Since October,it has been illegal to sell e-cigarettes,commonly known as vapes,or e-liquids containing nicotine to a person without a doctor’s prescription.
However,even before the new rules,local public health units had been springing convenience stores,petrol stations and tobacconists who were selling vapes to children,enlisting undercover teenagers to attempt to purchase the products.
Vicky Sheppeard,from the public health unit at South Eastern Sydney Local Health District,said health authorities were working on understanding the rise in vaping among high school students,which she said had increased significantly in 2021.
“We are speaking with principals who are very aware and concerned that there are growing numbers of young people vaping,” she said.
“Unfortunately we understand that,while the use does increase with age,it is not limited to the younger students,and we have had reports of children in primary school vaping.”
Aden,a 17-year-old from Sydney’s west,said vaping had spread among his peers over the past couple of years. He said vapes were “ridiculously easy to buy” as a teenager at convenience stores and service stations.
“[Teenagers] know how to walk in when there’s no one else in the shop and how to ask for it without being obvious,” he said.