XPost: aus.politics, talk.politics.guns, sac.politics
Australia said on Tuesday it will ban recreational vaping and tighten
other aspects of e-cigarette laws in the biggest crackdown on the tobacco industry in more than a decade to try to stop an alarming rise in teenage vaping.
The government aims to ban all disposable vapes, which often comes in
fruity flavors, ban the import of non-prescription vapes and limit
nicotine levels, aiming for the sale of vapes to be confined to helping
smokers quit.
�Just like they did with smoking, Big Tobacco has taken another addictive product, wrapped it in shiny packaging and added flavors to create a new generation of nicotine addicts,� Health Minister Mark Butler said in a
speech at the National Press Club.
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 vapor that users inhale.
But studies have shown the potential of long-term harm from the addictive e-cigarettes.
Under the new rules, vapes will be sold only in pharmacies and require �pharmaceutical-type� packaging. Disposable vapes popular with young
people will also be banned.
Though a prescription is needed to buy nicotine vapes in Australia, lax
border enforcement and a thriving illegal market mean they are readily available in convenience stores and other outlets.
Major vape manufacturer Philip Morris welcomed the crackdown on such
shops.
�Nicotine vaping products sold in corner stores have always been illegal,�
a spokesperson for the company said.
�We have been urging enforcement against these illegal products for
several years and hope this will now happen.�
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.
�Nicotine vaping products are being sold featuring colourful flavours and
we have even seen products featuring the same type of imagery as
children�s breakfast cereal including cartoon characters,� said Nicole
Higgins, president of the Royal Australian College of General
Practitioners.
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 $155 million for
measures to protect against the harm caused by tobacco and vaping.
Australia has one of the toughest anti-smoking laws in the world.
In 2012, it became the first country to force cigarette producers to
abandon distinct, colorful branding and sell their products in uniformly
drab packets.
Tobacco firms were quick to switch to e-cigarettes that offer different
flavors and created designs targeting a new generation of users.
Butler said the government had no plan to follow neighboring New Zealand
in banning cigarette sales for future generations but said the tax on
tobacco would be raised by 5% a year over the next three years in a bid to
curb sales.
Some countries have tried to restrict vaping and some see it as a good way
to get smokers to kick the habit.
Britain said in April up to one million smokers would be encouraged to
swap cigarettes for vapes, in what was a world first, offering financial incentives for pregnant women and providing e-cigarette starter kits to
help.
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https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/australia-ban-recreational-vaping-e- cigarette-crackdown-rcna82379>
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