Free webinars to protect young people from the harms of vaping

Nov 08, 2023

Parents and carers on the Mid North Coast are invited to join a free one-hour webinar during November and December to learn about vapes, how to talk to young people about vaping and how to support young people to quit vaping.

The webinars are being delivered by Mid North Coast Local Health District and Northern NSW Local Health District to support parents in understanding the harms associated with vaping.

Associate Director, North Coast Population and Public Health and North Coast Vaping Taskforce Co-Chair Robin Auld said the webinars are designed to give parents and carers the tools and information to tackle vaping.

“Throughout the North Coast Vaping Taskforce consultations, we’ve heard from community groups, parents and schools that many teachers, students, carers and parents don’t know what’s in these vapes, and that they can be harmful,” Mr Auld said.

A recent study commissioned by NSW Health and conducted by the University of Wollongong found that vapes, or e-cigarettes, contain nicotine and other toxic chemicals known to harm health.

The sample included 428 vapes seized from retailers and 322 vapes surrendered by young people at Sydney high schools.

Almost all vaping devices confiscated from school students contained nicotine (97.5 per cent). Most devices did not have nicotine listed as an active ingredient.

Concerningly, 30 of the devices in the study contained at least one substance known to harm health, including toxic chemicals like ethylene glycol, which is also found in antifreeze. Such substances are banned by the Therapeutic Goods Administration in legal, nicotine containing prescription vapes.

“97.5 per cent of e-cigarettes confiscated from students in this study contained nicotine, which has the potential to lead to nicotine poisoning or dependence,” Mr Auld said.

“For young people, nicotine can cause changes to brain development, impaired learning and memory, and may worsen stress, depression and anxiety.”

Products with identical packaging were found to both contain nicotine and be nicotine-free, making it impossible for users to know what they are vaping.

There is strong evidence that non-smoker teens who use e-cigarettes, are three times more likely to go on to smoke traditional tobacco cigarettes, compared with those who have never vaped.

The free webinars will be delivered at the following dates and times:

5pm-6pm, Thursday 23 November
10am-11am, Monday 27 November
30pm-1.30pm, Wednesday 6 December
30pm-7.30pm, Thursday 14 December

Quitline counsellors are available to answer any questions about vapes on 13 7848 (13 QUIT).