Vaping

Ms HOOD (Adelaide) (14:40): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. Can the minister update the house on state government initiatives to address the number of children and young South Australians who are vaping?

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:41): Thank you to the member for Adelaide for her interest in this important matter and for my first question on health this week in the parliament. This is a very important issue for South Australians in terms of the increased use of vapes, otherwise known as e-cigarettes, in our community and the impact that is having on our community, on our children and particularly on our schools, which I know is something that the Minister for Education is particularly concerned about. This is something that we are particularly concerned about tackling as a government, which is why we are a taking a range of initiatives to take this on headfirst.

The percentage of children in South Australia who have used vapes has significantly increased in the past few years. It has gone from 1 per cent to 8 per cent for those young people 15 to 29 using vapes in South Australia. Even more concerningly, the Australian Secondary Students' Alcohol and Drug survey showed that more than a quarter of students in South Australia had used vapes, an increase of almost 9 per cent since 2017.

When these first came onto the market, we were told that they were not going to be attractive to kids and that they were just going to be used as smoking cessation devices, but the opposite has proven true: they are attractive to kids and kids are taking them up. Of course, they contain a bucketload of nicotine, which addicts children very quickly. There is much more nicotine in these vapes than what you would get through cigarettes. They also contain a whole range of other chemicals as well, from formaldehyde, which you would find in disinfectant, to mercury, arsenic, benzene, chlorine and so many other chemicals that will be part of these. Of course, there is nothing safe about having those chemicals inhaled into your lungs. The only thing safe that you should be putting into your lungs is air.

Of course, nicotine is incredibly addictive and the harm that it is having in terms of the addiction sweeping young people is having a big impact on families, teachers and schools. Just last week, we announced a new hard-hitting education and advocacy campaign that we are launching here in South Australia to take this issue on and to communicate directly with young people the harms of vapes, really targeting this at social media platforms such as TikTok, YouTube and Instagram where young people are, as well as outdoor and digital and radio communication.

The campaign showcases the voices of young people who have had firsthand experience with the harmful effects of vaping. It is targeted specifically at those 15 to 25 year olds who currently vape or who might be at risk of vaping in the future. It includes powerful testimonials from ex-vapers who share their real stories about vaping and also importantly quitting. A few of the quotes include:

Before I started vaping, I was a typically healthy young guy.

For me to suddenly have lung pain in my 20s, I really did think I was going to die.

I'd wake up with a super sore, scratchy throat.

I started getting chest pains.

I'm coughing black stuff into a tissue.

My lungs just felt like they were on fire.

These are testimonies from young people directly. Of course, this campaign has been launched alongside the work that we are doing with the Minister for Consumer and Business Affairs about a new enforcement, which will be in part of today's state budget, to make sure that we can tackle the illegal trade of vapes but also of cigarettes, which is sadly making the availability a significant problem. As we support federal changes that will make vapes even harder to obtain, that enforcement is going to be absolutely necessary so that we can restrict those numbers getting worse and the impact on our kids getting worse in South Australia.