Health Minister Greg Hunt has written to his state counterparts urging them to halt the illicit sale of e-cigarettes to children, but state health ministers want the federal government to stop them at the border.
Community concern is growing about e-cigarettes in schools as increasing numbers of teenagers take up vaping – despite state laws making it illegal to sell the devices to under-18s, regardless of whether they contain nicotine.
“I ask that you take active steps to enforce these laws by taking action against retailers contravening your laws, for example by selling NVPs to school children,” Mr Hunt wrote in the letter, seen by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
State and federal governments are criticising each other’s response to the vaping crisis.Credit:Sanghee Liu
Under Commonwealth law, it has been illegal to import liquid nicotine, unless prescribed by a GP as a smoking cessation aid, for the past six months.
But e-cigarettes and vape juices containing nicotine remain widely available through a black market both online and in retail stores and schools are grappling with an escalating problem.
Mr Hunt’s letter dated March 18 linked to a report in The Age about a five-year-old boy who was hospitalised with breathing difficulties after vaping with his brother and a seven-year-old classmate at school.
In that case, the vape was not alleged to have been sold to a child by a retailer, with the child’s father telling the ABC it belonged to another student’s mother.
Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley hit back on Friday, telling the Age and Herald: “We need more action from the Commonwealth to strengthen e-cigarette regulation at a national level – and we encourage the Morrison Government to get on with it.”
A spokeswoman for NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard, who is recovering from COVID-19, said a national approach was needed to tackle vaping, which the state had formally requested “on multiple occasions, including during feedback on the new National Tobacco Strategy”.
“The federal government previously tried to get a uniform approach on e-cigarettes, but was met with opposition from supporters of vaping,” the spokeswoman said.
Mr Hazzard had already asked NSW Health to “step up its compliance action” before receiving Mr Hunt’s letter.
“Hopefully, it will be possible for federal compliance to be stepped up to minimise the importation of illegal vaping products.”
The federal health department is finalising the National Tobacco Strategy, a draft of which recommends new restrictions on “the marketing, availability and use of all e-cigarette components in Australia, regardless of their nicotine content”.
Australian Border Force Commissioner Michael Outram told a Senate estimates hearing in February that the ABF had not committed any additional resourcing to the detection and seizure of nicotine vaping products since the ban on importation without a prescription began last October.
The ABF does not have the power to seize vaping products without first having them assessed by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, which can take enforcement action if nicotine is detected.
There is no federal ban on importing e-cigarettes or vape juices that do not contain nicotine.
Mr Hunt initially sought to ban importation of the devices themselves, but this policy was dropped after backlash from a group of pro-vaping backbench Coalition MPs.
A TGA spokeswoman said the agency had issued 8 fines relating to the illegal importation of nicotine vaping products and 41 for advertising breaches, totalling $450,216 combined.
”The risk of a rapid rise in teenage vaping in Australia has been of deep concern to the Australian government,” the spokeswoman said.
Australian National University research commissioned by the department and published on Thursday found vaping among Australians aged 14 and over had more than doubled between 2016 and 2019 and that e-cigarettes were creating a new generation of addicts.
Mr Hunt said in his letter that the TGA “is actively monitoring compliance with Commonwealth laws, including testing NVPs to monitor adherence to the minimum safety and quality requirements.”
The TGA tested more than 200 vape juice products and found that most did not comply with labelling laws, with many containing nicotine despite claiming to be free of the drug.
The Cancer Council’s public health committee chair, Anita Dessaix, said teen vaping was “a public health crisis” and called for stronger action was from all levels of government.
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