Is this the vaping generation?
And how have e-cigarettes made it into the hands of children?
The regulation of vaping products will be the subject of a Queensland government inquiry to begin this week.
It will also look at what chemicals are in e-cigarettes, and the health risks linked to them.
Health Minister Yvette D'Ath said teachers were "begging" for help.
Kids are selling e-cigarettes to their peers for profit, according to a Gold Coast principal, and some schools now lock their bathrooms to stop vaping in class time.
What laws regulate vaping?
In Queensland, vaping falls under the same laws as tobacco and cigarettes.
You can't vape anywhere smoking is banned, and it's illegal to sell vapes to anybody under 18. And e-cigarettes can't be advertised or displayed in shops.
Nicotine vapes are illegal without a prescription.
Packaging (and any attempts to make them less colourful and appealing to children) and imports falls under federal law.
What's in e-cigarettes? What harm can they cause?
Some vapes have been found to contain the same chemical that's used in anti-freeze, artificial smoke machines, and paint solvent.
Vapes are "cigarettes in another form, unfiltered", Ms D'ath said.
It isn't just school-aged children whose health is affected.
Last year Queensland Poisons Information Centre got calls about more than 80 children exposed to e-cigarette liquid or fumes, with almost a quarter referred to hospital.
The year before, two children exposed to e-cigarettes were admitted to ICU.
The figures have sky rocketed since 2020, when the number of calls was just 15.
How are kids getting hold of them?
A Four Corners investigation in 2022 revealed a thriving black market where teens could buy cheap, disposable vapes, imported from China.
Children are buying e-cigarettes online, over-the-counter — and even on-selling them to each other at a mark-up, according to Mark Pegram, the principal of Gold Coast's Pacific Pines High School.
He wants the state government's inquiry to look at how they get into schools.
"The reality is people can make money out of young people.
"I hate to say it but they're buying them from shops that normally only adults can access … and they're being sold these items at ridiculously high prices.
"The other scary thing is these young people are then on-selling at a potential profit to cover their initial outlay, so there is actually quite serious money in this," he told ABC Gold Coast.
We have a "vaping epidemic on our hands", the Cancer Council's Anita Dessaix said.
She said there needed to be more than education about the danger of it.
"The solution to stemming the flow of product and uptake of use amongst young people requires a regulatory solution," she said.
"These products were never, ever meant for children, adolescents or young adults.
"It's about making sure that the legal pathways that are available to smokers who want to use these products to quit, are firmed up."
