[Jan Fisher]

The Therapeutic Goods Administration has reported support from the states to increase regulations on vaping.

Seems fair, not the least because the health minister Mark Butler said vaping is now the biggest behavioural issue in primary schools.

What the what now?

How are primary-school aged children getting hold of vapes?

Turns out the vaping industry is tad dodgy – you don’t say – and has been flooding the market with kiddy flavours like bubblegum and the current legislation can do very little to stop it.

They were touted as a stepping stone to stopping smoking, but seem to have taken on a life of their own, not the least because they are available at so many retail outlets from corner stores to liquor shops.

Lax import controls aren’t helping either.

What do you think? Should there be more controls on vaping?

[David]

Absolutely YES.

[Lyng]

Yes, it’s beyond time! They can do untold and unreported damage.
I stayed in a hotel in Perth and the room one door away from me, had soft knocks on the door and low voices coming from it during the night. The next morning I woke to yells of “Oh My God!!” repeated and repeated. I went out to see 2 cleaners in the room and I was invited by one of them to come in and see.
Everything had been trashed and wrecked. Beds and sofas upturned, walls and bedding peed on, spew, nothing was left untouched in the wreckage. Used Vapes were everywhere, hundreds and hundreds of them. Most used but not all.
I thought it would be a police job, but the calmer cleaner called her supervisor and was ordered to take photos and then clean it all up. When I thought about it later, I thought that the hotel obviously wouldn’t want the publicity that would come from all this. Covered up and not counted in any stats we will ever see.

[David Miller]

It is about time the feds got real and banned vapes altogether. They are dangerous especially to young children. I started smoking when I was about 10 and I gave up when I turned 71. I never had any health problems. But these poor kids will have a mountain of hurt, and it will be the Federal Governments fault. Or are they more interested in the tax from VAPES.

[Chris777]

Misinformation about vaping is absolutely rife in Australia.

The “dangers” of vaping are absolutely distorted – and not only by the media, who seem to do their usual sensationalizing of “opinion pieces” posing as scientific evidence – but by people in influential positions. Why?

I was 60, and could not rid myself of the smoking habit after trying all the usual ways – until I tried, and switched, to vaping. I have not returned to smoking after six years, and like thousands like me I can vouch that my health has improved absolutely. It is called tobacco harm reduction.

Don’t fall for the “vaping is a gateway to smoking” refrain either – anti-tobacco activists have been trying to produce research to prove this for years now without success. Data suggests that smoking amongst young people has been declining with the introduction of vaping – and increasing in the absence of vaping. There will always be risk takers and anti-authoritarian groups.

Tobacco and alcohol are less controlled at present and these are a clear and present danger to life.

Regulate vaping fairly and for the right reasons, not just to protect the collection of billions in taxes from addicted smokers.

[Author]

Posts