Health campaigns and detectors installed to target growing level of vaping in South Australian schools
The Cancer Council of South Australia said health risks from vaping included acute lung injury, poisoning, burns and seizures.
About 350 suspensions issued for vaping at South Australian schools in 2022 were the backdrop to the South Australian government $2 million education campaigns to warn children about harms to health associated with using e-cigarettes.
A report by Helen Connolly, South Australia’s commissioner for children and young people, found two thirds of 1,000 teenagers surveyed had already tried vaping and 25% described themselves as regular users. She said this included “kids as young as 10”. E-cigarettes or vapes – battery-operated devices superheating vaporised nicotine and non nicoitine solutions – were not legally available to anyone under 18 in Australia but could be accessed by teenagers online.
Australian Education Union South president Andrew Gohl said schools were seeing students move from experimenting with cigarettes to vaping. Four South Australian schools since 2021 had installed systems to detect vapour and cigarette smoke. The devices acted as silent alarms and notified school staff via text or email. Costing between $15,000 and $25,000, the detectors were funded from individual school budgets. Students vaping at Golden Grove High School were part of a saga involving outer doors being removed at toilet blocks at some schools. School staff were trained to monitor areas such as toilets or the oval for vaping.
The Cancer Council of South Australia said health risks from vaping included acute lung injury, poisoning, burns and seizures – along with an increased likelihood to eventually be drawn into smoking tobacco. The South Australian government campaign on vaping in schools would update health and physical education studies to include the impact of e-cigarettes and provide training for school staff to help students who vape break their addictions. This would be done in partnership with Drug and Alcohol Services Australia, Quitline, the Cancer Council and the commissioner for children and young people.
The government also reviewed the approach being taken by other Australian states to combat vaping as part of developing a national strategy.
