{"id":3517,"date":"2023-02-28T11:29:09","date_gmt":"2023-02-28T00:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/australia-has-a-vaping-problem-but-no-easy-health-or-political-solution-or-is-there\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T12:45:33","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T01:45:33","slug":"australia-has-a-vaping-problem-but-no-easy-health-or-political-solution-or-is-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/australia-has-a-vaping-problem-but-no-easy-health-or-political-solution-or-is-there\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia has a vaping problem, but no easy health or political solution \u2013 Or is there?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Regardless of the purported opinions and postures around the failing harm reduction \u2018vehicle\u2019 that is e-cigarettes, our children\u2019s health, well-being and future should be the priority; motivating the political will to push the QUIT and PREVENTION mandates and mantras in all key Education, Legal and Social arenas.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The following excerpt from a recent ABC article<\/a> is the real issue that should be the key informing element in prevention endeavours to this now emerged public health nightmare.<\/p>\n


Professor Skerritt told a Senate Estimates committee last week, the growth in vaping is reversing what had been a very consistent trend. “While we’re seeing smoking levels dropping in this country, the total nicotine use in this country is doing something it hasn’t done for 50 years. And that’s going up,”<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n


Nicotine for the developing brain (let along cannabis or any other psychotropic toxin) is one of the most harmful substances in short-circuiting that vulnerable brain. The attending harms of this alone<\/a> should send the same \u2018anti-smoking\u2019 policy makers into a vaping nicotine preventative legislation frenzy<\/a>\u2026 But will they? If not, why won\u2019t they?<\/span><\/p>\n

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How many people are vaping?<\/b>
Hard data on the current use of vapes is hard to come by. According to the Australian National University, as of 2019, a little over one in 10 Australians aged over 14 had ever tried a vape. There are concerns about how easily accessible vapes are.<\/span><\/p>\n


And the numbers skew strongly toward younger people \u2014 over one third of regular e-cigarette users were under 25, and half were under 30.<\/span><\/p>\n


The Cancer Council’s Generation Vape study looked particularly at teenagers aged 14-17<\/a> in New South Wales, who shouldn’t legally be allowed to acquire a vape with or without nicotine.<\/span><\/p>\n


Nearly a third had tried a vape at least once, and more than half of those had never tried a cigarette. Over half had also knowingly used a vape containing nicotine, and another quarter could not be sure.
By comparison, daily smoking rates have steadily fallen in recent decades<\/a>, down to 11 per cent in 2019. People aged between 40 and 60 are the most likely to be smoking each day.<\/span><\/p>\n


Professor Skerritt told a Senate Estimates committee last week, the growth in vaping is reversing what had been a very consistent trend. “While we’re seeing smoking levels dropping in this country, the total nicotine use in this country is doing something it hasn’t done for 50 years. And that’s going up,”<\/i><\/b> he said. (Source: Australia has a vaping problem, but no easy health or political solution – ABC News<\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"thumbimage004\"It\u2019s crystal clear from this data alone that vaping as a \u2018harm reduction\u2019 vehicle has not only failed in reducing smoking cessation rates, but worse, has been hijacked by the addiction for profit industry to bring an entire new cohort<\/b> into nicotine (and other) harmful substance use.<\/span><\/p>\n


This cohort is the most vulnerable to both short and long-term harms \u2013 harms to the brains \u2018wiring\u2019 that can take a long time to unravel. And whilst they are unravelling this avoidable<\/i> mess, the other attending passive harms of failed potential, capacity, and productivity, take a toll on their immediate economies and inevitably the national budgets \u2013 Health and welfare systems already buckling under the weight of substance harms \u2013 both legal and illicit.<\/span><\/p>\n


Failure to interdict the industry and sector over this intentional recruitment of the young to harm will be one of the worse kinds of \u2018expensive\u2019 for both personal and economic futures.<\/span><\/p>\n


The tobacco industry and the willing and unwilling collaborations in the National Drug Strategy policy interpretations may feign \u2018innocence\u2019 or declare \u2018incidental\u2019 over these disturbing outcomes. Yet even the most na\u00efve of us could but scratch the surface of that narrative to see how faux it is.<\/span><\/p>\n

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