The rise of "vaping" e-cigarettes is annoying non-smokers. A new survey shows 70 per cent of people want the devices banned on public transport, workplaces, restaurants and other places where smoking is prohibited.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Current NSW smoking restrictions do not cover e-cigarettes, which are battery-powered devices that emit vapour instead of smoke.
Health Minister Jillian Skinner last week pledged to ban the sale of e-cigarettes and associated liquids to children. The Heart Foundation has called for the Baird Government to go further, and apply the same restrictions that apply to cigarettes.
"Any person can legally light one up in a hospital or restaurant or office," said the Heart Foundation's NSW chief executive Kerry Doyle.
Ms Doyle said the proposed ban on sales to children was welcome, but NSW needed to follow the lead of Queensland, which last month banned vaping in public spaces. Western Australia has banned e-cigarettes completely.
"If NSW doesn't act on e-cigarettes now, it runs the risk of a new culture of smoking taking hold in our community, undermining the hard-won reduction in smoking rates in recent years."
A Newspoll survey of NSW residents over January and February, commissioned by the Heart Foundation, found 87 per cent had heard of e-cigarettes. Eighty per cent supported a ban on sales to children, and 70 per cent wanted the same restrictions applied to e-cigarettes as exist for smoking in public spaces.
"They have come into the country in a low-key way, but the marketing has ramped up and it seems to be clearly aimed at young people," said Ms Doyle.
"We have great concerns - its not just about the health risk. They are unregulated and we don't know what's in them, but it is also re-normalising smoking."
Ms Doyle challenged claims that e-cigarettes helped smokers quit, and said companies should go to the Therapeutic Goods Administration and have these claims tested and the devices approved.
E-cigarette importer Mark Kagan supplies 1000 retail outlets including petrol stations, supermarkets and airport retailers with a disposable device that is sealed at the point of manufacturing and comes in tobacco or menthol flavours.
"Ninety per cent of people contact me because they think it will help them quit," he said.
Mr Kagan said the proposed NSW law was "smart" for banning e-liquids with fruit flavours, because they targeted teenagers in the same way as the first wave of alcopops.
He is critical of the South Australian law that bans devices that look like e-cigarettes, saying it has led to the sale of vapourisers that look like pencils and offer watermelon, chocolate and vanilla flavours. "That is doubly dumb," he said.
He said airlines were now starting to specifically state that e-cigarettes were not allowed onboard. "That hasn't stopped people going into toilets or vaping under blankets. It is steam that comes out, not smoke," he said.
Although it is illegal to sell liquid nicotine in Australia, it is being bought online, and had led to an increase in poisoning scares involving children.
Health Minister Jillian Skinner said NSW was "still considering options for a broader, evidence-based response to electronic cigarettes".
"It is too early to say whether this will include a ban on using electronic cigarettes in public places," she said.
Smoking cigarettes in outdoor dining spaces will be banned from July.
