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Under the new rules, e-cigarettes will only be sold in pharmacies to help smokers quit and require “drug-type” packaging.
Tuesday 02 May 2023 at 08:02 in United Kingdom
Australia has banned recreational vaping and tightened other vaping laws in a massive blow to the tobacco industry as it tries to stem the rise of youth vaping.
The government wants to ban all disposable e-cigarettes, which often come in fruity flavors favored by young people, ban the import of over-the-counter e-cigarettes and limit nicotine levels.
It said it aimed to limit e-cigarette sales to helping smokers quit.
“Just like they did with smoking, Big Tobacco took another addictive product and wrapped it in shiny packaging,
Health Secretary Mark Butler said in a speech to the National Press Club:
Under the new rules, e-cigarettes will only be sold in pharmacies and will require “pharmaceutical-like” packaging.
E-cigarettes, widely considered a safer alternative to cigarettes and helping smokers quit, involve heating
A liquid in so-called e-cigarettes that takes nicotine and turns it into a vapor that users inhale.
But studies have shown that addictive vaping may cause long-term harm.
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Mr Butler said vaping had become a recreational product in Australia, mainly sold to teenagers and young adults, who were three times more likely to start smoking.
“It’s a product aimed at our kids, sold alongside lollipops and chocolate bars,” Mr Butler said. “Vaping is now the number one behavioral problem in high schools. And it’s becoming more prevalent in elementary schools as well.”
Doctors support a crackdown on vaping but are urging the government to do more to limit the number of young people vaping.
Figures from last year showed about 22 per cent of Australians aged 18-24 had used an e-cigarette or vaping device at least once.
Although a prescription is required to buy nicotine e-cigarettes in Australia, a thriving illicit market means they are readily available
usable.
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