Government's new $244 million vaping plan 'certain to fail' with calls for 'more education'
Health issues arising from smoking is costing the economy billions, but there is a way we can wean people off cigarettes, argues Dr Colin Mendelsohn.
Australia's new vaping laws are "certain to fail" and instead of limiting access to the electric devices, governments should instead "legalise and regulate" them as a method of reducing nicotine addition, one of the nation's leading experts on tobacco harm reduction has warned.
We need only look to our neighbour New Zealand to see their "smoking rate has declined more than twice as fast as ours" after legalising vaping, Dr Colin Mendelsohn said. And although the country moved to ban disposable vapes in March, he said there's much we can learn from them.
While in an ideal world people would neither smoke cigarettes nor use vapes, the latter are an effective method in weaning people off cigarettes and are estimated to be up to "95 per cent safer" according to various studies, Mendelsohn claimed.
He said in addition to regulation, "much more education is needed" across the country to better inform people about vapes — both the health risks and potential "benefits" — and in particular, how to dispose of them. As it stands, the "negative view of vaping is mostly based on misinformation", he added.
Cigarettes a far bigger problem than vapes, expert says
"I think it's important to keep it in perspective," Mendelsohn told Yahoo News Australia. "I think cigarette butts are a far bigger problem in terms of litter, their non-biodegradability, their harm to marine life and so on. Their risk of bushfires, house fires, harm to air quality. I think they're a much bigger problem.
"There's nearly five trillion cigarette butts discarded each year in the world. They're the main cause of litter globally. I think we put the harms that we think are there out of proportion because we have some negative view which has become the dominant narrative.
"The only way we're going to [learn how to] recycle and control the environmental issue is through legalising and regulating vaping, and that is quite possible through a national manufacturer funded program." Almost everyone knows someone who uses a vape regularly. Among young people, they're extremely popular and many studies have attributed the rise of smoking in our youth to the devices.
While Mendelsohn acknowledges this, he warned the effects of the alternative, cigarettes, are overwhelmingly worse.
He said the environmental impact of vaping products is far lower than from cigarettes, however vapes are a genuine cause of litter and fire risk and can result in soil and water pollution from leaking chemicals. "Alcohol and cigarettes are deadly," Mendelsohn said.
"And they're available from every corner store. I mean, it's ridiculous.
New vaping laws ineffective, 'bound to fail'
"This is the most effective quitting aid we've got and the most popular, and we're saying to people, well, you can buy cigarettes anywhere you like, but if you want to vape you have to jump through all these hoops. And it's just not risk proportionate to the risk of the product.
"The new legislation is certain to fail. We're quite sure about that. The model that's being proposed is not going to appeal to vapors, people aren't going to do it.
"The black market will continue to thrive, it'll sell continue to sell vapes to young people will still have the youth vaping problem. The products will continue to be unregulated, so there'll be more more risky. And, and unfortunately, it's going to make it very hard for adults to get access to legal products to help to help them to quit smoking. So I think it's bound to fail."
New Zealand legalised vaping in adults in 2020 but backflipped earlier this year after a change of government. It's soon set to ban disposable vapes but reusable devices will remain for sale.
In Australia, smoking-related healthcare costs have been estimated to sting the economy a staggering $137 billion. In response, the government says it will spend $234 million to stamp out non-prescription vaping in a bid to prevent a new generation of nicotine addicts, including smokers
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