The CEO of Lung Foundation Australia, a leading lung authority, is behind Unveil What You Inhale - a new campaign that intends to cut through the misleading marketing veil and arm students with clear information on the dangerous cocktail of chemicals in vapes and the gateway to further addiction they invite.
Schools have a big role to play here, Brooke said, in wizening students up to the facts about the growing vaping movement and the health implications for those who get caught in it.
Recent reports of schools installing vape detectors in bathrooms and an anecdotal surge in concern among school principals and parents over an increasing number of students taking to the battery powered devices has sounded an alarm.
The statistics back this up: the latest Australian National Drug Strategy Household Survey showed vape use doubled among 14- to 17-year-olds and quadrupled among 25- to 29-year-olds between 2016 and 2019.
“Our foundation, along with many others, has been at the forefront of the tobacco reduction agenda in this country for over 40 years, and we think Australia is really regarded as a world leader in reducing the number of young people that have been smoking,” Brooke told EducationHQ.
“So it really did take us by surprise, when more [educators] started reaching out to us going, ‘there isn't much information about this, we don't know why it's safe. All we've heard is this vague [claim] that it's 95 per cent safer than smoking.'"
Mistruths around the safety of vaping need to be squashed if young people are going to be empowered to make sensible choices about their health, he warned.
“The simplest way to describe it is, the only thing you should be inhaling into your lungs is clean air. Now, whether it's tobacco smoke, vaping, e-liquids, poor air quality, bushfire smoke, it all does accumulative damage to the linings and the way in which your lung works.”
A study by Curtin University and funded by Lung Foundation Australia, Minderoo Foundation and the Scottish Masonic Charitable Foundation WA, tested the chemicals and toxicity of 52 flavoured vape e-liquids which are available for sale over the counter in Australia. The results were astounding, Brooke said.
“Our real bugbear in this is chemical e-liquids, because they sound really sexy and they're marketed at young people. So pina colada and chocolate and things called ‘sex on the beach’ and you name it; they've got truckloads of different flavours…
“Curtin University tested [the e-liquids] in their liquid state, and then in their vapour state, and that's really important, because liquid has certain properties. But when they're vaporised it really does reduce it down into micro particles which then get into your lungs.
“What we found was 100 per cent were inaccurately labelled and 20 per cent had nicotine, which is illegal to sell. Nicotine is addictive.
“Sixty-odd percent had chemicals of unknown safety for one's lungs, whether in liquid or vapour (form).”
Many of the ingredients within the e-liquids were found to include those used in household disinfectant, petroleum, cosmetics, paint and eugenol, which is commonly used to euthanise fish.
“While these may be safe to use for these specific purposes, they haven’t been tested or determined to be safe as an inhalant,” Brooke noted.
Meanwhile, other chemicals found do have known health impacts, including causing severe irritation when inhaled and those linked to the development of lung cancer.
“Globally, not one e-cigarette manufacturer has got past any OECD-approved therapeutic goods administration … because no one has ever tested this; and that's the rub,” Brooke said.
“This is a product that is freely available right now to young people with no regulations around it and no compliance or enforcement. And we see that young people are using them in schools or all the time.”
In a recent interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Hou Shoushan, general manager of Shenzhen Hanqingda Technology CO, a prominent vape manufacturer in China, waved off the suggestion there was a problem with vaping in young people.
“Smoking among juveniles is a common phenomenon all over the world. Sometimes, I send my daughter to buy me a cigarette,” Hou said.
“First, the e-cigarette is safer than the traditional one. Second, it can refresh your brain.
“Third, it’s a fashion. Personally, I don’t think there is a big problem.”
But Brooke is deeply concerned that rising recreational vaping and experimentation among young people will only put them on a path towards the real deal.
“What we know, globally, the evidence is pretty clear: a percentage of young people that vape will also then go back to traditional tobacco products.
“So in that context, we're really concerned about that group of young people that will normalise smoking through vaping. And we need to be able to do something that really does change young people's behaviours and attitudes towards this.”
He added that we need to “make a real distinction” between e-cigarettes that are used as a second line therapy for smoking cessation, and the “recreational” vaping we're seeing among young people.
Clinical respiratory scientist Dr Sukhwinder Sohal believes that the mission to uncover the dangers of vapes will follow the same trajectory as that which sought to expose the dangers of smoking.
“Similar to what was learnt through research on tobacco smoke, we have discovered that e-cigarette vapor in the lungs is neither healthy nor safe,” Sohal said.
“Research to date is already showing concerning results for vape users including an increased likelihood of long-term adverse health effects such as decreased lung function, increased susceptibility to microbial infections, scarring of lungs and potentially, lung disease.
“What many users may not realise is that any combination of fluid can be placed into these devices, whether stipulated by the manufacturers or not, meaning they are likely inhaling a long list of harmful chemicals.
“This is most concerning in young vape users who, by naively experimenting with a combination of inhalants, could end up with ongoing respiratory distress and long-term lung damage.”
Enter Unveil What You Inhale.
The campaign includes the launch of educational resources to support young people aged 12-17 and young adults from 18-24, along with teachers, in a bid to help them make better informed decisions about their health.
In the meantime, Brooke is calling for urgent regulatory change.
“It took 30 years to get lung cancer recognised on tobacco products, so the Foundation is now calling for all vaping products, if they're not going to ban them, then they have to treat them the same as they do with tobacco products; behind counters, plain packaging, clear warning signs, and fines and compliance for those who break the rules.”
“…we just can't support something that lacks that rigour, and that lack of transparency.”
