“A Cancer Council survey showed 1 in 10 Australians between the ages of 12 and 17 have tried an e-cigarette – and of those, one-third had vaped in the past month.”
(Source: ABC News In Depth, September 12, 2019, Youtube Video HERE)
No part of that Cancer Council survey has been made public to advise whether those children were vaping juices containing nicotine, or gave indications on where or how they obtained either the e-juice or the devices needed for vaping. That video is full of disinformation about electronic cigarettes, and omits large tracts of evidence which refute the claims made within it, but is good viewing for anyone wanting to learn about how the mainstream media have been promoting scare campaigns.
Okay then, let’s get some facts about vaping, electronic cigarettes, the whole thing…
Emphysema, lung cancer and stroke are the Top Three causes of death for over 480,000 Americans each year, all of which can be directly attributed to usage of tobacco products. It is common scientific knowledge that a burning cigarette creates physical smoke particles made up of 700+ carcinogens and poisonous compounds including benzene, formaldehyde, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, carbon monoxide, acetone, sodium borate, strychnine, zinc phosphide, alkaloids and synthetic aromatics. The same laboratory testing which identified those components of cigarette smoke has been applied to vapour produced by e-cigs, and the results are readily available online which clearly show that properly formulated e-juice contains none of those dangerous chemicals. Amazingly, more than 41,000 people die each and every year in America as a result of secondhand exposure to cigarette smoke, while science-denying Conservatives the world over bend over backward to thwart the sale of devices which do not generate such a deadly by product.
Nicotine on its own does not cause cancer. Medical professionals have also concluded that it is not harmful when consumed in small ‘therapeutic’ doses. Nicotine is not present in standard vape juice unless it is added prior to consumption. The base of almost every e-juice on the market today is made up of two primary ingredients: food grade propylene glycol and vegetable glycerine. These are organic compounds sourced from vegetable matter which are found in many everyday food items such as confectionery and even ordinary toothpaste. Then, almost every flavour profile of e-juice available on the market today is created using naturally occurring chemicals called ‘terpenes’. These are also organic compounds, extracted from fruit such as oranges and berries, plant leaves such as peppermint and tree barks for cinnamon flavours. Sugar cane creates caramels, and beans are used to create the tastes of chocolate, vanilla and coffee. As for liquid nicotine, it is actually distilled directly from the leaves of tobacco plants.
E-juices that are manufactured using organically sourced ingredients – including many different flavours that also contain nicotine – have been laboratory tested in several markets, and show no adverse effects on human health after prolonged use. Also, when the e-juice mixture is vaporised there is no combustion, therefore no ‘smoke’. The result of vaping presents as water vapour, is quickly dispersed harmlessly into the atmosphere and does not pose anywhere near the same health risks or discomfort to bystanders that cigarette smoke does, even when the juice contains ‘therapeutic’ levels of nicotine that are immediately absorbed by the vaper upon inhaling.
Vaping has been recognised by health professionals across the world to be 95% safer than smoking normal combustible cigarettes. Why only 95%? Well, any new vaper can
(a) overdose on nicotine by mixing too much of it into their e-juice,
(b) burn their mouth and lungs from inhaling too hot a vapour cloud,
(c) vape contaminated or improperly formulated e-juices,
(d) incorrectly use the electronic cigarette device against manufacturer’s directions, or
(e) experience personal injury from the extremely rare catastrophic mechanical failure of the e-cig device.
With that above in mind, let’s look at the legalities of vaping as they currently exist in New South Wales.
Any advertising of electronic cigarette products in this state either online or in a retail store must include the words “THIS PRODUCT MAY CONTAIN NICOTINE“, even though the sale of liquid nicotine either over the counter anywhere in Australia or from an Australian based online store, to anyone of any age, is illegal. Most importantly, the warning must be present even if the products do not actually contain nicotine.
Australian users of electronic cigarettes are able to import liquid nicotine, also e-juices containing nicotine, from overseas vendors for personal use. The thing is, not at any time when those vapers purchased those products were they asked to verify their age beyond that which presents itself when navigating to their preferred vendor’s website.
A popup window known as a ‘captcha‘ 
merely asks if the vaper is over the age of 18 years without demanding documentary evidence, before allowing them to purchase products which should not be available to minors.
Operators and sales staff of bricks-and-mortar vape shops in every Australian state are now subject to the same stringent age verification protocols placed on tobacco and liquor retailers, and are fully aware of their legal responsibilities regarding sales of e-cig products to minors – just like they would if they were serving alcohol at a local pub, club, or store like BWS / Dan Murphy’s / Liquorland etc., or working at the cigarette counter of a supermarket or tobacconist.
An underage person can’t go into a legitimately operating vape shop and buy e-juice or any other e-cig related product, just like they wouldn’t be able to walk into a liquor licenced premises and buy alcohol, or go up to the tobacco counter at Woolies and buy a packet of cigarettes; however, even if an online vape store has an Age Verification captcha pop up on first access to the site, that doesn’t prevent a minor from freely clicking the Yes/Enter button on that captcha and purchasing e-cig items via mail order.
The reason that loophole exists is due exclusively to the incompetence and ignorance of both the NSW and Federal governments, so if you’re looking for someone to blame for “1 in 10 Australians between the ages of 12 and 17” buying vape gear, juice and liquid nicotine from the only places (by weight of regulations) the kids can get them from – online retailers – point your finger directly at those in this country who are too heavily influenced by corporate dollars, and too stupid to know how, to properly regulate a multimillion dollar industry.
Governments across the globe are beginning a push to stop the expansion of the e-cig industry by any means they can conjure, for three reasons:
1) the heavyweight capitalist multinational tobacco companies are seeing reductions in the number of people buying their products,
2) federal government tobacco tax receipts are declining as more smokers switch to the less costly alternative, and
3) the private health insurance industry is losing money due to premiums for nonsmokers being lower while health care costs (ie. insurance payouts) skyrocket.
Even to the most casual observer, it is blatantly clear the government’s efforts to scare smokers away from vaping have nothing to do with consideration of public health.
There’s the legal stuff out of the way, so how do we stop kids from vaping?
Well, lawyers such as Federal Minister for Health Greg Hunt – a man who has absolutely no medical training or knowledge of scientific research whatsoever – and a complete fool by the name of Brad Hazzard, who for three years over four decades ago was merely a high school science teacher but is now NSW Minister for Health and Medical Research, are in no way qualified to provide any measure of insight regarding regulation of the electronic cigarette industry. People such as those two conservative morons should have no place at all in any discussions regarding a solution to this issue. Those currently in government seriously need to wake up to themselves, stop the internal political bickering, accept the scientifically proven advice of medical professionals and honest to goodness experts in the field of vaping, and start dealing with this issue head on.
First step is to allow liquid nicotine to be sold to adults by licenced shopfront ‘Vape Shop’ vendors only. Second, restrict the sale of electronic cigarette devices to ‘over the counter’ only. Federal laws which place restrictions on the sale of e-juice premixed with nicotine (or any other organic or synthetic compound) need to be written, in direct consultation with the vaping community and industry operators. Most notably, restrictions on all foreign or domestic vendors selling any form of liquid nicotine, e-cig devices or e-juice premixed with organic or synthetic compounds via any online store need to be implemented and enforced.
Let’s see how many kids are vaping when the only place e-cig products can be sold is from a licensed vape shop that won’t serve them without documentary age verification. It’s that, or expect online e-cig vendors to take advantage of young people to a point where similar deaths to those seen recently in the US begin to occur here.
#vapeon
With thanks to Hairy…
Rants by Terin Mah sout 