Up In Smoke: Is it time for Australia to ban vaping imports?

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has recommended a raft of new measures to combat the health challenges posed by vaping this week, as one of Australia’s leading tobacco control experts has called for an end to the sale of vapes and vaping products altogether unless prescribed by a doctor. 

The latest calls echo those made by the Australian Medical Association and Cancer Council, with the TGA receiving approximately 4,000 submissions during their consultation process in response to proposed reforms including a complete ban on the importation of vaping products and an increase in targeted anti-vaping advertising. 

It appears that support for stricter controls, greater regulation and even import bans is plentiful.

“All state and territory governments supported tightening border controls for nicotine vaping products, with most also supporting closing the personal importation scheme and requiring import permits,” the summary said. 

YOUTH AT RISK

The push to ban illegal vaping is being driven by a perceived exploitation of loopholes by retailers and manufacturers, which experts say has made vaping more attractive to young people - a claim that is seemingly supported by data.

According to the Medical Journal of Australia (MJA), between 2016-2020 e-cigarette usage nearly doubled (from 6.6% of respondents to 13%) across the country - but there was one age demographic where that increase was particularly pronounced. While 25-39 year old use doubled, the proportion of 18-24 year old respondents who were using vaping products had tripled in the same four year period. 

With the pandemic restricting movement and entertainment options, as well as the younger generations’ willingness to embrace new products and technologies, an increase was always likely - but the numbers have far exceeded expert opinion. 

According to the MJA, this rise in vaping among young people flies in the face of the claim that e-cigarettes were primarily being used to help long-established smokers quit, with only a third of survey participants suggesting that vaping had anything to do with a desire to quit smoking. 

The marketing of these products is also a cause for concern according to the experts, with a number of tactics being employed that target young people, including the use of social media influencers, well advertised sponsorship of music festivals and even the product design, wide variety of flavours and cheap cost compared to traditional tobacco products. 

“We would prefer that all flavours are prohibited,” one Sydney-based submission said. 

“Including any flavour - even tobacco - makes the nicotine vaping product more of a recreational device than a smoking cessation treatment.” 

In New South Wales, studies have shown that approximately one-third of people aged 14-17 had tried vaping at least once - and more than half of that group had never smoked before. On top of that, young people who had vaped at least once were over 80 percent more likely to take up smoking. So for all the older smokers the vaping industry claims to be assisting with quitting smoking, at the other end of the spectrum it's also being used as a gateway to the start of nicotine addiction.

Far more alarmingly, in Victoria alone over the past 12 months, more than 50 children under the age of four have had to be reported to the state Poisons Hotline due to the dangerous ingestion of nicotine.

HIDDEN DANGERS

Of even greater concern is the suggestion that nicotine-related products, which are only supposed to be obtainable with a prescription, are being regularly sold over the counter despite their illegal status - and they’re having an adverse effect on young people who may not even believe they’re consuming nicotine. In many instances, manufacturers have taken nicotine off the ingredients list to skirt Australian regulations, but haven't actually removed the nicotine from the product. 

According to a school student who offered their comments to a submission, “I tried to quit and I couldn’t think straight. I had the worst ever headaches of my life and I found it much too difficult to quit.” 

Even more alarming are the allegations that tobacco companies are going even further into the youth market, targeting young children with intentional design and aesthetic choices. These claims have seemingly been supported by a Sydney University study, which found that flavour and taste were considered the ‘most important’ characteristics of vapes for participants aged 14-17.

“When you look at these things with pink unicorns on them and bubblegum flavour - these aren’t marketed to adults,” Health Minister Mark Butler told ABC Radio National this week. 

“This is an industry that is trying to create a new generation of nicotine addicts.” 

The TGA paper reported that nicotine vaping products are being imported for personal use and sold unofficially, making it “very hard to police the requirement for a prescription.” 

This has led to calls for a complete ban of vaping products in tobacconists and other retailers in the hopes of making them exclusively obtainable through pharmacies and therefore easier to monitor and control. 

CRITIC CLAIMS

Though some parties suggest that this data misrepresents the number of people who vape regularly with people who engage in the act casually once or twice, the findings reported this week have also revealed a huge rise in the proportion of previously non-smokers who’ve started using e-cigarettes.

Between 2019-2022, despite the publicised risks and possibility of addiction, the proportion of people who had never smoked but now currently use e-cigarettes has grown by 450 percent, far overshadowing any comparable rise in a demographic uptake rate.  

As usual, the tobacco industry is doing what it can to influence the process, with the TGA noting that a large number of ‘general public’ submissions were actually ‘campaign responses’ from the industry, attempting to disguise themselves as public comment while calling for nicotine vapes to be sold at any retailer by removing them from the poisons standard. These responses were easily noticeable as they were not actually within the scope of the TGA review. 

What comes next? While state and territory governments have all called for stricter border controls and import regulation, there were competing views on how these goals could be achieved. 

While some governments suggested ‘import permits’ that can be issued to retailers, some have also called for stricter customs regulations that would allow Australian Border Force to seize any and all non-medical imports. 

Ultimately, whatever decision is made, it will only make a difference if properly enforced given many retailers are already happy to flout current regulations.

It’s also likely that there will be a concerted effort to maximise revenue by the vaping industry as governments slowly decide what approach they’ll take to the TGA review - so if the government and health regulators are going to make a serious move on this quick-thinking, organised and well-resourced issue, they'll need to do it quickly.