Vapeboss – Australia's Minister for Health and Aged Care, Mark Butler, will propose further restrictions on vaping products. One of these is to open a public consultation on nicotine-containing vape products.

The consultation will be announced at an event at Parliament House in Canberra held this week (December 2022), to mark 10 years since plain packaging legislation. The process will be conducted through the Therapeutic Goods Administration drug regulator for nicotine-containing vaping products. "We need to understand where the current regulatory framework is failing and what actions the government can take to shift decisions," Butler said.

The Minister blamed the previous government for delaying the implementation of stricter vape regulations. "The previous government ignored vaping," Butler told Guardian Australia. "Our children are paying the price for that division and delay."

Progress in quitting smoking hindered

Meanwhile, contrary to Butler's argument, a recent study published in BMJ Open has confirmed that Australia's harsh and outdated vape policies are hindering smoking cessation efforts in the country.

Titled, "The impact of the introduction of vaping on smoking in six jurisdictions with different regulatory approaches to vaping: an interrupted time series analysis," the study analyzed smoking rates and cigarette consumption in 6 jurisdictions with different regulatory environments for vaping: Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia (in Canada), the United Kingdom and Australia.

Of these, Australia had the harshest vape regulations and the lowest vaping rates. However, it also had one of the lowest rates of progress in terms of declining smoking rates.

Vape availability directly correlates with declining smoking rates

In a post on his blog page, Tobacco Control expert Dr. Colin Mendelsohn said that this study once again shows that in Canada and the UK, cigarette consumption and smoking rates among young adults declined faster after vaping products became available.

"However, in Australia, the decline in cigarette consumption by adult smokers has slowed and the decline in smoking rates among young adults has also slowed after vaping became available."

"Australia has the harshest vaping regulations in the Western world based on misguided fears that vaping could lead young people who would not otherwise smoke to start smoking. However, this unfairly prevents adults from accessing life-saving alternatives and leads to more smoking-related deaths and illnesses," Mendelsohn added.

Source: Vapingpost