Australia To Ban Recreational Vaping In E-Cigarette Crackdown

By: Trademagazin editor Date: 2023. 05. 05. 09:36

Australia has banned recreational vaping and tightened other aspects of e-cigarette laws in the biggest crackdown on the tobacco industry in more than a decade to try to stop a rise in teenage vaping.

The government aims to ban all disposable vapes, which often comes in fruity flavours, ban the import of non-prescription vapes and limit nicotine levels, aiming for the sale of vapes to be confined to helping smokers quit.

Under the new rules, vapes will be sold only in pharmacies and require ‘pharmaceutical-type’ packaging.

Vaping, widely seen as a safer alternative to smoking cigarettes and useful for helping smokers quit, involves heating a liquid that contains nicotine in what is called an e-cigarette and turning it into a vapour that users inhale.

Health Minister Mark Butler said vaping had become a recreational product in Australia, mostly sold to teenagers and young people, who are three times as likely to take up smoking.

Doctors backed the vaping crackdown but urged the government to do more to limit the number of young people taking it up.

About 22% of Australians aged 18-24 have used an e-cigarette or vaping device at least once, data last year showed.

The federal budget, due out next week, will include A$234 million ($155 million) for measures to protect against the harm caused by tobacco and vaping.

ESM