They are small, colorful and don’t stand out next to the light pens: Disposable e-cigarettes – so-called vaporizers or vapes – are particularly popular with young people. While Swiss politicians are still discussing a ban, Australia imposed one at the beginning of May. SRF Australia correspondent Urs Walterlin on Australia’s vaping ban.
SRF News: Australia is a tough place for tobacco companies. Advertising for tobacco products is forbidden, cigarettes are expensive. Now the government is taking action against e-cigarettes. How is that received?
Urs Wälterlin: The increasingly tough measures, such as escalating prices and a ban on advertising for cigarettes, have meant that the tobacco industry has had to look for other markets. In Australia it was vaping. The problem is that young people in particular can buy vapes that contain nicotine in amounts equivalent to five packs of cigarettes. As a result, vapen became a gateway drug to tobacco smoking for certain youngsters. The highly addictive nicotine is not listed on many packaging. So you don’t even know you’re inhaling it. And that should be the end of it now.
As a result, vapen became a gateway drug to tobacco smoking for certain youngsters.
In the future, only those who want to give up cigarettes will be allowed to vape. But you have to have a doctor’s prescription for it. Certain smokers are opposed to this: They do not want to be labeled as sick.
Legend:
Totally banned: disposable vapes and liquids with flavors like strawberry or raspberry. These are particularly popular with young people. Excluded from the ban: nicotine-containing liquids prescribed by a doctor and used in the case of corresponding addiction problems.
Reuters/Icon Picture/Sandra Sanders
Why is the Australian government so successful in the fight against tobacco?
An essential and perhaps simple reason: it is an easy political goal to achieve and is supported by all parties. A ban will not upset too many voters either. In addition, the government can show that it is cracking down on narcotics.
Your assessment: Can the ban really put an end to vaping in Australia?
Border protection certainly has an important role to play. If you want to enter the country with vape products in your luggage in the future, you will probably come to the checkout. Literally. Australia is already imposing large fines on tourists who try to bring tobacco into the country. But as always with a Prohibition, and that’s actually what we’re talking about here, there will of course be a black market. Vapes containing nicotine could thus be pushed underground.
Vapes containing nicotine could thus be pushed underground.
But I think that the most important goal can be achieved: protecting children and young people from a really dangerous addiction. Today, every teenager in Australia between the ages of 14 and 17 has vaped, and one in four among those aged 18 to 24. Among us older semesters, on the other hand, only one in 70 has already vaped. Vaping is clearly a boy addiction.
The conversation was led by Dominik Rolli.