Category Archives: Vaping

Australians back stronger regulation on vapes including a ban, study finds

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Professor says vaping stores need to be shut down for people to realise supply is being regulated

Australians are concerned about the widespread availability of illegal vapes and many support a ban, new research has found.

A study published in the February edition of the international medical journal BMJ Open saw researchers consult with 139 Australians aged 14-39 living in Sydney and Melbourne about vaping regulations. Interviews were conducted across 16 focus groups.

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Health minister accuses vaping lobby of targeting children after industry ad campaign against ban

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Industry claims vapes should be regulated like alcohol but Mark Butler says companies want to create a ‘new generation addicted to nicotine’

A vaping lobby group with links to tobacco companies is running ads in Australian newspapers calling for the government to abandon its vaping reforms, in a campaign ministers and experts say is misdirecting the public.

A campaign called Bust the Black Market ran full page advertisements in The Australian and the Daily Telegraph this week calling for e-cigarettes to be regulated “like tobacco and alcohol”.

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Vape stores clustered around schools and in the most disadvantaged suburbs, Australian study finds

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Almost nine out of 10 the shops are within walking distance of schools, WA audit discovers

Vape stores are concentrated around schools and in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities, Australian researchers have shown for the first time in an audit of dedicated shops in Western Australia.

The study led by researchers from the University of Notre Dame Australia and published on Wednesday in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health found almost nine out of 10 vape stores were within walking distance of schools.

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Disposable vapes to be banned in UK as part of drive to curb youth vaping

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Plans to make vaping less appealing also to include restricting fruity flavours and introducing plain packaging

Ministers are to ban disposable vapes as part of a UK-wide drive to curb youth vaping.

The government is also seeking to make vaping less appealing to children by restricting sweet and fruity flavours, introducing plain packaging and making displays less visible in shops, under newly announced powers. The changes are expected to come into effect towards the end of this year or early 2025.

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Elf Bar vape adverts banned in UK over ‘greener’ recycling claims

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Ads gave misleading impression that recycling vapes is easy and can be done at home, says watchdog

Adverts for the vaping company Elf Bar have been banned after using the slogan “recycling for a greener future” over concern they were misleading because of the environmental damage of discarded vapes.

A study by Material Focus shows that 260m disposable vapes were thrown away in the UK in 2022, making them a leading cause of the rise in plastic pollution in recent years.

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Australian retail lobby groups refuse to disclose amount of funding from tobacco and vaping industries

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Representatives for convenience and grocery stores tell Senate inquiry details of any funding were commercial in confidence

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Lobby groups representing convenience and grocery stores have refused to tell a Senate inquiry how much they receive in tobacco and vaping industry funding.

The failure to disclose industry funding follows public hearings into the public health (tobacco and other products) bill earlier in November and comes as concerns are raised about one lobby group having a parliamentary access pass.

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Young people think vapes aren’t harmful because they are so easy to buy, study finds

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More than a third of young adults are vaping and many of them are doing it even though they know vapes contain nicotine, Cancer Council data shows

More than one-third of young adults are using e-cigarettes, and almost three-quarters of parents suspect their child is vaping, a new study has found.

Young people can easily access vapes and availability is leading to a perception products are not harmful, according to public health experts.

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Call for national strategy to force Australian vaping industry to clean up waste

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Lithium-ion batteries embedded in the products have been blamed for an increasing number of hazardous fires at landfill sites

Campaigners are calling for a national strategy to force vape manufacturers, importers and retailers to take responsibility for the industry’s waste, given the threats it poses to the environment and human health.

Clean Up Australia says consumers are confused about how to responsibly dispose of their used products, which are variously classified as electronic waste or hazardous waste depending on where someone lives in Australia.

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Vape stores opening near Australian schools to ‘recruit new generation to nicotine’, Mark Butler says

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Companies skirting regulations by labelling e-cigarettes as ‘nicotine-free’ despite them containing the drug

The federal health minister, Mark Butler, has criticised the proliferation of vape stores, which continue to open despite reforms that will mean only pharmacies can import and sell the products in future.

“We know these vaping stores are increasingly opening in a very deliberate way just down the road from schools, because they realise that is their target consumers,” Butler told Guardian Australia.

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Victorian government hired KPMG to consult on tobacco changes despite firm’s links to industry

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Exclusive: transparency advocates condemn arrangement as ‘appalling’ while health department refuses to say how much consultancy was paid

The Victorian government paid a consultancy firm that has spent decades working for big tobacco to lead the state’s consultation on changes to tobacco and vaping laws, before the process was abandoned.

The state’s health department has repeatedly declined to say how much KPMG was paid for the work this year and did not answer questions about whether the international firm’s long association with big tobacco and its ongoing work for the industry were declared.

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Ban on single-use vapes in UK may ‘flood market with illegal products’

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Ministers said to be planning to legislate against the devices because of concerns about children’s health

Leading doctors and councils have welcomed reports that ministers are preparing to ban single-use vapes in the UK, but others have expressed fears a ban could lead to a “flood” of illegal products on the market.

The reports of plans to stop the sale of disposable e-cigarettes come as fears grow about their environment impact and the health risks they pose to the large number of teenagers taking up vaping.

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France planning to ban disposable vapes in effort to combat smoking

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Ban follows similar measures in Germany, Australia and New Zealand amid concern over health effects

Disposable vapes will be banned in France as part of a national plan to combat smoking, the prime minister said on Sunday.

Élisabeth Borne told the broadcaster RTL that the government would “soon present a new national plan to fight against smoking with, in particular, the prohibition of disposable electronic cigarettes, the famous ‘puffs’ which give bad habits to young people”.

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Vaping found to be the biggest risk factor for teenage tobacco smoking

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Data from Australian Secondary School Students Alcohol and Drug Survey predates ‘huge’ increase in vaping

E-cigarette use is the single strongest risk factor for adolescents taking up tobacco smoking, out-ranking social norms, poor mental health and misperceptions about smoking harms, research published on Wednesday has found.

The findings come from 4,266 Victorian students aged 12 to 17 who anonymously took part in the 2017 Australian Secondary School Students Alcohol and Drug Survey (Assad), with researchers then focusing on 3,410 students who reported never having smoked even part of a cigarette.

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Quarter of submissions from vape users to Australian inquiry parrot text from tobacco industry campaign

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Exclusive: study finds 26% of individual responses to TGA vaping reforms contained text from template provided as part of ‘astroturfing’ campaign

More than one-quarter of submissions from individual e-cigarette users made to the Australian government’s vaping reforms consultation featured text from an “astroturfing” campaign led by the tobacco and vaping industry, “bypassing conflict-of-interest” declaration requirements, a study has found.

The World Health Organization defines astroturfing as the faking of a grassroots movement that in reality is being controlled by a hidden multinational company or organisation, in this case tobacco and vaping companies.

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Australia’s vaping crackdown to be enforced with new laws

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Exclusive: After announcing most forms of vaping would be banned, the Albanese government will legislate changes and boost agencies’ powers

Australia’s ban on non-therapeutic and single-use vapes will be underpinned by new laws – rather than a focus on regulation – in a development that has been welcomed by public health experts.

The Albanese government announced in May that it would outlaw the importation of non-prescription vaping products in the biggest smoking reforms in a decade.

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Birmingham says opposition doesn’t ‘fear’ early election – as it happened

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This blog is now closed

Housing bill squabble to bring back possibility of double dissolution election

Parliament resumes next week after a five-week hiatus over winter, which means all the squabbles and fights we left in June are starting to whirl up again – chief among them housing. As Daniel Hurst reported this morning, Labor is going to bring back its housing bill to the house in October, where it will pass. Once it hits the Senate, things get a little more dicey. If it’s rejected by the Greens, who so far aren’t seeing what they want from the government, then the government has a double dissolution trigger.

The early indications are that there was a 50m exclusion zone around the deceased.

All efforts had been made to cover the body but at certain stages of the forensic examination, that body did need to be uncovered so the forensic police could do their work for the coroner and unfortunately, those children did walk past.

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Councils in England and Wales join calls for ban on disposable vapes

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LGA says single-use e-cigarettes are a litter blight and cause problems in bin lorries and recycling centres

Councils are joining paediatricians in calling for a ban on disposable vapes owing to the environmental damage they cause and the soaring number of young people taking up the addictive products.

The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents councils in England and Wales, said urgent action was needed to save taxpayers’ money – as single-use e-cigarettes are costly to recycle without going through special treatment – protect the planet and keep children safe.

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Ministers urged to restrict marketing of vapes to children in England

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Children’s commissioner points to research showing some are so addicted to nicotine they can’t concentrate in school

The children’s commissioner for England has urged ministers to crack down on the “insidious” marketing of vapes to young people, which is leaving them so addicted to nicotine they can’t concentrate on lessons.

Rachel de Souza said the government would be “failing a generation” if these “highly addictive and sometimes dangerous products” were allowed to become mainstream.

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