HNB decision unchallenged

New Zealand’s Ministry of Heath has abandoned its legal fight to stop a tobacco company importing and selling heat-not-burn (HNB) tobacco sticks, according to a story on Radio New Zealand (RNZ).

Last month, the Wellington District Court dismissed the Ministry’s case against Phillip Morris, ruling the product, HEETS, did not come under the Smoke-Free Environment Act’s ban on tobacco products for chewing or other oral use.

The Ministry has decided not to appeal the decision.

The products will be subject to some of the regulatory controls that apply to combustible cigarettes; so they cannot be sold to minors and their advertising is restricted.

But unlike combustible cigarettes, vaping and HNB devices can be used indoors in public places.

The Ministry said it was now considering how best to regulate vaping devices and HNB products.

Meanwhile, a Scoop story in April said that the legality of selling nicotine vaping products in New Zealand remained in doubt.

The previous National-led government claimed nicotine-vaping products could not be legally imported into and sold in New Zealand, but last year promised new regulations to allow the sale of nicotine e-cigarettes and e-liquids.

And at the beginning of April, National MP Nicky Wagner, who championed the promised law change, introduced a private member’s bill to try to get vaping back on the Labour-led government’s agenda.

But vaping researcher, Professor Marewa Glover, of Massey University’s School of Health Sciences, said that six months into the new Labour-led government’s term, all Associate Minister of Health Jenny Salesa had said on the matter was that she didn’t know what the government’s position on e-cigarettes was going to be.