"I thought it was a sour lolly": Vape in seven-year-old's bag raises public concern
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When Paige, a mum from Melbourne, recently opened her seven-year-old son's school bag, she discovered a neon green-coloured plastic object. At the time, she did not know what she was looking at.
On the front of the item was a cartoon skeleton, as well as the words "double apple" and "rock" which were printed together.
"At first, the bright colours made me think it was a sour lolly, like Warheads," she told 9News.
According to Paige, her son, who had found it on the basketball courts at his school and brought it home with him, also believed it to be a lolly.
When Paige looked up information about the product online, that's when she discovered to her horror that it was actually a vape.
Although there were no listed ingredients on the vape that her son brought home, information that was found online revealed that it contained 50 milligrams of nicotine, which is approximately the same amount as five cigarettes.
Paige and her son thought the green-coloured device was a 'lolly'. Credit: 9News.
Paige expressed her shock at the product's packaging, which she felt was obviously designed with children in mind and intended to appeal to them, asking: "How can cigarette packs be required to label nicotine usage and have horrible pictures on them, but vapes look like lollies?"
To her great relief, her young son had not used the vape; rather, he had simply brought it home after discovering it on the basketball courts at his school.
Paige reported the incident to the principal of her son's school, who confirmed that similar incidents involving older students leaving vaping products on school property after hours had occurred in the past.
Paige is just one of the hundreds of worried parents and grandparents across the country who are concerned that the devices are having a negative impact on the health and wellbeing of their children.
In spite of the fact that vape pens are illegal in Australia, a thriving black market means that teenagers can obtain them without a prescription through social media and other channels.
E-cigarettes come in a wide variety of flavours, and due to the fact that they are so small, they are able to be discreetly stowed away in pockets or school bags.
Kids are being marketed colourful vapes with fruity flavours, and research shows they can lead to nicotine addiction. Credit: 9News.
The rise in the number of young people using vapes and other products related to electronic cigarettes has prompted public health professionals to express concern about the issue.
A report from the NSW Health Department, which came out at the end of last month, showed that the number of young people who vape has doubled in the past year. The NSW Population Health Survey showed that 11% of 16–24-year-olds said they currently used e-cigarettes, which is much higher than the 4.5% who said they did in 2020.
According to a recent Australian National University study of global evidence on vaping, it is also found to be a gateway to traditional cigarettes.
"Young nonsmokers are three times more likely to start smoking tobacco after using e-cigarettes," said Sinan Brown, one of the study's co-authors.
In addition to being a gateway to tobacco use, the report discovered that e-cigarettes were causing poisonings, burns, seizures, addiction, and lung injuries.
Brown added, "For children, we have concerns about the development of their brain. Using products with nicotine at a young age also really sets the platform for addiction in later life."
He also pointed out that Australian regulators needed to examine the advertising and marketing of vaping products to young people, particularly on social media platforms, saying: "What we are seeing is that social media advertising is huge and a lot of this (is directed at) youth."
Members, take this as a sign to check on your grandchildren! Vaping and tobacco use are extremely dangerous, so please protect yourself and your loved ones.
More reasons why vaping can be harmful to your and your loved ones' health can be found in the video below:
Credit: Science Insider.
On the front of the item was a cartoon skeleton, as well as the words "double apple" and "rock" which were printed together.
"At first, the bright colours made me think it was a sour lolly, like Warheads," she told 9News.
According to Paige, her son, who had found it on the basketball courts at his school and brought it home with him, also believed it to be a lolly.
When Paige looked up information about the product online, that's when she discovered to her horror that it was actually a vape.
Although there were no listed ingredients on the vape that her son brought home, information that was found online revealed that it contained 50 milligrams of nicotine, which is approximately the same amount as five cigarettes.
Paige and her son thought the green-coloured device was a 'lolly'. Credit: 9News.
Paige expressed her shock at the product's packaging, which she felt was obviously designed with children in mind and intended to appeal to them, asking: "How can cigarette packs be required to label nicotine usage and have horrible pictures on them, but vapes look like lollies?"
To her great relief, her young son had not used the vape; rather, he had simply brought it home after discovering it on the basketball courts at his school.
Paige reported the incident to the principal of her son's school, who confirmed that similar incidents involving older students leaving vaping products on school property after hours had occurred in the past.
Paige is just one of the hundreds of worried parents and grandparents across the country who are concerned that the devices are having a negative impact on the health and wellbeing of their children.
In spite of the fact that vape pens are illegal in Australia, a thriving black market means that teenagers can obtain them without a prescription through social media and other channels.
E-cigarettes come in a wide variety of flavours, and due to the fact that they are so small, they are able to be discreetly stowed away in pockets or school bags.
Kids are being marketed colourful vapes with fruity flavours, and research shows they can lead to nicotine addiction. Credit: 9News.
The rise in the number of young people using vapes and other products related to electronic cigarettes has prompted public health professionals to express concern about the issue.
A report from the NSW Health Department, which came out at the end of last month, showed that the number of young people who vape has doubled in the past year. The NSW Population Health Survey showed that 11% of 16–24-year-olds said they currently used e-cigarettes, which is much higher than the 4.5% who said they did in 2020.
According to a recent Australian National University study of global evidence on vaping, it is also found to be a gateway to traditional cigarettes.
"Young nonsmokers are three times more likely to start smoking tobacco after using e-cigarettes," said Sinan Brown, one of the study's co-authors.
In addition to being a gateway to tobacco use, the report discovered that e-cigarettes were causing poisonings, burns, seizures, addiction, and lung injuries.
Brown added, "For children, we have concerns about the development of their brain. Using products with nicotine at a young age also really sets the platform for addiction in later life."
He also pointed out that Australian regulators needed to examine the advertising and marketing of vaping products to young people, particularly on social media platforms, saying: "What we are seeing is that social media advertising is huge and a lot of this (is directed at) youth."
Members, take this as a sign to check on your grandchildren! Vaping and tobacco use are extremely dangerous, so please protect yourself and your loved ones.
More reasons why vaping can be harmful to your and your loved ones' health can be found in the video below:
Credit: Science Insider.
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