Cancer Council slams vaping

NSW’S Cancer Council is at odds with the manager of Dubbo’s brand-new vaping shop.

Cancer Council NSW Tobacco Control Unit Manager Alecia Brooks said young Australians represent the largest relative growth in e-cigarette, or vape, use in the country and claims the Federal Government’s plan to block the importation of liquid nicotine, which is used in e-cigarettes and already illegal to sell in Australia, will be of benefit to young Australians targeted by the industry.

She’s slammed the tobacco industry for directly promoting the use of e-cigarettes to youth, and in turn, building a nicotine-addicted culture.

“Restricting access to liquid nicotine to people with a medical authority will help to protect young people from nicotine addiction, those same young people who the tobacco industry and e-cigarette retailers are aggressively targeting to build a new addiction-based industry in Australia,” Ms Brooks told Dubbo Photo News.

“This specific measure will close a loophole between provisions in the Poisons Standard to protect people from the harms of nicotine and opportunistic commercial interests in the tobacco and related industries, flouting the Poisons Standard to build an e-cigarette industry in Australia.”

Madyson Young manages the Dubbo Super Vape Store which opened its doors last weekend and says the industry isn’t trying to target younger people but rather offer a better alternative for people looking to quit smoking and says the push for sweeter flavours for vaping is part of that strategy.

She says those pushing to restrict access to liquid nicotine “don’t understand how beneficial it is for a lot of people because a lot of people have tried the Nicorette gums and the sprays and the patches but it just doesn’t work, it’s adding more stress, it’s just affecting your mental health”. She added that by “coming to vaping you’ve got that same kind of comfort because you’re still getting that hit at the back of your throat”.

“Some people want that throat hit to keep them off the cigarettes, some people like to start off vaping by going nicotine-free, but others do need nicotine for that transitional step.

“All of the products that we sell are nicotine-free but unfortunately at the moment you do have to import nicotine from overseas so banning the importation from January 1, 2021, is causing a lot of uproar in the vaping community,” she said.

There’s also disagreement between the two camps about the health effects when it comes to using nicotine-free products for vaping.

Because e-cigarettes haven’t been around long, data about the long-term health effects is still being collated, but Ms Brooks from the Cancer Council warned that e-cigarettes are “not risk free”.

“They (e-cigarettes) may expose users and bystanders to chemicals and toxins such as propylene glycol, glycerol or ethylene glycol that cause adverse health effects, and may increase the risk of developing cardiovascular, cancer and respiratory diseases,” she said.

“E-liquids or vapour may also contain potentially harmful chemicals which are not present in smoke from tobacco cigarettes.”

Madyson Young maintains that’s incorrect.

Dubbo Super Vape Shop owner Miriam O’hare told Dubbo Photo

News she believes it’s important that vaping continues but says it does need to be regulated.

“That is why regulated vape shops are so beneficial to the public who are trying to quit smoking,” she said.

“Having fully trained staff to help them is so important.”