Victoria’s health promotion agency has called for an overhaul of vaping regulations ahead of the November election, warning a new generation could become addicted to nicotine if the state does not act.
VicHealth’s chief executive, Dr Sandro Demaio, said there had been an “explosion” of young people using e-cigarettes in the state, despite it being illegal to sell or supply the devices to under-18s – regardless of whether they contain nicotine.
“It’s an enormous issue,” Demaio said. “I travel across Victoria in this role and just this week I was in the far north of the state, hearing from parents, community leaders and young people themselves, who were saying more people in their school vape than don’t. I was hearing from kids as young as 10, 11, 12 who are addicted.
“We know these products are highly addictive and contain dozens of chemicals that do not belong in the lungs, including formaldehyde, which is known to cause cancer and damage the brain. Even those that claim not to contain nicotine in fact do. But there’s just a total lack of leadership and regulation.”
The Australian government introduced regulations requiring people to have a prescription to buy e-cigarettes containing nicotine last October. The move was designed to prevent teenagers from taking up vaping, while still allowing adults to use e-cigarettes as smoking cessation devices.
But Demaio said it had allowed for a black market to thrive.
He pointed to a recent ABC Four Corners report, which documented the ease with which young people could buy e-cigarettes via social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, at convenience stores or from online retailers.
“We know young people are able to access vapes in a very short period of time and at a very low cost. The packaging often doesn’t declare that it contains nicotine as a way of getting it across the border into the country, so the black market is becoming a much bigger and bigger issue,” Demaio said.
It comes after the opposition last month vowed to immediately crack down on the selling of e-cigarettes to children if elected in November.
In a statement, opposition leader, Matthew Guy, and health spokesperson, Georgie Crozier, said they would increase policing to monitor and restrict the selling of e-cigarettes to Victorians without a prescription and launch an education campaign in schools on the dangers of vaping.
The Reason party MP Fiona Patten has welcomed the proposal for a retail licensing scheme, though she believes the state should go further and allow for e-cigarettes, including those containing nicotine, to be regulated in the same way as conventional cigarettes.
“Alcohol is sold in an age-restricted part of the supermarket, I can’t see why we wouldn’t put e-cigarettes in that area, especially when you consider we openly sell cigarettes out the front of Coles and Woolworths. It’s kind of ass-about,” she said.
Demaio said e-cigarettes were designed to appeal to young people, with sweet flavours, such as chocolate milk, fruit loops and strawberry kisses, and colourful packaging. Some are shaped to look like highlighters, pens or makeup products.
“It’s a complete replay of the disgusting and disastrous tactics that big tobacco used on young people half a century ago,” Demaio said.
VicHealth, Cancer Council Victoria and Quit Victoria are calling for the state government to introduce a retail licensing scheme to allow for greater enforcement.
“It would mean that it’s easier to know who can sell e-cigarettes and who can’t, that they have the right training, are not selling to minors and also that if they say the product does not contain nicotine, that in fact it does not contain nicotine,” Demaio said.
Under this model, enforcement would be conducted by authorised officers, rather than the current system, where responsibility is divided between police and local councils.
A state government spokesperson did not say whether it would support the proposed retail licensing scheme but said “Victoria has strict rules in place regarding the sale and use of e-cigarette products or vaping”.
