School-age children in Australia are vaping less, research suggests, a year after a government ban on disposable vapes came into effect.
Vaping rates among 14 to 17 year olds fell from 17.5% at the start of 2023 to 14.6% in April this year, according to the latest update from Cancer Council Australia’s nationwide study Generation Vape.
The survey also found rates for people aged over 15 reduced by more than a third.
Australian Health Minister Mark Butler said vaping rates for young Australians “have now turned the corner”, adding that officials have seized more than 10 million illegal vapes in the past year.
“Our education and prevention campaigns as well as support to deter people from taking up vaping and smoking or to quit are making a difference,” he said in a statement.
New laws to stop single-use vapes from being made, imported, advertised and supplied in Australia were introduced in July 2024. Nicotine vapes can now only be legally purchased with a prescription at pharmacies. However, a black market for nicotine vapes has been thriving in the country for years.
The UK similarly banned the sale of disposable vapes from June this year.
Vapes are considered safer than normal cigarettes because they do not contain harmful tobacco – but health experts advise that they are not risk-free and the long-term implications of using them are not yet clear.
Australian authorities – like those in the UK – were particularly concerned about the uptake of vapes by youth, with Mr Butler arguing the products were creating a new generation of nicotine addicts.
The latest Generation Vape survey found that 85.4% of young people – from a pool of about 3,000 children aged between 14 to 17 – had never vaped.
Less than a third of those teenagers expressed an interest in vaping, which the Cancer Council says represents a drop in curiosity about the products.
Attitudes towards vaping among school-age children are changing too, the researchers said, pointing to interviews conducted in the study where many current or former vapers said they felt a sense of shame or embarrassment about their vape use.
Though fewer teenagers are reporting that they’re able to buy their vapes themselves, however, tobacconists and vape shops remain a key source of vape sales, despite the new laws.
Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Wednesday, Mr Butler said he is confident the “peak of vaping” is behind Australia.
“I know this is a really, really tough fight and we’ve got a lot more to do, not just in the area of vaping, but illicit tobacco as well,” he said.
Tobacco use remains Australia’s leading cause of preventable death – despite some of the strongest anti-smoking laws in the world – and kills more than 24,000 people each year.
