New laws to crack down on vaping  – especially among young people – have been widely welcomed by respiratory specialist groups and public health advocates, although some tobacco control researchers have dissented.

Federal minister for health Mark Butler announced on 1 May that new legislation will bring in stronger regulation and enforcement of all e-cigarettes, including strict controls on their importation, contents and packaging.

He said the Federal government will work to stamp out the growing black market in illegal vaping, including to:

• stop the import of non-prescription vapes;
• increase the minimum quality standards for vapes including by restricting flavours, colours, and other ingredients;
• require pharmaceutical-like packaging;
• reduce the allowed nicotine concentrations and volumes; and
• ban all single use, disposable vapes.

“The Government will also work with states and territories to close down the sale of vapes in retail settings, ending vape sales in convenience stores and other retail settings, while also making it easier to get a prescription for legitimate therapeutic use,” he said.

The moves are part of a wider strategy to reduce smoking rates, with Labor saying it aims for Australia to reclaim its position as a world leader on tobacco control.

The 2023–24 Budget will include funding for anti-smoking and anti-vaping public information programs, and a plan for tax on tobacco to be increased by 5% per year for three years in addition to normal indexation.

“Vaping was sold to governments and communities around the world as a therapeutic product to help long-term smokers quit. It was not sold as a recreational product – especially not one targeted to our kids but that is what it has become,” said Mr Butler.

“Vaping is creating a whole new generation of nicotine dependency in our community. It poses a major threat to Australia’s success in tobacco control and the Albanese Government is not going to stand by and let this happen.”

The product is the problem

The move was welcomed by former TSANZ president Professor Matthew Peters, Professor of Respiratory Medicine at Macquarie University Hospital, Sydney. He said the crackdown would address the core problem of young people being enticed into vaping through the marketing and ready availability of fruit-flavoured, high-nicotine disposable devices.

“They are inherently dangerous and have no place in a civil society that is protective of the welfare of children and young adults … [The product] needs to be eliminated from shops and streets,” he said.

He added that the Medicinal Access Framework would “be effective in helping the group of smokers motivated strongly to quit smoking with the assistance of electronic cigarettes.”

The announcement was also praised by the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) which said the widespread, aggressive marketing of vaping products, particularly to children, was an emerging public health disaster.

“For smokers who are legitimately trying to quit using vapes, the prescription model pathway is and should be in place. But that should not be at the cost of creating a new generation of nicotine addicts among children and young people,” said CEO Adjunct Prof Terry Slevin.

“Today is a pivotal, historical moment in Australia’s fight against smoking, vaping, and Big Tobacco. We congratulate Minister Butler, and look forward to seeing positive progress as he works with the states and territories to ensure these commitments are fulfilled.”

Opposing view

But tobacco control researcher Professor Ron Borland warned the move might push some people to switch to smoking tobacco.

“In my opinion, having studied many aspects of tobacco control over the last 36 years, I am gravely concerned that the government’s new policy will do more harm than good. I think there is a high likelihood it will result in an increase in the rates of tobacco smoking, even though it will achieve its proximal goal of reducing levels of vaping in the community,” said the Professor of Health Behaviour at the University of Melbourne’s School of Psychological Sciences.

“The ban on any form of recreational vaping in the short term will lead to a significant proportion of those who are dependent on the nicotine to switch to cigarettes which are still widely available, and there will be a somewhat delayed uptake in smoking among those who are not currently dependent,” he said.

“The policy also appears to be reducing the nicotine levels in prescription vapes. If these levels are dropped low enough, it is likely to greatly reduce their effectiveness as smoking cessation aids and thus lead to considerable relapse back to smoking. Furthermore, a proportion of those who quit using vaping need to maintain their vaping over an extended period after they quit, and the prescription model will make this difficult, again likely leading to a resumption smoking by some.”

Prof. Borland said there was no doubt that vaping is a lot less harmful than smoking, and he believed the more tolerant tax approach to vaping adopted by New Zealand was going to have a vast better impact on public health.