Dr Matthew Tuson and Angela Gazey
“Brick and mortar” vape stores have proliferated across Australia in recent years. One only needs to search ‘vape stores’ on Google Maps to see their ubiquitous presence.
Our recent research, published in The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health (ANZJPH), identified almost 200 stores in WA where vapes are a main product line.
It is well known that this is just the tip of the iceberg, with vapes also widely available ‘under the counter’ in convenience stores and the like.
In NSW, where there is a notification system, “more than 600 additional shops began selling vape products in the first half of 2023 alone”.
This is an issue because the visibility of brick and mortar vape stores fuels the normalisation of vaping.
References to vapes often appear in vape store names or on shopfront or sandwich board signage, and whole window displays are devoted to the products, and the flavours and varieties available.
Such normalisation is particularly problematic given mounting evidence of the health effects, addictiveness, and escalation of vaping amongst youth.
Our research found that, in Perth, the density of vape stores is seven times higher in the most socio-economically disadvantaged areas than in the least disadvantaged areas (Fig 1).
Further, across WA, almost 90% of vape stores were located within one kilometre of a school.
Although the rise in vape stores has been witnessed across the country, it is especially incomprehensible in WA, where, prior to 1 March, it’s been illegal to sell e-cigarette products, whether or not they contain nicotine.
Therefore, there should have been no sales of vapes in WA, and certainly no vape stores.
Yet you could be forgiven for thinking their presence is perfectly legal.
Everywhere you look, vapes are in plain sight – not only visible, but attractively flavoured and adorned in colourful packaging.
This is a problem.
As we have seen through conversations with our families, friends and colleagues since we began this research – when people see vape stores operating so publicly, they reasonably believe they are legal.
Many have queried how it is possible that so many stores are selling an illegal product in plain view.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in Australia, while the same strict laws do not apply, the problem is the same. Normalisation of vaping has taken root, particularly amongst youth.
The third disturbing factor is that smoking (of traditional tobacco products) is resurging.
Among Australian high school students, the normalisation of vaping has led to increases in smoking susceptibility for the first time in decades, and studies have shown that young people who vape are three times more likely to initiate smoking, suggestive of a ‘gateway effect’.
There are good reasons why so much time and effort has gone into reducing smoking over the years, and the fact that vaping has flown under the radar requires urgent redress.
The present situation is almost incomprehensible given the ongoing, multi-decade, global fight against smoking.
For these reasons, further planned federal reforms on vapes can’t come quick enough.
A ban on the importation of disposable vapes was enacted on 1 Jan 2024, and since 1 Mar 2024 that ban has now been extended to all non-therapeutic vapes, so that importation can only occur for therapeutic purposes, to pharmacies.
The Government will introduce additional legislation in 2024 “to prevent domestic manufacture, advertisement, supply and commercial possession of non-therapeutic and disposable single use vapes to ensure comprehensive controls on vapes across all levels of the supply chain.”
This legislation will go further than the current WA regulation, and, theoretically, should see an end to eye-catching vape stores.
However, these reforms will require strong enforcement to be effective.
Importantly, the reforms will provide a prescription pathway for those who want to use vapes under medical supervision, allowing access through prescription for those who genuinely need it, without these products being marketed to children.
Our paper on the number of vape stores in WA, their proximity to schools and the socio-economic gradient of their density across Perth, made headlines in various media over a period of days – with outlets ranging from The Guardian and The West Australian, to news programs on Channels 7, 9 and 10 in Perth.
It seems the topic is close to the hearts of the public – unsurprisingly, given many of us have children, students, or family members who have been affected by vaping.
We hope that acceptance and enforcement of the proposed federal reforms progresses smoothly, so that we can look back in a few years and say: ‘there is an example of public health in action, for the greater good of society’. Even better if we can claim to have played a part.
And better still if the example showed we learned our lesson from many decades of witnessing harm from smoking and prevented a second disaster.
Dr Matthew Tuson is a Research Fellow and Angela Gazey is a Research Officer, both based at Home2Health, Institute for Health Research, University of Notre Dame Australia.
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