Health officials in New South Wales are advising parents to exercise caution after numerous young people were sent to hospitals with acute diseases related to vaping that were brought on by products they had bought on social media.
In the final week of June, six young people visited hospitals with symptoms such as seizures, collapsing, and vomiting, according to NSW Health.
The South-West Sydney Local Health District was where the vast majority of the cases originated.
Some of the items they used had nicotine and were bought through the social media app Snapchat.
According to Paul Dillon, director of Drugs and Alcohol Research Training Australia, young people looking to buy vapes now “preferred option” Snapchat.
A NSW Health spokeswoman said that vaping puts young people at risk for major health problems that could last a lifetime.
“NSW Health encourages parents to initiate early dialogues to help prevent vaping among young people and to be aware of it.
Dangerous chemicals, such as those found in weedkiller and nail polish remover, may be present in some vapes and may cause irreversible damage.
Parents are encouraged to get in touch with the Poisons Information Centre if they have any concerns that someone may have been poisoned by liquid nicotine.
“Not governed”
Only those with a prescription may purchase nicotine vapes in Australia, and it is against the law to sell any vape to anyone under the age of 18.
However, NSW AMA President Michael Bonning claimed that health authorities were regularly seizing larger amounts of e-cigarettes.
“In the past three years, that number has increased around 45-fold. We’ve done an abjectly poor job of slowing the tide, he remarked.
“It is totally uncontrolled and is essentially businesses marketing to young people and putting poison on them.
“This will introduce nicotine addiction to the next generation.”
Data from NSW Health shows that between January and March of this year, 92,574 electronic cigarette and nicotine-containing e-liquid goods were confiscated, however there were no prosecutions during that time.
It stated that despite not being labelled as such, several vapes have been found to contain substantial quantities of nicotine.
Many of these products are not tested or regulated, according to Mr. Dillon.
“Very young children are exposed to quite significant levels of nicotine.”
Enforcement, according to Mr. Dillon, is a problem.
The genie is out of the bottle, so starting to enforce it will be extremely challenging, he said.
“Or we alter the law to make it one that we can actually impose or control,” the author suggests.
More than 3.5 million Australians aged 14 and older smoke or vape, according to data done for the Australian Health Department by Cancer Victoria.
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