Transcript - 4BC - Vaping

Transcript: AMA Queensland Councillor Dr Hash Abdeen, 4BC Weekends with Jessica Millward, Sunday 17 September 2023

Subject: Vaping among young children

JESS MILLWARD:    You've no doubt seen in the headlines over the past few months, vaping and what a massive issue it is becoming, especially amongst young people. So revelations today that children – and this is horrific – as young as 10 are becoming addicts and that students are brazenly vaping in the middle of classes. Schools are being urged to identify and support those dependent on nicotine at school age.

The state government is implementing new guidelines to help schools identify when students are addicted to nicotine, with students predominantly in high school suffering from anxiety, agitation, mood swings and having difficulty concentrating. But The Courier-Mail reports that there are teachers reporting that this is a problem as well amongst primary school students. Dr Hash Abdeen, he is from the AMA Queensland. He's a rheumatologist. He's been good enough to join us this afternoon on 4BC Weekends. Dr Hash, thank you for your time.

DR HASH ABDEEN:    No, thank you, Jess, for having me.

JESS MILLWARD:   This is a huge problem. And you know, as less and less people smoke, vaping was marketed as a bit of a gateway for people to quit. But now the uptake of vaping in young people, it's happening at an alarming rate, isn't it?

DR HASH ABDEEEN:   Yeah, and you use the correct word, which is horrific. It’s scary for all us, isn't it, with parents finding their kids doing this illegal activity. It's so disturbing to see that we've been working so hard to get smoking rates down in Queensland and Big Tobacco has just come in with this new product targeting our younger generations. It’s a new epidemic we're seeing of vaping moving forward.

JESS MILLWARD:   What sort of health pressures is this going to put on our hospitals? Because there is a bit of ignorance amongst children. You know, these things, they smell nice, they taste nice. And I don't think these kids understand what they're actually inhaling.

DR HASH ABDEEN:   You're completely right. And this is where the advertising comes through, these fancy flavours that are coming through, these bright packaging cartoon characters. It's so obvious that this is being targeted towards children. You're right that the health risks are huge. As you mentioned before, we're seeing young children being addicted to nicotine, which is crazy to hear, particularly when they're still developing their own bodies and minds. So that impact on learning is really important.

But even more scarily, we're seeing reports overseas of serious injuries such as seizures and lung injury. Burning all these chemicals and putting them into your lungs is obviously not great, but also not knowing the amount of nicotine in some of these products. There's been reports of a single vape having up to the nicotine content of 50 cigarettes, which is crazy to see our kids doing these type of things in this day and age.

JESS MILLWARD:   It seems like it's the cool thing to do at the moment, but long term, what sort of damage are these kids doing to their lungs? I mean, are their lungs even completely developed at the age of 10?

DR HASH ABDEEN:     The human body is still growing at that age. And we're talking about minds as well. And that impact on learning is so important as well. We just don't know the long-term effects of vaping and we haven't got the data yet like we do with smoking. When smoking was introduced, it was a cool thing to do, it was in movies and even doctors were doing it. But now we know smoking is bad and we're seeing that effect long-term. And that's the real fear here with vaping - generations of people coming forward with issues that are going to come from the vaping industry and vapes are far too easy to obtain.

JESS MILLWARD:   And I know that that's all being looked into and the State Government is looking at cracking down on the import of these things. Do you think they should just be flat out banned?

DR HASH ABDEEN:   There's emerging evidence about how this is helping people quit smoking, as we've mentioned just before. But what it’s being used for now is getting people who are healthy individuals, not smoking, taking up vaping. This is the problem. And there's emerging evidence that vaping leads to people taking up smoking. So, should it be banned completely? There is a niche group if it's prescription-only and there are some benefits for those people wanting to quit smoking. But there needs to be much tighter regulation and implementation of legislation around how we're restricting selling this to children.

JESS MILLWARD:   Dr Hash Abdeen from the AMA Queensland Council, thank you for your time. It's an issue that we have covered extensively here at 4BC, but one that we need to keep talking about because 10-year-old kids vaping and becoming addicted to nicotine, that's just not a reality we want to see, is it?

DR HASH ABDEEN:   No, not at all. It's up to all of us, and you can see teachers and parents and everyone doing the best we can, including the medical community and the government. But really, it should be on Big Tobacco to take responsibility for their actions.

JESS MILLWARD:   Absolutely. Dr Abdeen, thank you for your time on 4BC Weekends.