Stray vapes haunt the cold tiles of your local high school bathroom floor. Cold fluorescents do nothing to hide the evidence that students have taken up a new activity: one that threatens the health of themselves and those around them.
The rise of vaping
The coal mine canaries have been dropping dead to the sweet scents of bubblegum and green apple for a while now. Since the introduction of disposable vapes in Australia in 2019, health scare after health scare has been dotting our social media platforms. Initially marketed to those who wished to find an alternative to traditional smoking, vaping has since attracted varying demographics, particularly adolescents and young adults aged between 18-24 years of age.
What is not so commonly known, however, is the effects of the non-regulation of e-cigarettes. Most vaping products are not sold in a regulated manner and originate from China. The danger of non-regulation of these products is that they have a high potential of being manufactured at a poor quality.
Dr Celine Kelso, an academic at the University of Wollongong, has been studying the chemical components of vaping products with her team. Dr Kelso’s team detected that the current regulation prohibited eight different chemicals to be in vaping devices. In four per cent of the samples that have been analysed, at least one of those chemicals are present.
“So, out of every 100 devices, currently four would have a chemical that is banned in Australia, and they’re all coming from China. In terms of non-regulation, or pushing things into the black market, we will risk having products of lower quality exposing the users to chemicals that shouldn’t be there,” Dr Kelso said.
The main aim of government legislation is to stop the main access of youth to vaping devices. By trying to control their access, to curb the uptake and current vaping rates, legislation enables more detail on what should and should not be present in the devices, to try to get safer products.
According to the National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS) 2022-23 published earlier this year, those aged 18-24 are most likely to use e-cigarettes (21%), with the most common reason for vaping being ‘out of curiosity’ (39%). In 2022-23, 49 percent of people aged 18 to 24 said they had used an e-cigarette at least once in their lifetime, a 23 percent rise from 2019.
Graph: Current use of e‑cigarettes by age, 2016 to 2022–2023. Source: NDSHS 2022–2023.
Like a moth to a flame, the vaping trend is attracting hordes of new users who may not fully understand the full effects of continuous use.
“Those devices were invented for people to quit smoking in the first place. They are not recognised as an authorised NRT (nicotine replacement therapy). Experts of tobacco restrictions have pushed the smoking rates in the younger population lower and lower, so when these started to appear, kids were still curious. They were actually testing fruity flavours, more fun flavours, as experimentation was a big thing,” Dr Kelso said.
A new generation
As a self-described ‘social vaper,’ twenty-year-old Lucy* has mixed emotions about her vaping experiences.
“I’ve noticed how awful I feel after. Maybe it’s a mental thing of I’ve realised what I’ve done, but my chest will hurt afterwards. I’ve also noticed that with people who vape more than I do, they have pretty hefty coughs. You’d think that they’re sick, but they’re not,” Lucy said.
“The experience of vaping is positive in a way because you’re joining in and you’re not shamed for participating, however you’re excluded if you don’t,” Lucy said.
Vaping has become a social ritual, beyond just the consumption of nicotine. It’s an invitation, a signal, to participate and get involved. It’s a tangible way to connect.
The first e-cigarette was developed by a chemist named Hon Lik in China in 2003, and was proposed as an alternative to traditional cigarettes. What initially started with arguably good intentions has transformed into what the Australian Medical Association is calling a public health crisis.
Overall, young people are less likely to admit to using e-cigarettes uncontrollably compared to other users. Almost one in four adolescents aged 14-17 currently using e-cigarettes reported that they had used a vape everyday in the previous 30 days. For those aged 18-24, it is at 26 per cent.
In regards to the development of the brain, adolescence is a key development stage. At this time, the brain changes and grows new connections. Sections that control emotions develop faster than sections that regulate self-control, thus, leading to more risk-taking behaviour.
Nicotine affects young people differently to adults, as their brains are more sensitive. The brain receptors impacted by nicotine affect capabilities of addiction and capacity for learning, and also encourage impulsive behaviour in adulthood. Young people who vape are more likely to begin smoking traditional cigarettes, and also find it more difficult to cease nicotine use.
Navigating the legal landscape
Policymakers have come in strong to enforce vaping and the use of e-cigarettes.
As of 1 October 2024, people aged 18 and over are allowed to purchase vaping products from participating pharmacies with a nicotine concentration of 20 mg/ml or less regardless of if a prescription is presented. Flavours are also restricted to tobacco, menthol and mint, and adhere to packaging standards.
Measures have been introduced with the aim of curbing the increasing usage among the Australian youth. Despite these measures, however, regulation has fuelled a thriving black market of e-cigarettes as people aim to swerve the law to use the vapes for personal use.
The biggest challenge faced when attempting to manage youth access to e-cigarettes is also to decrease illegal sales. With more ‘under-the-counter’ sales, the number of vaping products with illegal chemicals becomes more difficult to manage.
Dr Kelso has investigated the future of vaping and she believes that the innovation is moving at such a fast rate, regulations are trying to keep up.
“People [and organisations] making those devices, tobacco and vaping companies, are constantly coming up with new products. They are adapting so fast, in order to get around those regulations,” Dr Kelso said.
These developments have been continuous since 2019. In 2021, any products that contain nicotine were outlawed, and in the months following the nicotine ingredient was removed from the packaging.
“So technically it was not a nicotine product anymore, but they did keep on selling them even though they did still have nicotine in them,” Dr Kelso said.
In January 2024, disposable e-cigarettes were prohibited, and in a few months again new technological developments were made to pass by this regulation.
“They are just constantly adapting to get further around the regulation. Even though NSW Health is getting better at confiscating and finding people that are selling them illegally, it is still so easy to get,” Dr Kelso said.
Dissection and recycling
Characterised as either reusable or disposable, however, in their simplest form, disposable vaping devices contain a battery, pressure sensor, LED light, ‘juice’ or e-liquid and a heating element. As the sensor is initiated by taking a puff, the battery activates the heating element that vaporises the e-liquid.
As the consumption of vapes has increased since 2019, they contribute to a growing amount of e-waste. Not only do these devices have toxic effects on the environment, but they also pose a danger for igniting fires with the lithium batteries.
Each device is constructed slightly differently, depending on the shape, quality and number of puffs available. Having these metals mixed in with low-quality materials such as plastic adds a level of difficulty to the recycling process. With no practical means to recycle vapes, most end up in landfill or littered on the street.
Dr Kelso’s team has collected over 600 devices, donated only from 18 local schools in the Illawarra region in the past 12 months.
For more vaping services, contact the Tobacco Information Line on 1800 357 412.
*Name has been changed for privacy.