SYDNEY, May 2 (Portal) – Australia on Tuesday banned recreational vaping and tightened other aspects of e-cigarette laws in the biggest crackdown on the tobacco industry in more than a decade to try to stem an alarming rise in vaping stop in teenagers.
The government intends to ban all single-use vapes, which often come in fruity flavors, ban the import of non-prescription vapes, and limit nicotine content, with the goal of restricting vape sales to helping smokers quit .
“Just like with smoking, Big Tobacco has taken another addictive product, wrapped it in shiny packaging and added flavoring to create a new generation of nicotine addicts,” Health Secretary Mark Butler said in a speech to the National Press Club.
Under the new rules, vapes will only be sold in pharmacies and will require “pharmaceutical” packaging.
Widely regarded as a safer alternative to smoking cigarettes and useful for helping smokers quit, vaping involves heating a liquid containing nicotine in what is known as an e-cigarette and converting it into vapor for the user to inhale.
However, studies have shown the potential for long-term harm from the addictive e-cigarettes.
Butler said vaping has become a recreational product in Australia, sold primarily to teenagers and young people who are three times more likely to start smoking.
“This is a product for our kids that comes with lollipops and candy bars,” Butler said. “Vaping has now become the number one behavioral problem in high schools. And it’s also spreading in elementary schools.”
Doctors supported the crackdown on vaping but urged the government to do more to limit the number of young people taking up it.
“Nicotine vaping products are sold with colorful flavors and we’ve even seen products sporting the same type of imagery as children’s breakfast cereals, including cartoon characters,” said Nicole Higgins, President of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.
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Around 22% of Australians aged 18-24 have used an e-cigarette or vape device at least once, data from last year showed.
Although a prescription is required to buy nicotine vapes in Australia, a thriving illegal market means they are readily available.
The federal budget, due next week, will include A$234 million ($155 million) for measures to protect against the harm caused by tobacco and vaping.
Australia has one of the toughest anti-smoking laws in the world.
In 2012, it became the first country to force cigarette manufacturers to abandon clear, colorful branding and sell their products in uniformly drab packaging.
Tobacco companies quickly transitioned to e-cigarettes that offer different flavors and created designs that targeted a new generation of users.
Butler said the government has no plans to follow neighboring New Zealand in banning the sale of cigarettes for future generations, but said tobacco taxes will be increased by 5% a year over the next three years to curb sales.
Some countries have tried restricting vaping, and others see it as a good way to get smokers to quit.
Britain said in April that up to a million smokers would be encouraged to swap cigarettes for vapes, a world first, and offered pregnant women financial incentives and vape starter kits to help.
($1 = 1.5088 Australian Dollars)
Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by Sonali Paul
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