Australia - Tobacco Reporter

New Zealand Urged to Reject Australia’s Model

The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) is calling on the New Zealand government to reject Australia’s approach to vaping and continue to follow the science and evidence.

CAPHRA has submitted comments on New Zealand’s proposals for the smoked tobacco regulatory regime, which include tightening current restrictions on vaping product safety requirements and packaging and reducing nicotine levels in disposable vapes as well as restricting the location of specialist vape retailers.

“CAPHRA believes that the regulations, as they are, work perfectly well, and that further restrictions will only serve to limit access to safer nicotine products for adult smokers seeking less harmful alternatives to combustible tobacco,” says CAPHRA executive coordinator and prominent New Zealand public health consumer advocate Nancy Loucas.

“The announcement that New Zealand would not follow Australia’s lead to a full prescription model for nicotine vaping further reinforces the need for a harm reduction approach that is based on science and evidence, not scaremongering by crowing Australians.”

CAPHRA believes that the regulations, as they are, work perfectly well, and that further restrictions will only serve to limit access to safer nicotine products for adult smokers seeking less harmful alternatives to combustible tobacco.

Nancy Loucas, executive coordinator, CAPHRA

In a press note announcing its submission to New Zealand’s proposals, CAPHRA cites an article in The Critic, “The Vape Scare Down Under,” which describes the Australian government’s approach to vaping is misguided and based on fear rather than evidence. The article argues that the government’s proposed ban on flavored e-cigarettes is not supported by the evidence and will only serve to drive vapers back to smoking. The article also highlights the success of vaping in reducing smoking rates in countries like the U.K. and New Zealand.

“Unfortunately, the vaping debate has become highly political instead of being about the science or the evidence which continues to show that vaping is reducing smoking rates around the world,” says Loucas.

CAPHRA continues to urge the New Zealand government to take a risk-proportionate approach to regulations that protect public health while ensuring the availability of these products for adult smokers seeking less harmful alternatives to combustible tobacco.

“New Zealand should not follow Australia’s policy on vaping, and instead continue to follow a harm reduction approach that is based on science and evidence. Harm reduction should be the driving force behind tobacco policy, and regulations should be risk-proportionate and protect public health while ensuring the availability of these products for adult smokers seeking less harmful alternatives to combustible tobacco,” Loucas said.

June 29, 2023

Australia: Tougher Tobacco Laws Coming

Australia will face tougher tobacco regulations in the next two years if legislation proposed by Health Minister Mark Butler is adopted, according to ABC News.

The proposed legislation calls for a standardized size for tobacco packets and products, a standardized design for filters, health warnings on individual cigarettes, public health information in loose-leaf and cigarette packets, a ban on flavors and additives like menthol, and a restrictions on certain names used on packaging.

“[There are] names that are designed to mislead users, [that suggest] the cigarettes they are using are somehow going to be good for them, names like smooth or fresh burst,” Butler said. “These things are a cynical deliberate marketing strategy to bring new smokers into this public health menace and will be prohibited in this legislation.”

“The legislation that was put in place by former minister Nicola Roxon had a sunset date of April 1, 2024,” Butler said. “So if we do not pass replacement legislation, the current suite of regulations around plain packaging, graphic warnings and the like will lapse on April 1, so we intended to get this legislation passed by the Parliament before April 2024.”

June 5, 2023

Australia Cracks Down on Tobacco and Vapor

The government of Australia plans to crack down on illicit tobacco trade and increase tobacco excise by 5 percent annually for three years from Sept. 1, reports The Guardian.

“These changes to tobacco excise are part of the government’s response to the National Tobacco Strategy and related initiatives on vaping and smoking prevention and cessation, and an enhanced regulatory approach to vaping,” the budget papers say.

In addition, Australia will ban the import of all vaping products sold without a prescription, including e-liquid and hardware that contains no nicotine, reports Vaping360.

In a recently published document, the government outlined its long-term vaping and tobacco plan.

The government’s plan comes in the wake of growing concern about disposable nicotine vapes sold in convenience stores. Its proposed measures, however, will also impact Australia’s specialized vape shops.

Rules for non-nicotine vapes will be tightened as well, with a ban on nontobacco flavors and a requirement to sell products in plain packaging.

The government says it will also reduce allowable nicotine strengths and ban disposable vapes outright.

Health Minister Mark Butler blames the tobacco industry—which sells no vaping products in Australia—for creating a “new generation of nicotine addicts.”

Critics say the plan will not benefit public health because it will continue to allow consumers to buy cigarettes—and without a prescription—at every corner store in Australia.

In its press release announcing the new measures, Butler says new tobacco taxes will raise an additional $3.3 billion over the next four years. Australia already has one of the highest cigarette tax rates in the world, which has led to a large illicit tobacco market.

Nicotine vaping products have been illegal in Australia without a prescription for many years, but the laws have been widely ignored by vapers, who imported nicotine from overseas and made their own e-liquid or bought zero-nicotine vape juice from vape shops and added nicotine, according to Vaping360.

In 2021, the previous Liberal coalition government launched a revised prescription-only model for nicotine vaping products and promised to ramp up border enforcement. However, few doctors chose to participate in the prescription program, and most consumers weren’t interested. Vape shops were allowed to continue selling zero-nicotine e-liquid and vaping hardware that contained no nicotine. Soon after, disposable vapes flooded Australia (and the rest of the world).

The current government says it will make it “easier to get a prescription for legitimate therapeutic use,” but it’s not clear that vaping consumers will be eager to jump through medical hoops to buy flavorless or tobacco-flavored, low-nicotine vape products.

May 15, 2023

Ban on Nonprescription Vape Imports

The Australian government announced that it will ban the importation of all nonprescription vaping products—including those that do not contain nicotine. The new legislation is billed as containing the most significant tobacco and vaping control measures in the country in a decade.

The announcement today clarifies last week’s announcement of a crackdown on illegal vaping. This time, the government said it would now include a total ban on nonprescription vaping products.

To tackle youth vaping, minimum quality standards for vapes will be introduced, including restricting flavors, colors and other ingredients. Vape products will require pharmaceutical-like packaging, and the allowed nicotine concentrations and volumes will be reduced.

All single-use, disposable vapes will be banned, according to The Guardian.

Speaking on ABC’s Q&A on Monday night, Australia’s health minister, Mark Butler, said that the tobacco industry was trying to create a “new generation of nicotine addicts” through vaping and that he was “determined to stamp out this public health menace.”

The move follows an inquiry into vaping reforms led by the drugs regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, with submissions from health professional bodies, public health associations, individual health professionals and university researchers that overwhelmingly support tightening border controls.

Many public health experts and bodies suggested to the inquiry that border controls should also be placed on non-nicotine vaping products to prevent mislabeling and exploitation of import loopholes. It follows manufacturers falsely labeling products containing nicotine as “nicotine-free” to get around import restrictions, leaving children easily able to buy vapes, often unknowingly inhaling nicotine and becoming addicted.

The government will also work with states and territories to end vape sales in convenience stores and other retailers. Prescriptions for nicotine vaping products for smokers trying to quit tobacco will be made easier to obtain, with stronger standards around the vaping products that can be bought in pharmacies so people can be assured of the content of the products.

Butler said he will expand on the reforms in a speech to the National Press Club on Tuesday, where he is expected to say vaping has become “the biggest loophole in Australian history” and announce that the following Tuesday’s federal budget will include AUD234 million ($156.22 million) in funding for tobacco and vaping reforms, the biggest since plain packaging of tobacco products was introduced.

May 2, 2023

Researchers Condemn Medical Body’s Position on E-cigarettes

Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NHMRC) statement on e-cigarettes fails to meet the scientific standard expected of a leading national scientific body, according to 11 addiction scientists, reports Medical Express.

Published in June 2022, the NHMRC statement aims to provide “public health advice on the safety and impacts of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) based on review of the current evidence.”

This critique of the NHMRC statement, published in Addiction, argues that the statement inaccurately summarizes the current evidence on e-cigarettes. The authors contend that the NHMRC exaggerates the risks of vaping and fails to compare them with smoking; incorrectly claims that adolescent vaping causes subsequent smoking; and ignores evidence of the benefits of vaping in helping smokers quit.

The NHMRC statement also ignores evidence that vaping is likely already having a positive effect on public health and misapplies the precautionary principle, which requires policymakers to compare the risks of introducing a product with the risks of delaying its introduction.

“Many leading international scientists in the field hold more supportive views than the NHMRC on the potential of e-cigarettes as a strategy to improve public health,” said Colin Mendelsohn, lead author of the Addiction article. “In particular, invoking the precautionary principle to prevent the use of much less harmful smoke-free products is unjustified in the face of the massive public health burden of smoking.”

February 22, 2023

Illegal Vapes and Tobacco Seized

Police in Queensland, Australia, seized illegal vapes and tobacco worth AUD500,000 ($342.4321), reports The Daily Mail.

Law enforcement officers allegedly seized 100 kg of illicit tobacco, thousands of vapes and $80,000 cash while executing a search warrant. Two people have been charged and went to court. They will reappear in Mackay Magistrates Court on March 13.

The warrant and arrests were part of Operation Kitimat, an investigation into reports of vapes and tobacco products being sold to minors.

“Operation Kitimat identified that the peak trading times were prior to 9 a.m. and after 3 p.m., which corroborates significant information we received from members of the public,” Mackay Whitsunday District Detective Inspector Emma Novosel said.

“The operation was aimed to disrupt this criminal enterprise and send a clear message that such activity, including the sale of tobacco and smoking products to children, will not be tolerated in Mackay Whitsunday District.

February 17, 2023

Australia Plans Major Crackdown on Nicotine

Australia plans to tighten the screws on vaping and smoking, reports The Guardian.

While Australia was on the forefront of anti-tobacco policies for many years—the country pioneered plain packaging, for example—federal Health Minister Mark Butler says the former government has been “asleep at the wheel” as vaping skyrocketed.

Vaping rates doubled in Australia between 2016 and 2019. In New South Wales, almost a third of 16-year-olds to 24-year-olds had tried vaping by last year, up from 15 percent three years earlier, according to a state government population survey.

To help remedy the situation, the Therapeutic Goods Administration will begin public consultation on changes to importation laws, premarket assessments of vapor products, labeling, advertising, flavoring and identification of nicotine-containing products. Many nicotine-containing products are misleadingly labeled as nicotine-free, according to authorities.

It is illegal to sell, supply or possess an e-cigarette or any liquid that contains nicotine in Australia without a doctor’s prescription. But suppliers have been getting around this by removing “nicotine” from the ingredients list, even though their products contain it.

New South Wales Health revealed it had seized more than 157,000 vapes containing nicotine in raids in the 18 months leading to September.

The government also intends to further tighten the screws on combustible cigarettes. Among other measures, it wants to require cigarette manufacturers to print health warnings, such as “smoking kills,” on every individual cigarette and produce cigarettes in less appealing colors. Health promotion inserts should be put in every cigarette pack and advertising regulations will be updated to include vaping products. The government also wants to ban flavored cigarettes, including mentholated varieties.

The proposed measures are intended to help Australia achieve a smoking prevalence of less than 10 percent by 2025 and 5 percent or less by 2030.

The public consultation on reforms will be open until Jan. 16.

December 1, 2022

Video: TGA Boss Admits Problems with Australian Model

The head of Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has acknowledged shortcomings in the country’s vaping regulations, according to tobacco harm reduction activist Colin Mendelsohn.

Writing on his website, Mendelsohn says TGA boss John Skerrit “has finally admitted the disastrous and predictable failure of Australia’s vaping regulations,” which among other things require vapers to obtain a doctor’s prescription to buy nicotine-containing e-cigarettes.

During questioning in Australia’s Senate, Skerrit acknowledged not only that there has been a dramatic increase in youth vaping but also that large numbers of low-quality products are entering the country and are being sold on the black market, according to Mendelsohn.

In addition, Skerrit noted that only 1,353 out of 130,000 registered doctors have applied to be authorized e-cigarette prescribers, and less than 10 percent of adult vapers have a prescription for nicotine.

According to Mendelsohn, Skerritt had previously promised a review of the regulations, which were introduced on Oct. 1, 2021, at three, six and 12 months. Instead, he wrote, the TGA and government had a secret meeting of unnamed vaping experts.

Mendelsohn said it is likely that further restrictions and enforcement will be recommended by “the experts” to double down on their de facto prohibition. “This will only lead to greatly reduced legal vaping and more deaths from smoking,” he wrote.

November 18, 2022

Prescription Vaping Has Failed: Mendelsohn

Australia’s prescription-only model for nicotine vaping has failed, according to Colin Mendelsohn, founding chairman of the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association. Writing in Filter, he urges the country to adopt a more realistic regulatory model for nicotine products.

In October 2021, the Australian government introduced a policy that requires nicotine vapers get a doctor’s prescription and purchase supplies exclusively from pharmacies or international online vendors.

The regulations were intended to prevent youth vaping and to allow access for adults as a smoking-cessation aid. One year on, the policy has achieved neither of those goals, according to a report prepared by Mendelsohn.

Instead, the rules have created a thriving illicit market for unregulated vaping products that do not comply with Australian standards. Meanwhile, vaping by adolescents has reportedly increased in Australia. With no age controls in an unregulated market, vaping products are easily accessible by teens from stores and through social media.

Nicotine liquid should be an adult consumer product, sold from licensed retail outlets such as vape shops, convenience stores, tobacconists and general stores as it is in other countries.

Colin Mendelsohn, founding chairman of the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association

While the prescription model has made it harder for adults legally access nicotine vapes, combustible cigarettes remain widely available.

According to two recent surveys, between 88 to 97 percent of vapers do not have a prescription and only 2 percent of purchases are made from a pharmacy. Exposed to frequent negative messaging by Australia’s medicines regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, general practitioners have been reluctant to prescribe nicotine.

The only way forward, according to Mendelsohn, is to replace the prescription-only model with a legal and regulated retail market. “Nicotine liquid should be an adult consumer product, sold from licensed retail outlets such as vape shops, convenience stores, tobacconists and general stores as it is in other countries,” he writes. “There should be strict age verification and penalties up to loss of license for underage sales.”

October 3, 2022

PMI Halts Cash-for-Vapes Program

Philip Morris International has paused a program that would have paid Australian pharmacists AUD275 ($190.24) when ordering Veev vapes, according to The Guardian.

The scheme, first reported by News Corp., would have seen pharmacists receive AUD5 every time they dispense a new VEEV script, AUD10 for educating a new patient about the device, and AUD5 for referring patients to a doctor to obtain a prescription. Pharmacists would also receive a AUD275 payment for placing an initial stock order.

Nicotine-containing vapor products are available only with a doctor’s prescription in Australia.

The cash-for-vapes program caused an uproar among public health advocates.

Emily Banks, a professor at Australian National University National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, said the tobacco industry wanted to piggyback off the trust Australians place in the healthcare system.

“Big tobacco wants a piece of that—they want some of the trust to rub off. It’s beyond appalling.”

“Big tobacco’s attempt at financial kickbacks shows absolute contempt for pharmacists,” said a spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia. “Multinational tobacco companies have no place in health care.”

In a statement, PMI defended the program, saying since 2021 nicotine vaping products had been available in Australian pharmacies as a prescription-only medicine for smoking cessation.

“Several manufacturers, including PMI, have been providing nicotine vaping products to Australian pharmacies via the stringent regulatory regime. Industry data indicates that across multiple manufacturers products are now available in over 2,000 pharmacies nationwide,” the statement said.

August 6, 2022

Tag: Australia