Illegal nicotine vaping products are continuing to flow into the country, generating a serious national health issue, with border control officers hamstrung in their attempts to choke it without a Customs Act prohibition notice.
Australian Border Force says that over 35 tonnes of single-use vapes are now either sitting in storage, waiting on assessment or destruction. Yet there is no transparency around the processes identified to manage the large-volume destruction of these products which will only increase if and when a prohibition notice is triggered.
Former federal police assistant commissioner and now head of Australian Border Force Michael Outram has told a Senate Estimates hearing that while his officers seize and detain vapes on behalf of the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), a prohibition order would dramatically shift Customs' "operational posture".
The TGA says it does not have a single contracted provider to dispose of the seized vapes and is "having conversations with other agencies" and "considering" its approach to the ever-growing issue of disposal..
Since January 1 this year, more than 1.5 million products were determined to be non-compliant imports, it says.
Two years ago, all nicotine vapes were placed under Schedule 4 as a prescription medicine under the Therapeutic Goods Act, and commercial imports require special approval, with businesses requiring a licence to supply.
The TGA states that "products without a valid prescription or licence can be intercepted at the border".
Border Force's deputy Commissioner of National Operations Tim Fitzgerald says officers intercepted just over 1500 consignments and about 800,000 vapes in the previous financial year, all of which were referred to the TGA for assessment.
"What we are seeing is an increase in the number of nicotine and vaping products that we're encountering at the border, particularly through our air, sea and mail environments," Mr Fitzgerald said.
"It's probably worth mentioning that at the moment we're not waiting for the prohibition to come into place.
"We are currently running some operational activities specifically targeting vaping and nicotine products. We've put a number of profiles in our air cargo environment. They are starting to see significant results in terms of our seizures. In a very short period of time, we've intercepted 35 tonnes of nicotine vapes coming into the country."
Just over a month ago, the TGA executed warrants on two storage units in Sydney and seized more than 70,000 vaping products with an estimated street value in excess of $2.1 million.
The TGA had stated previously that interception was difficult because of the " physical properties of vapes" and because liquid nicotine "cannot be identified by sight or smell".
Aside from the high nicotine content, most vapes also contain propylene glycol, glycerin, formaldehyde, acrolein, benzene, diactetyl, and some heavy metals. Most vapes that enter Australia are manufactured in China.
When a prohibition notice is put in place, there is also the added complication for Border Force of storing and destroying vapes because most contain embedded single-use lithium batteries.
Small single-use lithium batteries are hugely problematic to destroy because they contain compounds that react to heat and pressure. In NSW and the ACT they are classified as hazardous waste.
They also create major problems should they enter the waste and recycling stream. Lithium batteries were found to have triggered the fire which destroyed the ACT's only waste recycling centre at Hume on Boxing Day last year.
After the Hume centre was destroyed, transporting Canberra's recycling across the border for processing has cost the government more than $10 million.
Mr Fitzgerald described the vape destruction process as "quite difficult". And given 35 tonnes of them are now in storage and waiting on destruction, new processes and facilities will be needed.
"You've got gas cylinders, you've got plastics, you've got the nicotine: it's quite a lengthy process, and one that we're looking at now as to how we destroy those vapes in an environmentally friendly way," he said.
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