A new survey conducted in Victoria has revealed the number of young people slobbing on the knob of their vapes (is that what the cool kids say?) has increased exponentially over time. Back in my day people used to get zonked and zooted off the Zeus’ zucchini, what happened to that? (For legal reasons I am joking. This is a joke).
According to the Victorian Smoking and Health Survey (run by VicHealth), there are approximately 308,827 people in Victoria who smoke e-cigarettes, a huge rise from the 154,895 recorded in 2018-19.
Within this statistic, 15.2 per cent are young women aged between 18 and 24. Back in 2018-19 young women only made up 2.8 per cent of the vaping population.
“What we’ve seen over the last few years is a flooding of the market of these cheap imported and highly addictive products which young people are breathing deep into their lungs,” VicHealth CEO Dr Sandro Demaio told 9News.
“They contain 200 plus chemicals, many of which are banned under current law.
“Most of them contain nicotine but simply don’t put it on the packet.
“We’ve seen a huge increase. In four years, a doubling among adults in Victoria and a five-fold increase in the use among young women.”
VicHealth is calling for the import of e-cigarettes to cease and for retailers who sell vapes to be penalised.
They also have a problem with vapes being so alluring with their bright packaging and scented flavours.
“They’re using colours and flavours to lure young people in, flavours like fruit loops and milk,” said Demaio.
According to a vape test conducted by VICE Australia, one full Gunnpod brand vape is estimated to have the nicotine equivalent of 30 whole cigarettes at 305.123mg of nicotine.
For reference, your average cigarette contains around 8-20mgs.
“However, when smoking a cigarette, not every milligram of nicotine is inhaled as it burns,” said Dr Celine Kelso at the School of Chemistry and Molecular BioScience at The University of Wollongong.
“The average quantity of nicotine inhaled is about 1.1-1.8mg of nicotine per cigarette.
“This means that for a pack of 20 cigarettes, you’ll likely inhale 22-36mg of nicotine.”
It must be said, however, that cigarettes are still worse for your health on the whole as you’re huffing and puffing in all kinds of other nasty stuff that sure as hell isn’t nicotine.
This article is not intended to encourage or promote the use of vaping or other tobacco products like cigarettes. The consumption of tobacco is harmful to your health and can cause lung cancer.
