E-cigarettes in Australia

Australia: Public Health Associations in New South Wales (NSW) are urging the next government of the state to protect young people from vaping, press reports. The NSW branch of the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) yesterday highlighted what it considered the five public health issues that need attention, among which was the use of vaping products by young people. Branch president Kate McBride said the consumption of vaping products by young people had doubled in the last two years. While nicotine-containing e-cigarettes can only be acquired through prescription, there is no sales restriction on nicotine-free ones. State elections are due in March.

Australia: The Australian Heart Foundation has called for an import ban on e-cigarettes. In a submission to a public consultation by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), the foundation said that e-cigarettes, with or without nicotine, should be declared “prohibited imports”. It also said the TGA should ban all e-liquid flavours other than tobacco, reduce the nicotine concentration, and establish labelling and packaging requirements.

Australia: The Federal Council of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) has passed a motion demanding tighter regulation of nicotine-free vaping products. The AMA, the doctors’ professional body, wants rules similar to those on tobacco products, with health warnings and plain packaging. It says it will “continue to advocate...to stem the rapidly-growing uptake” of vaping products, which it claims are “clearly marketed towards children”.

Australia: The Australian Capital Territory today passed the Health Legislation Amendment Bill, which amends the 2008 Medicines, Poisons and Therapeutic Goods Act and the 1927 Tobacco and Other Smoking Products Act to ban the sale of e-cigarettes from vending machines and implement stronger measures to enforce the ban on the sale of e-cigarettes to under-18s.

Australia: The head of the Therapeutic Goods Authority (TGA), John Skerrit, has acknowledged that the nicotine e-cigarette regulations implemented on 1st October last year have not been effective, smoking cessation specialist Colin Mendelsohn reports. Skerrit admitted that despite the requirement of a prescription to purchase nicotine-containing e-cigarettes only 10% of adult vapers have a prescription. He said a large number of low quality products hade been imported and were being illegally sold in the country. And he said that of Australia’s 130,000 registered doctors, only 1,353 had applied for authorisation to prescribe e-cigarettes.

Australia: The South Australian state government has launched a plan to reduce the use of e-cigarettes among school students by providing training and preventive campaigns, press reports. A report by the state’s commissioner for children and young people found two thirds of the 1,000 teenagers consulted had tried vaping and 25% used e-cigarettes regularly.

Australia: More than 15,000 nicotine-containing e-cigarettes have been seized in Western Australia in an operation analysing the content of e-cigarettes that were claimed not to contain nicotine. The state authorities have put more than 3,000 retailers on notice, advising them that the sale of nicotine-containing e-cigarettes other than by a pharmacy and without a medical prescription is banned.