Australian government to crack down on nicotine e-cigarettes as rates of teen vaping skyrocket

So many Australian children are now addicted to nicotine from vaping that the federal health minister, Mark Butler, will propose reforms aimed at curtailing the e-cigarette industry.

Many children do not know they are consuming the highly addictive chemical until it is too late, experts say.

It means many children are unknowingly consuming nicotine and becoming addicted, prompting calls from health experts for tougher laws and penalties.

As well as nicotine, the products can contain hundreds of other harmful ingredients such as acetone (found in nail polish remover) and pulegone (found in insecticide).

At an event at at Parliament House in Canberra on Wednesday to mark 10 years since plain packaging was introduced for tobacco products, Butler will announce the government will begin a public consultation process through drugs regulator the Therapeutic Goods Administration on nicotine vaping products.

Guardian Australia understands the proposed vaping reforms will include a blanket ban on the import of nicotine vaping products and tougher measures to curb advertising of tobacco and vaping to children on social media.

Butler is also expected to propose additional tobacco control measures at the event.

Butler said vaping rates had doubled in Australia between 2016 and 2019. In New South Wales, almost a third of 16- to 24-year-olds had tried vaping by last year, up from 15% three years earlier, according to a state government population survey.

NSW Health has set up a team to get manage the growing problem by testing products and acting on tips from the public. More than 157,000 vapes containing nicotine were seized during raids in the 18 months to September.

A teacher at a Melbourne public high school with about 1,500 students said for the first time in her nine years of teaching she is seeing many children and teenagers addicted to nicotine, unable to concentrate in class. Toilet blocks at her school are now locked between classes.

Murray wants to see greater collaboration between state departments including police and education, as well as changes to commonwealth rules regarding advertising.

Sydney psychotherapist Eugenie Pepper helps people quit tobacco smoking, but told Guardian Australia that in the past 18 months, 50% of her clients have wanted help to quit vaping.

Monkhouse said the brain keeps developing until around age 25, and that nicotine use in adolescence can harm the parts of the brain that control attention, learning, mood, and impulse control.

It is not just those who use vapes who are being harmed. The Queensland Poisons Information Centre has seen a 486% increase in calls since 2020 involving children under five years of age being exposed to e-cigarette and vaping devices. There have been 88 poisonings so far this year, compared with 15 in 2020. Of those 88 children, 20 went to hospital.

One teaspoon of commercially available liquid nicotine can cause irreversible damage or death to a child. A single e-cigarette containing 0.7ml of nicotine is about the equivalent of inhaling one pack of cigarettes, or 200 puffs.

Freeman helps lead Generation Vape, the first national research project asking more than 700 young people aged 13 and over, and their carers, including parents and teachers, about their experience of vaping, including their knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours about using vapes.

Children also got vapes from other students, friends, or from family members who vape, she said, and buy the products online. They range in cost from $5-$30, and can contain hundreds to thousands of puffs.

The TGA has tested more than 400 vaping products suspected of being counterfeit, including not declaring the presence of nicotine. Of 214 products recently tested, 190 contained nicotine. A spokesperson for the federal health department told Guardian Australia that between 1 October 2021 and 5 November 22, 1,043 investigations began into the alleged unlawful import, supply and advertising of nicotine vaping products, with 955 of those investigations finalised.

Over the same period, 96 infringement notices were issued totalling $735,264, including 86 for advertising-related non-compliance, and 10 for import-and-supply-related non-compliance. More than 4,700 nicotine vaping products have been seized under warrant, and close to 400,000 products have been determined to be non-compliant imports.

She said the pro-vaping lobby had creative a narrative that e-cigarettes are banned in Australia, but this is not true. Those trying to quit cigarettes by turning to vaping can access nicotine vaping products with a prescription from their doctor.

Do you have a story or experience with youth vaping to share? Contact melissa.davey@theguardian.com