Electronic cigarettes have been around for almost two decades now, but “vaping” has surged in popularity over the past five years, with research showing that young adolescents are most at risk.
Introduced as a way for smokers to transition off cigarettes, young people are increasingly turning to vaping as a social activity. The majority of uptake in vaping now comes from those who have never smoked a cigarette before.
Schools throughout Australia are finding themselves stretched in how they can combat the issue, with teachers feeling ill-equipped to educate both students and their parents on the long-term health dangers of vaping.
The Media Centre for Education Research spoke with leading researchers in the field of youth vaping and public health to understand why youth are taking up vaping as well as discuss the best practices to curtail the vaping epidemic.
‘Australian schools need more support to implement skills-focused in-school suspension, and vaping needs to be subjected to the same regulation as tobacco.
‘Out-of-school suspension is an ineffective response to vaping. Not only does out-of-school suspension have negative effects of its own but it may send the student back into an environment where vaping is common and/or condoned.
‘Importantly, in-school suspension is not used as a punishment, rather as a means to educate or to build skills.
‘If parents understand more about the problem themselves, they might attempt to prevent access to their children, and/or support the school’s position.
‘This is a lost opportunity for a public health approach to harm minimisation and is why public school systems in the United States have implemented in-school suspension.
‘Currently, young people can access vapes with ease and the flow-on effect for schools will not abate until governments implement legislation to curtail access.’
Dr Courtney Barnes from the University of Newcastle is currently collaborating with the Hunter New England local health network in undertaking a text messaging trial to prevent teenagers from taking up vaping.
‘Vaping has nearly doubled since 2019 which is concerning, so it’s around 32 per cent of adolescents that have tried vaping at least once and that’s doubled since 2019.
‘What’s concerning is, it’s much higher in youth than it is an in adults – even though vapes first came on the market as a tool to help adults quit smoking, we know that vape use is a lot higher in adolescents.
‘We know that teens aren’t vaping to help them quit smoking. That’s not why they’re starting to vape.
‘The text messaging program came up because there is really no evidence-based program within Australia that is designed to help prevent vaping uptake or vaping use amongst youth. Vaping has become a big issue and is affecting youth in our region.’
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