At the Sydney Local Health District’s Stop Vaping Forum, medical professionals, community leaders, and government organisations are collaborating to address the growing youth vaping pandemic by exchanging research, expertise, and perspectives.
The District’s Clinical Director of Public Health stated that there is a true pandemic and that it has become swiftly and abundantly clear from the data that something needs to be done.
With an emphasis on children, teenagers, and young adults in particular, we want to examine how we can collaborate to combat this epidemic and determine some local priorities.
According to the Concord Hospital’s Department Head of Respiratory Medicine, vapes’ chemical makeup has been designed to enhance their addictive potential by producing a strong, quick brain high that is comparable to that of regular cigarettes. Approximately 3,500 puffs, or the equivalent of 10 to 12 packets of cigarettes of nicotine, are delivered by the most popular vape devices.
The majority of kids, he emphasised, have never vaped and many have quit.
Over the past few years, there has been a threefold increase in the prevalence of daily or occasional e-cigarette usage among young people.
In the most recent wave of Generation Vape, a joint research initiative by Cancer Council NSW, the Daffodil Centre, and the University of Sydney, less than one in five young people between the ages of 14 and 17 reported vaping.
One in five vapers vaporised at least 20 times in a 30-day period, which suggests a possible nicotine addiction, according to Dr. Caroline Sharpe, Senior Medical Advisor at NSW Health, who addressed the discussion on the subject.
According to Dr. Sharpe, the frequency of daily or sporadic e-cigarette usage among young people aged 16 to 24 has increased in the past few years.
Most young people are aware that vapes contain nicotine, as evidenced by the research’s findings, which showed that most vapers knew this while 20% were unsure.
Students from schools throughout regional and greater metropolitan New South Wales told researchers from the Office of the Advocate for Children and Young People that they thought vaping helped stress despite evidence linked it to increased anxiety and depression.
According to the Manager of Participation at the Office of the Advocate for Children and Young People, people who openly vaped during our conversations were not greatly discouraged by the possibility of bodily harm from vaping.
Vaping was viewed as a socially acceptable behaviour and a means of fitting in. Most focus groups we spoke with claimed that between 70 and 90 percent of their year group vaped, so even though we know this may be overstated and untrue, the perception of this is still important.
Ninety-eight percent of the vape goods that were taken from Sydney high school students and sellers were confirmed to contain nicotine, according to lab tests. However, only a small number of substances included nicotine, and several were shown to include compounds that are known to be dangerous.
The University of Wollongong conducted testing on behalf of NSW Health, and the results showed that vapes contained a large number of food flavourings and cooling chemicals. These substances can be consumed safely through food, but their toxicity when inhaled repeatedly is unknown.
If you are facing any of the issues discussed in this article, please do not hesitate to contact us, and we will do our best to help you.