Health minister Mark Butler said claims that “insidious” vapes sold to young people do not contain nicotine are “utter horse-s**t.” Photo credit: Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care
In the largest anti-tobacco campaign in more than a decade, Australia announced that it will outlaw recreational vaping and tighten other e-cigarette regulations in an effort to curtail the alarming rise in teen vaping.
The government wants to outlaw all disposable vapes—which frequently have fruity flavors—ban non-prescription vape imports, limit nicotine levels, and restrict sales of vapes to those who want to stop smoking. Health minister Mark Butler called the assertion that most vapes sold to young people don't contain nicotine "utter horse-s**t" and claimed the "insidious" device was breeding a new generation of addicts.
“One-in-six high school students has vaped a young person’s product or deliberately targeted at them. They’re three times more likely to take up cigarettes, or vapes,” he said. “And it completely explains why under 25s is the only cohort in the population where smoking rates are increasing. That’s exactly what the industry wanted.”
Butler also told News.com.au that the government plans to move on non-pharmaceutical vapes and indicated a focus on importation from overseas.
“We prohibit the manufacture, we prohibit the import, that the only way vapes can come into the country is through a therapeutic pathway, which will be managed by the Therapeutic Goods Administration,” said Butler. “We would have to take some action at the border.”
According to Butler, there had been problems with enforcement as vapes are imported in small boxes and not in shipping containers labelled vapes, making them difficult to stop at the border and because states and territories were reluctant to devote resources to regulating the illicit market.
An assessment conducted by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) last month recommended that the government outlaw vape flavors, switch to plain packaging, and include health warnings.