The Marlboro Man was one of history’s most effective advertising campaigns, and we’ve spent decades and billions of dollars trying to stamp out its phenomenal impact. That’s working: the proportion of young adult Australians who daily hold a cigarette has been declining since 2001.
That is a public health success story. But instead of trumpeting it, lazy policy and an inability to take advice from experts, particularly medical specialists, mean that vaping or e-cigarettes have prompted a new national public health crisis.
Indeed some estimates put the increase in vaping at more than 250% over the past five years, and a Sydney University study recently warned the nation risks giving rise to “a whole new generation of Australians addicted to dangerous products”.
It’s not that Australia hasn’t tried to act. A year ago, it passed laws making it illegal to use, sell or buy vapes containing nicotine unless they were sourced with a medical prescription. But that policy has been an abject failure, with both the use of and illicit market for vapes ballooning during that period.
If you want evidence, ask your local school how often teachers are routinely finding children as young as 10 vaping at lunchtime in toilets. To combat this, some schools have installed vape detectors, are locking toilets during set times, and are contemplating increased use of CCTV cameras.
Unanimously, educators say vaping is increasing, with the age of students being caught becoming younger. Students are a big market for vaping manufacturers, with flavours encompassing fruits like strawberries and blueberries, as well as chewing gum, soft drink and even desserts.
“So it is unsurprising teens rated flavourings and taste as the most important characteristic of vapes they used,” the University of Sydney study states.
In one city recently, three stores within a stone’s throw of a big high school have been advertising vape sales. The principal told parents he believed that was a marketing decision aimed at luring young students. The biggest source of vapes, however, is China, with up to 90% of purchases made via black markets.
Vapes routinely contain very high concentrations of nicotine — even though the label might declare them nicotine-free — and that is at the heart of concerns held by medicos who worry that young children are setting themselves up for serious illness.
But it’s not just nicotine. Health regulators have warned that vapes can also include ingredients commonly found in nail polish remover, cleaning goods and pesticides. And we don’t see any urgency in trying to stamp this out?
The University of Sydney study — which focused on more than 700 NSW teens — found that one-third had vaped previously, with more than half of those having never previously smoked. That points to a considerable smoking trajectory over the coming years.
“The odds of becoming a smoker is more than three times higher for never-smokers who vape than for never-smokers who don’t vape,” the report said.
It is preposterous that we know about the widespread and growing use of vapes, yet don’t have a concerted and targeted campaign to stop it.
Proof exists of black markets. Proof exists of children, still in primary school, being attracted by the way they are marketed. Proof exists that the labelling of them is routinely incorrect. Proof exists that the ingredients in them are often highly dangerous.
So where is the public health policy orchestrating an attack on vaping? Where are the raids that might stymie the market? Where are the prosecutions of those who continue and knowingly sell these vapes — which sometimes look like USBs or highlighters — to our children?
Where is any serious government action plan that shows a determination to halt vaping before it mirrors the heartache and headache caused by smoking?
We’ve relegated the Marlboro Man to the history books. And still we inhale deeply and do nothing. Why?
I notice that as well as our local Coles and Liquorland selling smokes, we now have a Smokeshop. The doorways are 15 metres apart. The Smokeshop sells vapes of course. I have not seen them at my school yet, but I know the high school has and we keep hearing rumours. Why no action? look and see who is making money pout of the newest tobacco scam. The same old money , the same ld dealers in death rebadged with new lies.
“Health regulators have warned that vapes can also include ingredients commonly found in nail polish remover, cleaning goods and pesticides.” It’s actually worse than that: researchers will tell you manufacturers don’t know most of the constituents of the vapour that vapes emit. A periodontist in the US found that after routine post-orthodontic gum surgery, kids were not healing in a week, as expected, but taking 6 and 7 weeks for ‘normal’ healing. That’s their mouth: imagine what their lung tissues are like.
Making vapes illegal only made the problem worse. Now many of my friends who had Juuls or other reputable vaping brands now buy iGets and HQDs from smokeshops or corner stores. Would much rather the NY approach which keeps vapes legal while banning flavours. Banning vapes outright was a bad move and supercharged the black market, also rather hyprocritical when keeping ciggies around.
Our previous government made an incredibly stupid decision in making nicotine vaping illegal to protect children. Before it happened, I wrote to the health minister, Greg Hunt, and predicted that making it illegal will do nothing to stop kids vaping, it will lead to adults who vape turning under-the-counter products of questionable quality, it will also lead to children vaping products that don’t contain nicotine but do contain God-only-knows-what chemicals needed to make the variety of silly flavours, and most doctors won’t want a bar of becoming a nicotine prescriber.
I was correct with every prediction.
Before the ban, as a smoker, I could easily import good quality vaping products from the USA. I was on a reducing regime and had taken myself from 24mg nicotine down to 6mg over the previous 12 months. It was easy.
Now, to do the same thing, I need to find a doctor who is a prescriber. Make an appointment and get a prescription. Order my product and hope the seller attaches my prescription and then hope customs on this end agrees it has all been done correctly.
Alternatively, I could drop into my local Woolworths and buy a packet of cigarettes.
Most health authorities in the world have at least agreed that vaping is less damaging than smoking cigarettes as it contains none on the multiple carcinogens contained in the latter.
Essentially, our government has made it harder to obtain the less damaging alternative, which is a travesty as far as I am concerned. It is equivalent to adding a 100% tax on fresh fruit and vegetables while at the same time making fast-food tax free.
We need to stop the fear mongering about children vaping and legalise the sale of nicotine vaping products to adults, with tobacco flavours only. We need to outlaw the stupid flavours that children are attracted to.
We need heavy penalties for selling to children. And I do mean very heavy penalties, such a immediate loss of licence to sell tobacco products for selling any smoking product to anyone who obviously looks under 25-years-old without checking ID. That is, immediate loss of business, a penalty that clearly outweighs the few bucks they might make from selling to children.
The current situation is a travesty as far as I am concerned, where it is much easier for adults to obtain the much more damaging smoking product vs the less damaging one, and children go merrily on smoking perfectly legal non-nicotine vaping products.
I’m no fan of vaping or smoking Madonna, but you really need to do better than this tired old trope. The scary ‘your child is taking drugs wtih ingredients commonly found in (whatever nasty corrosive chemical solution you can name)” trick works well with anxious mums and dads. But please, not in this forum. Unless you can show us you’re a real journalist, and detail the damage done by said chemicals in the vaping process. Thought so.
50 years of nicotine addiction proved to me that nicotine alone is to be avoided. It comes with the other crap however you ingest it. Cut out the nicotine and vaping dies. Having grown up with countless sources telling me that smoking is really good for you and cannot cause disease like COPD and cancer of many types, and having seen my sister die too young from smoking, I cannot believe that vaping is any different. We really do need two lungs, with both operating at as close to 100% as we can keep them, lifelong.