Students, teachers and parents to join new forum as vaping becomes gateway to smoking

Premier Chris Minns announced stakeholders had been invited to attend the November 16 roundtable, which will hear from principals, students and health experts about the community-wide issue of vaping.

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It will hear evidence on how vaping is affecting young people and schools and discuss effective school-based vaping interventions.

Mr Minns said the evidence suggested vaping was becoming a gateway for an increase in smoking rates in young people.

"This is a way to hear directly from schools, health experts and other key stakeholders on how we can begin to address this serious health issue in our schools," he said.

Health Minister and Keira MP Ryan Park said the number of young people vaping was growing.

"It's important we take the time to consult with experts as we formulate the best step forward as we look to curb the issue of vaping within our schools," he said.

Last month, the NSW Government announced $6.8 million to crackdown on the sale of illegal e-cigarettes and increase support for children addicted to vaping following the release of a University of Wollongong chemical analysis of vapes seized from school children.

Led by Dr Jody Moller (known Dr Jody Morgan in the study), the analysis of hundreds of e-cigarettes confiscated by teachers showed almost all of them contained nicotine, even though many school children who vape think they are not using the addictive substance.

The sale of disposable vapes containing nicotine is illegal in Australia, but Dr Moller said it appeared most brands had simply removed the labelling from their product and continued to sell nicotine-containing vapes.

The Australia-first research also showed some of the confiscated e-cigarettes had concerning levels of banned toxic substances, including the main ingredient of antifreeze.

In addition to 322 vapes surrendered by children at Sydney schools which were analysed on behalf of NSW Health, Dr Moller's team looked at 70 samples seized from schools in the Illawarra.

The study found students were mainly using fruity flavoured disposable e-cigarette devices - with a slightly higher percentage of Illawarra students preferring beverage flavours.

The most common flavours were Blueberry, Grape, Pina Colada and Pink Lemonade.

Almost all the Illawarra devices contained high concentrations of nicotine and many included a coolant, which may be added to vapes to stop throat irritation from high nicotine concentrations and intense flavours among naive users.

"Future policy should focus on preventing adolescents from accessing disposable e-cigarettes," it concluded.

"Potential flavour limitations should be approached cautiously as the flavouring chemicals that are present in the fruity products appear to also be present in comparable abundance in tobacco flavoured products."

Dr Moller said the findings had implications for the NSW Health system, as it meant young people would need specialised services to help them break their addiction to ensure they did not simply end up smoking when the Federal Government strengthens its vaping laws and makes e-cigarettes more difficult to obtain.

NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant will join the roundtable, along with representatives from the Cancer Council NSW Tobacco Control Unit, the NSW Department of Education, NSW Teachers Federation, NSW P&C Federation and the NSW Advocate for Children and Young People.

Some public, independent and Catholic primary and secondary school principals have also been invited to the roundtable to discuss their experiences of dealing with vaping and vape-related incidents in their schools.

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