A huge rise in the number of young Australians vaping has caught the government by surprise and laws to combat it have been slow, according to the nation’s cancer prevention advocacy body.
Key points:
- The Cancer Council says a surge in vape use took the government by surprise
- Laws have therefore not kept pace with the new craze
- A new social media campaign has unveiled the toxins inside the devices
The comments by the Western Australian arm of the Cancer Council come as the group launches a widespread social media campaign aimed at stamping out what they say is a scourge in illegal nicotine vaping.
The Clear the Air campaign – which bypasses traditional media to appeal directly to users of platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram and Twitch – unveils the toxins inside the vapes that are marketed with bright colours and sweet flavours.
Testing had found more than 240 chemicals in vapes, including bug spray, weed killer and formaldehyde, which is used in industrial glues and for preserving corpses in funeral homes.
Huge spike in vape use
National statistics provided by the council show in 2020 only two per cent of teens were vaping, a number that jumped to almost 12 per cent last year.
The figure jumped from six to 21 per cent in the same time period for the 18-to-24-year-old age group.
Cancer Council WA chief executive Ashley Reid said vaping could undo decades of work aimed at protecting young people from the harmful effects of smoking.
“It’s taken a huge amount of effort from multiple approaches in public health, to try and reduce tobacco smoking,” Mr Reid said.
“And now we’re finding that these products [vapes], which are addictive, are a direct gateway to increasing tobacco use,” he said.
Laws have not kept pace
Mr Reid said he thinks the surge in vape usage in WA took the state government by surprise.
“Particularly during COVID, where people are home buying things online, it’s very hard to prohibit,” he said.
“Some of the laws, again, have been slow because of the surge in usage.
“There are hundreds, literally hundreds of stores in Western Australia selling a product that is not legal currently.
“But, we need to improve enforcement, we need to stop supply at the border, and we need to educate … all people about the dangers of vaping.”
Mr Reid said not much is known about the long-term health effects caused by vaping — but the majority of the devices contain a high amount of nicotine.
“They have the equivalent nicotine of three, four and five packets of cigarettes,” he said.
Mr Reid said vaping had become the number one behavioural issue in schools, with 4,000 WA students suspended over vape use last year.
No support for plain packaging
Despite the colourful and enticing packaging found on disposable vapes — Mr Reid said he would not support any plan to enforce plain packaging such as is the case with cigarettes.
“We do not suggest that we talk about labelling and regulation around vaping because we shouldn’t be importing them at all,” he said.
“If we start talking about labelling [that] effectively normalises this product, which we do not want to see.”
He said the Cancer Council WA was supportive of the move by the federal government to ban the importation of vapes, unless through a prescription model.
“The prescription model will also be plain flavoured, plain packaged, not the kind of colourful flavoured product that young people are getting hold of. It’ll be a very much a more restrained and restricted product,” Mr Reid said.
Vape question now standard practice
Perth general practitioner Dr Michael Light said he’s seen the use of vapes soar in recent years.
“Previously, it was just something that we were aware of but it was not very common at all,” he said.
“But now we really have to ask every person coming through the door.”
Dr Light thinks vaping can contribute to poor mental health, anxiety, and depression.
“Often, people who have anxiety and depression in the first place might gravitate towards vapes, because they feel it might possibly help with their stress and their anxiety levels,” he said.
“Unfortunately, in the long term, it probably just compounds a problem and makes it worse.”
Government taking ‘harder line’
The WA government and health department say they have been proactive in cracking down on the supply of the harmful product, announcing the seizure of 15 tonnes of vapes — the biggest-ever bust in the nation — in August.
However, WA Health in June conceded it had brought just one prosecution against a retailer for the illegal sale of nicotine vapes in the previous 12 months.
Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said bulk seizures like the one carried out in August would have the biggest impact on the supply of illegal vapes to the state.
At the time, she said the WA government was now taking a harder line against retailers selling illegal vapes after spending the past 12 months issuing mostly warnings.
Ms Sanderson said there were a number of cases with the state solicitor’s office and charges were expected to be laid in future.
Vapes are illegal in WA unless sold by a pharmacist to someone with a prescription.
The maximum penalty for selling nicotine vapes under the Medicines and Poisons Act 2014 is a $45,000 fine and a three-year prison term for an individual, or a $225,000 fine for a company.