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Fresh debate over vaping as rise in young people's use of e-cigarettes put down to ‘experimentation’
An anti-tobacco programme head has urged caution over suggestions of a ban on disposable vapes and put a rise in young people's vaping down to "experimentation".
Ailsa Rutter said the risks and benefits of vapes should be balanced to improve everyone's health. She said a ban - as suggested in other areas like Cheshire and Merseyside, but not backed by Parliament's health and social care select committee - could have unintended consequences as e-cigarettes were used by heavily dependent smokers and people with mental health conditions.
"We're saying there needs to be more thought given to this. There's already a black market, we are worried that this could drive a further black market in it," said Ms Rutter, director of Fresh and Balance, a regional programme dedicated to reducing the harm from tobacco and alcohol.
Assertions about youth vaping also sparked debate with councillors over its prevalence among young people. Ms Rutter said youth smoking was down to an all-time low while there had been an increase in young people vaping.
But she described most youth vaping as experimental and ad hoc: "The vast majority of young people are not vaping regularly. There has been a 50% growth in experimentation over the last two years, giving it a go once or twice.
"There is minimal evidence that this is a generation of young people that are heavily addicted... There is quite a lot of evidence that quite a lot of the young people who are vaping would have been smoking and many of them were smoking."
She said a major, internationally peer-reviewed report showed that risks of cancer, respiratory and cardio-vascular disease were significantly lower with vaping than smoking. Yet more smokers than ever thought vaping was just as harmful.
She said their priorities were supporting smokers to quit with options including vaping, protecting young people by reducing the accessibility and appeal of nicotine products and removing products from the market if they do not follow regulations. She said there were loopholes and "big problems" with illegal e-cigarettes sales to under-18s.
She told councillors: "We know there are lots of new regulations that are needed. We know that way too many retailers are selling vapes and they shouldn't be."
She said vapes needed to be taxed as they were too cheap and there needed to be stricter regulation of advertising, promotion, packaging, labelling and design: "We'll all have seen very uncomfortable-looking vape products in local shops that look way too kiddie-friendly.
"We do want to reduce underage access to vapes by better funding for enforcement, by putting the vapes behind the counter and having mandatory age verification for anybody under 25."
Source: Gazette Live, 23 August 2023
See also: ASH – Resources on youth vaping
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Northumbria Police seize £32k, illicit cigarettes and vapes
Over the period across July and August, officers from North Tyneside Council’s Trading Standards Team and North Shields Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT) conducted several warrants and searches of addresses, on the search for unlawful products.
Together, across the period, they recovered more than 3,000 suspected illegal vapes worth just under £55,000.
They also recovered more than 3,000 illicit cigarettes and more than 2.5kg of hand rolling tobacco.
Searches of the addresses also recovered almost £32,000 in cash which was seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Officers are now warning consumers of the dangers when shopping for goods of the risks of buying fake and illegal products.
Non-compliant and counterfeit goods including vapes and cigarettes can be sold online, at markets or door-to-door – often at a discounted price.
Source: The Northern Echo, 22 August 2023
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Australia: Vaping found to be the biggest risk factor for teenage tobacco smoking
E-cigarette use is the single strongest risk factor for adolescents taking up tobacco smoking, outranking social norms, poor mental health and misperceptions about smoking harms, research published on Wednesday has found.
The findings come from 4,266 Victorian students aged 12 to 17 who anonymously took part in the 2017 Australian Secondary School Students Alcohol and Drug Survey (Assad), with researchers then focusing on 3,410 students who reported never having smoked even part of a cigarette.
The students were asked questions about their use of substances, mental health, social groups, school absenteeism and e-cigarette use. They were also asked how likely they believed they were to be smoking cigarettes in the next year.
More than one in 10 of the students who said they had never smoked were nonetheless susceptible to tobacco smoking, the study, led by Cancer Council Victoria and the University of Melbourne, found.
Published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, it found the strongest factor for susceptibility to future smoking was having ever used e-cigarettes. Four other factors – perceiving smokers to be more popular than non-smokers, having at least one close friend that smokes, perceiving smoking one or two cigarettes occasionally as not dangerous, and having symptoms of depression – were also independently associated with vulnerability to smoking.
Following the announcement in May that Australia would ban non-prescription vapes, the government is currently in negotiations with the states and territories about how to implement tough new laws aimed at protecting children.
Source: The Guardian, 22 August 2023
See also: E-cigarette use and other risk factors associated with tobacco smoking susceptibility among Australian adolescents
Editorial note: This study is based on perceptions rather than actual behaviour – whether children who had vaped considered themselves more or less likely to try smoking than those who hadn’t vaped. It also doesn’t take account ‘common liability’ to addictive behaviours such that children who engage in vaping are more likely to try smoking and vice versa.
See ASH vaping myth buster
Furthermore, consumer e-cigarettes have always been illegal in Australia, although from 2012 onwards access has been allowed through prescription by a medical professional. Prohibition of consumer e-cigarettes has not protected children from taking up vaping and smoking rates in Australia have gone up not down.
See the ASH submission to the Health & Social Care Committee.
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ASH Daily News is a digest of published news on smoking-related topics. ASH is not responsible for the content of external websites. ASH does not necessarily endorse the material contained in this bulletin.
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