2023-05-02 07:21:36
Australia is set to become the first country in the world to ban recreational vaping, Health Minister Mark Butler announced Tuesday.
Butler said the country would ban imports of e-cigarettes that were not intended for pharmacy shelves.
All single-use and disposable e-cigarettes will also be banned and there will be restrictions on available packaging, flavors and colors, the minister said in a speech to the National Press Club of Australia.
He said vaping had become “the biggest loophole in Australian history” and that the country would not allow “the gains it has made in reducing tobacco use to be rolled back by the new threat” to public health.
“E-cigarettes have been sold to governments and communities around the world as a therapeutic product to help long-term smokers,” he added.
Young adults who used e-cigarettes were three times more likely to have smoked, Butler said, while those under the age of 25 were the only group to experience an increase in smoking rates.
“This has to end,” he continued.
He also announced a range of packages to support the health system, including a new national program for lung cancer screening.
Australia will increase the tobacco tax by 5% each year for the next three years to help pay for the programmes.
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