Under-researched, unregulated and overly normalised. The popularisation of vaping has taken a chokehold on young Australians, as many struggle with nicotine addiction. Inside the fruity and colourfully marketed e-cigarettes, researchers have found poison, heavy metals, toxic chemicals and excessive nicotine: new research is now connecting vaping to cancers. Where are the days when children sought after pocket money to buy lollies from the corner store?
There’s an array of vibrant colours and flavours – watermelon, mango, blueberry, raspberry. No, it’s not sorbet or sweets – it’s e-cigarettes, like a siren calling on Australian youth.
It’s designed just for them. A colourful and powerful addiction of sweet flavours, that quickens the heart rate and causes irritability.
Cravings. Anxiety. I need a hit. I can’t focus. More cravings, lead to anger. The heart rate spikes. I can’t focus. I need a hit.
Silence.
Cherry cola fills the air.
Relief.
Bathroom stalls, locker rooms, bedrooms and backseats. An inescapable social standard. Vapes are invading Australian high schools.
For Lisa-Marie’s son, it started when he was 12. A few months out of primary school, in his first year of secondary school. A time of new beginnings and excitement.
By the time she discovered he had a problem, it was too late; addiction had taken hold.
Lisa-Marie, who asked not to use her last name to protect her son’s privacy, said discovering her child’s addiction was a devastating blow, one she still grapples with.
“I can’t remember exactly how I discovered it because there were just so many incidents in the beginning, and I was very overwhelmed with it,” she said.
“There was definitely a time that I tried to remove it from him, and he got very angry at me. It would’ve become quite physical… so I just let it go.
“I have been trying to discourage him ever since.”
Lisa-Marie’s son, like many of his peers, didn’t have to look far to get a hit.
In 2019, only 9.6 per cent of young Australians aged 14-17 had used vapes; by 2023 it had almost tripled to 28 per cent.
In a high school class of 28 students, this looks like approximately three teens vaping turning into almost eight. On a larger scale, at a school with five classes of a similar size, that’s 40 students who would have been exposed to nicotine and the trailing adverse health impacts.
Forty students too many, exposed to potential cancer and probable addiction.
One in four teachers reported witnessing students vaping on school grounds, at least five times per week.
Since 2014, the daily rates of vaping for ages 16-24 has jumped 20 per cent as of 2025, experts say it’s a concerning trajectory for the health of young Australians.
In July 2024, in response to vaping rates soaring and community concerns, federal legislative reforms were introduced to ban and penalise the domestic manufacture, commercial possession, and sale of disposable vapes, regardless of their nicotine content. Civil penalties were implemented for unlawful importation, advertising, domestic manufacture and supply, with organisations responsible for enforcement given greater powers to investigate and seize.
It restricted the sale of therapeutic vapes to pharmacies, with purchases requiring a consultation and prescription.
These vapes must meet Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) regulatory requirements, and flavours are restricted to unflavoured, mint, menthol and tobacco.
Despite harsh, clear laws that prohibit the sale of vapes, the prevalence of e-cigarettes and illegal nicotine is prevalent.
University of Wollongong Chemical Toxicologist, Dr Jody Moeller said most Australians were unaware that e-cigarettes are an illicit product.
“The problem is we have an entirely illicit market or black market,” she said.
“There is no quality control over what’s going into these products.
“What companies are finding is they’re being undercut by fake versions of their own e-cigarettes.
“We’re going to see an influx of cost-cutting, which is likely to lead to increased contaminants, which will obviously cause an increase in harm.
“The cheaper the quality of the e-cigarette product, the more likely it is to contain heavy metals in the heating coils.”
Dr Moeller’s research has analysed over 1,000 vapes confiscated from students and found an average of 35 to 40 milligrams per millilitre of nicotine, meaning one vape contains as much nicotine as 10 to 16 packets of cigarettes.
Similarly, her research discovered multiple prohibited chemical compounds, such as acetoin, benzaldehyde, cinnamaldehyde, and ethylene glycol. These substances are banned from legal nicotine products and proven to cause harm.
Acetoin oxidises into diacetyl, which has been linked to obliterary irreversible damage to the lungs known as ‘popcorn lung disease’.
Benzaldehyde has been reported to cause respiratory failure, depression of the central nervous system and inhalation toxicity.
Cinnamaldehyde is a respiratory irritant and is registered as both skin and eye irritants.
Ethylene glycol is a toxic chemical used in antifreeze and engine coolant, and is linked to lung disease.
This is far from a complete list, as other research has also found heavy metals and other toxins inside e-cigarettes.
As of 2020 in the US, 2807 hospitalisations have occurred from e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury (EVALI), resulting in 68 deaths.
Laws and regulations remain in place with expanded powers to enforcement bodies, yet vaping remains as accessible as ever.
Zero teens out of 172 for Cancer Councils Generation Vape initiative have reported accessing a vape as very hard or hard in the last year since the reforms and 73 per cent reported not purchasing the vape themselves.
Australian National University Dr Amish Talawar said concerns regarding vaping involve potential long-term health effects, definitive impact to mental well-being and possibilities of being exposed to a variety of other nicotine sources.
“They’re not harmless. You can’t use it routinely, regularly or recreationally and get off scot-free,” he said.
“It’s more likely there is some kind of gateway effect simply because of the addictive effects of nicotine itself, opening avenues or opportunities for users to think about other ways they can feed their addiction.
“It becomes a way to open the user up to an entire menu of different options for obtaining nicotine.”
Many of the lolly type flavours are marked safe for digestion, but this assurance does not extend to inhalation, as these flavourants have unknown inhalation toxicities.
Ms Marie’s son is still vaping. He started at 12 and hasn’t stopped. It’s an age that shouldn’t be coming up in conversations regarding vaping.
“He’s very dependent. He is 100 per cent addicted,” she said.
“It’s hard to say what his mood and behaviour would be like without it. I don’t know if he would maybe be less moody, less volatile, or angry.
“There are so many little things to his personality I wouldn’t know. Is that just because of vaping, or is that part of his nature?
“I have not seen that version of him apart from when he was a young boy, without the vapes.”
Dr Talwar said he fears for the outcomes for teens addicted to vaping.
“That’s the question we are really scared to find the answer to, because if it’s anything even close to what happens with the long-term use of tobacco cigarettes, then the sky’s the limit for the potential of health harms,” he said.
“It can touch practically every organ, and that’s what we are afraid of.”
New research from the University of New South Wales has affirmed that oral and lung cancer is a likely outcome.
The warnings are there, but it seems youth aren’t listening.
Dr Talwar says nicotine is highly addictive; with withdrawals beginning as soon as 30 minutes after the last puff, meaning teens regularly endure irritability, anger, depression, anxiety, as well as trouble concentrating or sleeping.
Additionally, brain development can be permanently impacted as nicotine damages the brain’s dopamine systems, meaning long-term reliance can impact learning and memory, executive function and reward related circuitry.
The lolly shop still calls, with illicit tobacconist taking the place of the general store. The urge to enter is grounded in addiction, characterised by developmental and behavioural issues and results in exposure to future cancers.
Lisa-Marie knows this far too well, trying to find a version of her child she recognises.
The call of addiction, suffocating her son.
Additional reporting: Harry Evans
