Educators and health experts say big tobacco companies are hooking a new generation of children on smoking by marketing candy-flavoured e-cigarette juices with glamourous social media imagery.

Key points: There are concerns a growing e-cigarette culture in Australian teenagers will lead to an increase in combustible cigarette smoking

There are concerns a growing e-cigarette culture in Australian teenagers will lead to an increase in combustible cigarette smoking 13 per cent of Australian teenagers have had already tried e-cigarettes, or "vaping"

13 per cent of Australian teenagers have had already tried e-cigarettes, or "vaping" Cancer Council Australia said e-cigarettes contain unregulated ingredients that can damage lungs and increase the risk of heart disease and cancer

They warn the promotion of e-cigarettes with cartoon-like characters and the use of social media influencers is "re-normalising" smoking to youth.

Vape, Juul, juice, nova, hit, cloud — if you are a parent of a teenager, chances are you are already familiar with some of these words.

If you do not know what they mean, your kids probably do. They are all terms used to describe the use of e-cigarettes, or vaping, as it is colloquially known.

It has being described as the new alcopop, except the sweet flavours of e-liquids, or vape juice, disguise the taste of nicotine instead of alcohol.

E-cigarettes initially marketed as 'safe'

E-cigarettes were initially touted as being a safer alternative to smoking, but after the death of one e-cigarette user and the hospitalisation of many teenagers in the United States, educators, parents and health experts fear a vaping culture is developing in Australia.

Flavoured vape juice products on display in a Queensland store. ( ABC Sunshine Coast: Megan Kinninment )

Cancer Council Australia is calling for action from schools and parents, with the council's Tobacco Issues Committee chair, Libby Jardine, warning that studies had found about 13 per cent of teenagers aged between 12–17 in Australia had already tried e-cigarettes. Ms Jardine said that figure was rising.

What is vaping? Vaping is inhaling the vapour created by an electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) or other vaping device

Vaping is inhaling the vapour created by an electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) or other vaping device E-cigarettes are battery-operated devices that heat an e-liquid to produce a vapour, or an aerosol, that can contain nicotine, flavour and other chemicals

E-cigarettes are battery-operated devices that heat an e-liquid to produce a vapour, or an aerosol, that can contain nicotine, flavour and other chemicals E-cigarette users inhale the vapour in the same way as smoking a cigarette

E-cigarette users inhale the vapour in the same way as smoking a cigarette In Australia it is illegal for retail outlets to sell nicotine e-cigarettes or liquid nicotine for vaping

In Australia it is illegal for retail outlets to sell nicotine e-cigarettes or liquid nicotine for vaping It is also illegal to buy nicotine e-cigarettes or a liquid nicotine for personal use without a medical prescription

It is also illegal to buy nicotine e-cigarettes or a liquid nicotine for personal use without a medical prescription It is easy to access nicotine for vaping from online sellers from outside Australia

"We know that the tobacco industry is what we call 're-emergent' in Australia and are heavily marketing these products as a reduced-risk product," she said.

"E-cigarettes are not a reduced-risk product. We don't have enough evidence to say e-cigarettes are safe, or safer [than tobacco smoking].

"We know that even in healthy young people, the use of e-cigarettes can impair blood vessel function. The news about vaping and the use of e-cigarettes is getting worse very day.

Ms Jardine said the liquid used in e-cigarettes contained cancer-causing substances and ingredients that were not regulated.

"The liquid heat in e-cigarettes contains a range of ingredients, including solvents and flavouring agents, that are completely unregulated," she said.

"Cancer councils are also very concerned about something called the on-ramp effect, where we see young people are not only using e-cigarettes but they're transitioning too easily to combustible cigarettes.

"E-cigarettes have been found to contain ingredients such as heavy metals and particulate matter that can damage the lungs and that can then increase the risk of things like cardiovascular disease and even cause cancer."

Libby Jardine is from Cancer Council Australia and says e-cigarettes are not a safe product. ( Supplied: ABC News )

Ms Jardine said she wanted schools to take a "hard line" against vaping.

"Schools and parents need to be pointing to the law," she said.

"The sale and possession, or use of e-cigarettes containing nicotine, is unlawful in all Australian jurisdictions under the poison control legislation, except where nicotine has been attained with a doctor's authorisation.

"At no point in time have e-cigarettes been approved by Australia's regulatory authority, the TGA [Therapeutic Goods Association], as a safe product, nor an effective aid to quit smoking.

"Schools should be certainly including e-cigarettes as part of their whole school approach to protecting the health and safety of their students.

Sorry, this audio has expired Vaping companies accused of creating a new generation of smokers by marketing to kids

"We've made huge progress in tobacco control in Australia and we wouldn't want to see any of that good work undone by a product that looks to hook young people through lolly flavours."

'Like advertising bubble gum'

At Sunshine Beach State High School in Queensland, principal Grant Williams said the school has been taking a "proactive" approach, running a wellbeing program aimed at educating students about the dangers of vaping.

"We know some of our students have experimented [with vaping]," Mr Williams said.

"You can buy anything on the Internet. Young people could easily just go online, order online, and then then it's delivered to their door.

Mr Williams says e-cigarette companies are targeting students and young people. ( ABC Sunshine Coast: Amy Sheehan )

"The way [vaping] is advertised, it's like advertising bubble gum because there's all these sweet flavours. It sounds like it's lolly water that they're just breathing in — but it's not.

"It's serious chemicals that will most likely over time cause some significant harm."

Mr Williams said e-cigarette companies were deliberately targeting students.

"Where I was in Brisbane, there was a store that opened up down the road from the school," he said.

"It's morally wrong in the way in which the companies who are making these are going about trying to promote them through young people."

Mr Williams said it was also parents who needed to be educated.

"A number of students' parents actually use e-cigarettes as a way of giving up smoking, but they weren't aware that there was harm to their use," he said.

Queensland students are being educated about the laws around e-cigarettes. ( Supplied: Facebook )

Teen vaping declared 'epidemic' in US

Australian schools and parents have been on the frontline in the battle to stop teenagers from going down the same path as the US, where an as many as 8 million teenagers have been estimated to be vaping.

In December 2018, US Surgeon General Jerome Adams declared e-cigarette used among youth was "an epidemic".

Vaping posts abound on social media like this anti-vaping meme referencing the Fortnite online game. ( Source: Reddit, u/CSab6482 )

He said the health dangers of vaping had started to emerge, with multiple cases of youth hospitalised after vaping nicotine, and the country's first death directly linked to e-cigarettes last week in Illinois.

Chicago attorney, Ken Moll, has been leading a billion-dollar class action lawsuit against the leading e-cigarette company in the US, Juul, for marketing nicotine to people age under 18.

"It's alarming there was a 900 per cent increase in high school usage of e-cigarettes between 2011 in 2015," Mr Moll said.

Schools in the United States were out of their depth trying to control vaping among millions of students, he said.

"(In the U.S) E cigarettes aren't restricted," he said.

"There's no regulation.

"If you're 60-years-old and you want to buy a pack of cigarettes, you need to produce your driver's licence, and (the shop) takes a copy of it, because if they don't, they can be fined and penalised.

"(But) If you're 14-years-old, and you want to go into a vape shop, you can get any type of e-cigarette delivery device and they don't even ask for your ID."

Mr Moll wants e-cigarette products to carry warnings and for manufacturers to fund education campaigns similar to those warning against tobacco smoking.

"(E-cigarette manufacturers') advertising mimics the playbook that big tobacco utilised," Mr Moll said.

"They're marketing it as cool, stylish, sexy, popular.

"And then they have all these wonderful flavours like mango, mint, cucumber.

"We have a strong issue that they're trying to target youth who've never smoked before.

"This is a gateway drug into smoking cigarettes."

In a recent discussion, Dr Aaron Chidekel of the Nemours Alfred I duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware in the United States is warning Australia that it could be the site of the next epidemic if it does not resist a push from the vaping industry to make its products easier to access.

Do teens vape nicotine in Australia?

In Australia it remains illegal to sell nicotine liquid — and illegal to buy it without a doctors prescription.

Despite such tough regulations, Australian teenagers have still been buying e-nicotine liquid through poorly policed online stores, encouraged by social media with millions of posts dedicated to vaping.

Internet and social media access has been driving the marketing success of vaping to a new generation, according to researcher Michelle Jongenelis, the deputy director of the WA Cancer Prevention Research Unit based at Curtin University.

Dr Jongenelis said Instagram influencers and celebrities have glamorised smoking again through sharing photos and videos from e-cigarette launch parties and by posting vaping tricks.

"It's quite off-putting what's happening with the social media marketing," she said.

"The e-cigarette companies in the vaping industry, the tobacco industry as well, because they have a large stake now in the vaping industry, is sending the message across that this is something that's cool."

Dr Jongenelis says e-cigarette packaging could easily be mistaken for lollies or popcorn. ( ABC News: Jon Sambell )

Vaping has also been sold to youth through playful packaging and marketing, Dr Jongenelis said.

"A lot of the new pods and e-cigarette liquids and vials that are coming out, if you would have put them next to lollies or packages of popcorn, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference," she said.

"You get flavours like bubblegum flavour, popcorn flavour, apple pie flavour, coffee — the list goes on."

Dr Jongenelis said it was similar to the alcopops issue where alcohol producers create vodka drinks masked with bright colourings and fruity flavours.

"And that's what we're finding with e-cigarettes as well. The flavourings actually mask the harshness of all the other chemicals that are in there," she said.

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'I stopped smoking when I discovered vaping'

Founder of the Byron Bay Cloud Co., Tommy McCrossin, denied that all vape retailers and e-liquid manufacturers colluded with big tobacco companies to "hook" the next generation on nicotine.

"I was a very heavy smoker before I discovered vaping," he said.

"And on the day I discovered vaping I was able to stop smoking."

Mr McCrossin manufactured four brands and supplied 400 retailers with sweet dessert-like flavours made from organic, palm oil-free propylene glycol.

But he said e-liquids were not marketed at teenagers

"The reason my business partner and I got into doing this was because we were smokers who wanted to stop smoking," Mr McCrossin said.

"So morally, it's a fantastic industry to be working in for those reasons.

"Science shows that nicotine is addictive and we have no interest in getting people addicted to products when they have no reason to be.

"The only reason we can see for someone to take up vaping is if they are a smoker and they are wanting to make that switch, to cut down [on smoking] or to replace [cigarettes]."

The e-liquid manufacturer did not deny that many of his customers were looking for nicotine hits. He said he sold a concentrated liquid called a "doubler" to be mixed with legitimately bought nicotine liquid.

Byron Bay Cloud Co. sells flavoured e-liquid for use in e-cigarettes. ( Supplied: Byron Bay Cloud Co. )

Mr McCrossin said mixing e-cigarette liquid with nicotine involved a degree of mathematical skill to measure the safe dosage, and believed regulating the industry would be safer for e-cigarette smokers.

"It's a big ask for people to be dosing themselves and it should be regulated," he said.



"Regulating will make it safer for a customer because it's less likely that a customer will mix their own nicotine in and potentially make a mistake [with dosage].

"Regulating the industry and offering those products to be sold, just like tobacco products with ID checks, would be a positive move for the industry and a positive move for the customer as well — which is the main thing."