The devices sweeping Australia are typically created by hand, with employees putting the nictone-filled fluid into the devices with syringes, according to video taken inside a Chinese vape factory.
Due in large part to the wide variety of accessible vibrant colors and flavors, including pineapple, ice cream, and watermelon, the vaping trend has spread quickly across the country.
As long as you don’t have a prescription, nicotine-containing devices are illegal in Australia, so vaping remains illegal.
However, due to companies headquartered outside posting a “import at your own risk” caution, the sale of vapes over the counter is widespread throughout the entire nation.
One video shot inside the HQD facility in Shenzhen, southern China’s “vape capital,” shows a worker pouring the syrup, which users inhale into their lungs, into the device using a syringe from an open dish.
In other videos, thousands of the brightly colored vapes in the form of pens are seen being bundled up and prepared for export to nations like Australia, where kids as young as primary school age are inhaling them.
One of the most well-known brands in Australia is HQD, which sells disposable goods like King, Mega, and Cuvie Air.
The business markets itself as providing “simple to use” vapes with a “great flavor spectrum” and “excellent for 4,000 puffs.”
Its goods, like the Nova, are made to be preserved and refilled with new pods; a box of three pods costs $25.95 and each one is good for 500 puffs.
The business, which is one of many in China that exports up to 90% of the world’s e-cigarettes, is taking advantage of the boom by hiring 2,000 people and establishing two more plants to keep up with demand.
It generates roughly 500,000 vapes each day.
The $750.4 million e-cigarette market in China has been similar for other businesses including RELX, FLOW, and Yooz, but even the communist superpower is starting to crack down, citing the health dangers.
Not the least of these are counterfeit products, which run the danger of using harmful substances, leaking e-liquid, or having nicotine levels significantly higher than those stated on the label.
The majority of the millions of vape smokers in China, according to a 2018 poll, were between the ages of 15 and 24, which led to limitations on their sale online and a potential ban on using them in public areas, according to the New York Times.
In Australia, research has shown that younger individuals are using vapes more regularly.
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) reported that one in five adults between the ages of 18 and 24 who had never smoked previously had used the devices.
The previous administration, according to health minister Mark Butler, was unable to complete a national tobacco plan, which he is working to do “urgently.”
There is little evidence that e-cigarettes assist smokers kick the habit, according to the NHMRC statement on the topic, which was published on June 24.
The use of e-cigarettes, after Covid, is ranked as the second-biggest health concern by Australia’s Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly.
Organizations like Cancer Council Australia are advocating for stricter enforcement of the regulations that already forbid the importation of nicotine.
For instance, HQD bases its Australian operations in New Zealand, where the legal framework is more lenient, and any orders placed on the Australian website will be delivered from that country’s shores.
According to the website, a legitimate prescription is needed, and it is the customer’s duty to make sure they comply with all legal requirements.
On the website, it is also stated that an age verification method is in place “to help limit the risk that an individual under the age of 18 is purchasing our HQD vapes.”
A straightforward pop-up with buttons asking visitors if they were over 18 serves as the “check” when people enter.
Even HQD’s general manager Hou Shoushan acknowledged that while the company did state a legitimate ID must be uploaded in order to place a purchase, the requirement may simply be circumvented by using a borrowed ID card.
“Junior smoking is a widespread issue around the world. According to Hou, who spoke to The Sydney Morning Herald in September, “I sometimes send my daughter to get me a cigarette.”
First off, e-cigarettes are safer than regular cigarettes. Additionally, it can reenergize your mind. Thirdly, it’s a trend. Personally, I don’t believe there is a significant issue.
Even while there seems to be some agreement that vaping is less dangerous than smoking tobacco cigarettes, it is still more detrimental than never smoking.
‘Now, of course, it may turn out that they truly pose a significantly decreased risk. But we are unaware of that. We are conducting this enormous experiment on our children,’ University of Sydney emeritus professor of public health Simon Chapman told the newspaper.
The majority of the compounds in vape e-liquid, though they do include nicotine, which makes them just as addictive as normal cigarettes, have not yet been properly identified and analyzed, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The CDC reported 2,807 incidents of lung damage from vaping in February 2020 and 68 fatalities, most of which were caused by users who had tampered with their equipment or bought questionable e-liquid, some of which contained THC.
Libby Jardine, chair of the Cancer Council’s Tobacco Issues Committee, claimed that the industry’s answer to the declining tobacco cigarette market was the vaping boom.
This did not occur accidentally, Ms. Jardine said.
The tobacco industry is heavily involved in this to attempt and attract a new generation of nicotine addicts. “This has been driven by an industry that want to make a profit off of these items.”
We have growing evidence of the negative effects of e-cigarettes. It’s time for the Australian government to make a stand.
Federal health officials in the US have ordered vaping manufacturer Juul to remove its electronic cigarettes from sale.
Altria, formerly Philip Morris and one of the biggest cigarette manufacturers in the world, owns a portion of Juul.
Following years of regulatory delays, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is taking this move as part of a broad initiative to provide scientific scrutiny to the multibillion dollar vaping sector.
According to the FDA, Juul may have contributed “disproportionately” to the growth in teen vaping.