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Speaker 1: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda

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Speaker 1: Bungelung Calcuttin woman from Gadighl country. The Daily oz acknowledges

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Speaker 1: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the

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Speaker 1: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres

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Speaker 1: Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the

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Speaker 1: first peoples of these countries, both past and present.

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Speaker 2: Hello, how's your summer going? Are you on a road trip,

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Speaker 2: are you recovering from a big party in the sun,

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Speaker 2: or are you just taking a quiet walk, whatever the

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Speaker 2: case is. You are listening to a special summer series

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Speaker 2: of the TDA Podcast. Now, the whole idea here is

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Speaker 2: that every day we're going to throw back to a

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Speaker 2: different episode from last year. And we've sat down and

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Speaker 2: chosen some of the most listens to stories of twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty two. But we've also thrown in some of the

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Speaker 2: stories that may have gotten left behind in the news

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Speaker 2: cycle and we think they wann't a bit of an update.

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Speaker 2: Are vapes really harmful? We asked this question back in

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Speaker 2: April and looked at some of the new research that

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Speaker 2: was out at that time. I got to say this

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Speaker 2: is always an area of interest for us at TDA,

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Speaker 2: and I think some of the questions we raised in

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Speaker 2: this episode are just as relevant right now today as

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Speaker 2: they were last year. Stick around to the end for

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Speaker 2: an update after the deep dive. The number of Australians

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Speaker 2: who smoke cigarettes has had in the past thirty years.

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Speaker 2: This has held up as a genuine win for public

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Speaker 2: health campaigners, who have by all accounts, executed effective health

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Speaker 2: messaging campaigns over the last kind of twenty years. But

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Speaker 2: the growing popularity of e cigarettes, particularly amongst young people

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Speaker 2: who vape, puts this significant achievement for Australia at risk.

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Speaker 2: When new research from the Australian National University came out

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Speaker 2: last week, we started to focus on exactly what hundreds

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Speaker 2: of thousands of Australians are breathing in through their vapes, Zara.

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Speaker 2: What do we know about how many Australians vape and

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Speaker 2: what do we know about the appeal of vaping.

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Speaker 3: The last time we got official data about the prevalence

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Speaker 3: of e cigarettes and vapes was in twenty twenty. At

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Speaker 3: that time, so nearly two years ago, the Australian Bureau

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Speaker 3: of Statistics reported ten percent of Australian adults have tried

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Speaker 3: a vape, but that the number is actually twenty two

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Speaker 3: percent for Australians aged eighteen to twenty four. Now, anyone

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Speaker 3: who is in that age bracket knows that that is

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Speaker 3: probably a severe underrepresentation of the state of vaping in

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Speaker 3: our age group, And of course it's worth noting that

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Speaker 3: that data is old. We know from public health bodies

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Speaker 3: like the Alcohol and Drug Foundation that rates have really skyrocketed,

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Speaker 3: especially in the last twelve months. It's also particularly prevalent

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Speaker 3: in our schools. So according to that same foundation, fourteen

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Speaker 3: percent of Australian high school students have tried a vape,

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Speaker 3: with around one in three of these students vaping in

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Speaker 3: the last month.

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Speaker 2: And we know that vaping is concerning a lot of

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Speaker 2: parents of these high school students, and there's a lot

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Speaker 2: of information and resources available online just to clarify for

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Speaker 2: all the listeners. Now, those are what are the laws

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Speaker 2: around vaping in Australia.

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Speaker 3: It's a fast moving area of the law. Obviously, as

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Speaker 3: these things pick up in prevalence and the number of

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Speaker 3: people who are vaping increases, the law will naturally try

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Speaker 3: to catch up with that. But since October of last

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Speaker 3: year all nicotine vaping products, so that includes nicotine e cigarettes,

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Speaker 3: nicotine pods, and liquid nicotine. They can only be purchased

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Speaker 3: with a doctor's prescriptions, so that knocked out all the

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Speaker 3: vapes with nicotine in them immediately off the shelves and

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Speaker 3: they're now behind the counter where you used to see cigarettes.

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Speaker 3: The advertising and promotion of vaping products is illegal in Australia,

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Speaker 3: but we do know that companies use social to specifically

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Speaker 3: target young Aussies. Seeing an ad for vaping on Facebook

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Speaker 3: or Instagram is illegal, and the social platforms are trying

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Speaker 3: to crack down on the new strategies adopted by vaping companies,

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Speaker 3: but as with anything, they're still getting through. Where the

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Speaker 3: law hasn't quite caught up is in the actual product

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Speaker 3: design of vapes. Vapes are still able to be glamorized

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Speaker 3: to seem cool or fun, primarily through flavors that appeal

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Speaker 3: to young people. In particular, there have been a number

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Speaker 3: of studies which have found that e cigarette flavors, which

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Speaker 3: give off the perception of sweetness you know you have

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Speaker 3: the candy or the fruit flavors may make buying and

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Speaker 3: trying e cigarettes more appealing among young people.

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Speaker 2: So it sounds like a pretty widespread habit in Australian society,

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Speaker 2: especially amongst young Aussies, and it's not particularly regulated by law.

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Speaker 2: It's pretty clear that that's the case. But you have

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Speaker 2: said there that nicotine infused vapes are off the market

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Speaker 2: unless you have a prescription. So what's the current issue.

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Speaker 3: Then let's look at the research from a and we

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Speaker 3: posted about this and it was actually our most highly

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Speaker 3: engaged with posts that we have ever posted on the Dahlias.

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Speaker 3: So the people care about vapes. And what this research

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Speaker 3: found was evidence of significant harms from vaping. A study

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Speaker 3: of the contents of the smoke from a non nicotine

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Speaker 3: vape found two hundred and forty three unique chemicals, of

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Speaker 3: which thirty eight were listed poisons, so thirty eight poisons

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Speaker 3: were in any given vape. Several others were linked to

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Speaker 3: adverse health outcomes, including for meldehyde, which is a word

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Speaker 3: I just learned how to pronounce. The review into vaping

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Speaker 3: found direct evidence that vaping can lead to addiction, poisoning, seizures,

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Speaker 3: and lung injury. It also found some less direct evidence

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Speaker 3: that indicated vaping could affect blood pressure and heart rate,

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Speaker 3: lung function, and adolescent brain developments, so particularly concerning stuff

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Speaker 3: when you consider the number of school children that are

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Speaker 3: using vapes. The study said there is still a lack

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Speaker 3: of evidence though, on how vaping impacts a range of

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Speaker 3: longer term health conditions, so that longitudinal aspect including cardiovascular disease, cancer,

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Speaker 3: mental health, child development, reproduction, and sleep. The Cancer Council's

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Speaker 3: Public Health Chair says a public health crisis is rapidly

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Speaker 3: unfolding before our eyes. Now, if we turn to another study,

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Speaker 3: this one from Curtin University that found that vapes contain

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Speaker 3: toxic chemicals used in disinfectant petroleum paint liquid, nicotine, and eugenol, which,

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Speaker 3: if you're not familiar, is used to euthanize fish. In

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Speaker 3: that study, which was published last year, researchers have a

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Speaker 3: sample of fifty two flavored vapes and found one hundred

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Speaker 3: percent of the products were inaccurately labeled and contained chemicals

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Speaker 3: with known and unknown effects on respiratory health.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so one of the big arguments for vapes is

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Speaker 2: that they help users quit smoking cigarettes. Did the report

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Speaker 2: and the latest research comment on that aspect.

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Speaker 3: Well, so far, there's lib's a evidence that suggests the

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Speaker 3: vaping helps to quit smoking. What there is evidence of

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Speaker 3: is that using vaping as a quitting method results in

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Speaker 3: high nicotine intake. Then other quitting methods might have, like

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Speaker 3: patches or gum. The study found something quite different. It

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Speaker 3: said that non smokers who vape are three times more

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Speaker 3: likely to take up smoking. And the other thing to

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Speaker 3: keep in mind is that some of the non nicotine

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Speaker 3: disposable vapes actually do have nicotine. It is worth mentioning

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Speaker 3: here though, that according to some experts, there is still

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Speaker 3: a place for e cigarettes as a nicotine replacement therapy

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Speaker 3: for quote, a small group of highly addicted smokers. However,

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Speaker 3: they need to get access to this product in the

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Speaker 3: context of a well designed and supervised smoking cessation program.

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Speaker 2: A pretty dire state of affairs. So what now? Where

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Speaker 2: to from here?

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Speaker 3: There's an interesting battle between the federal and state governments

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Speaker 3: as to who's responsible for leading the war on vapes.

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Speaker 3: A few weeks ago, according to The Sydney Morning Herald,

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Speaker 3: outgoing Health Minister Greg Hunt wrote to state and territory

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Speaker 3: health ministers urging them to crack down on the sale

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Speaker 3: of non nicotine vapes to children, but state health ministers

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Speaker 3: want the federal government to stop them at the border.

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Speaker 3: The letter was specifically written about e cigarettes being smoked

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Speaker 3: on school grounds. The Federal Health Department says they're now

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Speaker 3: finalizing the National Tobacco Strategy, a draft of which recommends

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Speaker 3: new restrictions on the marketing, availability and use of all

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Speaker 3: cigarette components in Australia, regardless of their nicotine content. We'll

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Speaker 3: have to wait and see what's in that, but it

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Speaker 3: is certainly something that is front of mine for a

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Speaker 3: lot of young people and their parents, as vaping increases

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Speaker 3: in both popularity and at the same time in danger.

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Speaker 2: A modern but serious public health issue. I think that

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Speaker 2: quote from the Cancer Council that there is a public

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Speaker 2: health crisis rapidly unfolding before our eyes particularly is alarming

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Speaker 2: that health bodies around the country are sitting up and

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Speaker 2: taking notice of something that, from all reports from our

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Speaker 2: readers in the comment section of that widely shared post,

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Speaker 2: is everywhere across the country. Since we did this episode,

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Speaker 2: the Therapeutic Goods Administration, which is the body in charge

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Speaker 2: of regulating drugs in Australia, has announced they'll be looking

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Speaker 2: into vapes. They're going to be consulting the public on

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Speaker 2: potential reforms to how they regulate nicotine vapes, with the

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Speaker 2: particular aim of preventing children and adolescents from accessing them.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to this episode of our special TDA

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Speaker 2: Summer series. Will be back to normal programming on the

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Speaker 2: sixteenth of January. But if you want some more breaking

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Speaker 2: news in the meantime, open your phone and find us

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Speaker 2: on Instagram. It's currently where over four hundred and ten

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Speaker 2: and Australians get their newts, and we are on even

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Speaker 2: though you're on holiday.