Wagga vaping: Police and health authorities sound alarm

Nicotine e-cigarettes are illegal in Australia without a prescription, but Murrumbidgee Local Health District tobacco compliance officer Ian Hardinge has sounded the alarm about "unscrupulous" businesses that are selling them to students.

"A lot of the local high schools are finding issues with them. We're finding that in the newsletters that are going out from schools there's lots of information to the parents about vaping," he said. "Kids are being suspended in schools if they turn up with vapes."

Mr Hardinge said young people across the country were taking up vaping nicotine at an alarming rate, using disposable "cuvie" devices which are often flavoured and look similar to a USB thumb drive.

"We're finding businesses with these products in Wagga and right across the Riverina," he said. "I think people have seen a market for it ... we know that nicotine is a very addictive substance."

Vapes contain a battery-powered heating coil which is activated by puffing and vaporises liquid - that can contain nicotine - before it is inhaled.

Riverina Police Detective Inspector Winston Woodward said officers were investigating at a school in the Wagga area that "had problems with individual students selling vapes to other students".

"I believe children have always smoked. Children will try new things. The packaging surrounding these vapes is particularly concerning," he said.

"It's not a relatively new fad. It has been around for a while. But I think, again, I don't want to punish kids for trying something new because they always have throughout the ages. It's more about trying to educate them."

He said police would target both retail outlets and individuals illegally selling vaping products but that no stores in Wagga had received penalties to date.

"If you do hear something, please contact your local police or Crime Stoppers," he said.

Wagga Base Hospital respiratory specialist Adriaan Venter warned that vaping nicotine was not a safe alternative to smoking cigarettes.

"Fortunately in Australia the kids using vaping has not been as big of a problem as in the United States, where up to 19 per cent of school children are vaping," he said.

"Thankfully we haven't had that situation in Wagga. But I think given the uptake of vaping and the popularity of it, it's just a question of time when we will start to see children with these chest problems."

Associate Professor Venter said there hadn't yet been any cases of ill-health related to e-cigarettes in Wagga, but referred to a 2019 "epidemic" of acute respiratory distress in young vapers in the US.