Parents and carers are invited to a free one-hour webinar to learn about vapes, how to talk to young people about vaping and how to support them to quit vaping.
The webinars are run by Northern NSW Local Health District and Mid North Coast Local Health District to help parents understand the harms of vaping.
A recent study commissioned by NSW Health and conducted by the University of Wollongong showed that vapes, or e-cigarettes, contain nicotine and other toxic chemicals.
The sample included 428 vapes seized from retailers and 322 vapes surrendered by young people at high schools.
Almost all vaping devices confiscated from school students contained nicotine (97.5%). Most devices did not have nicotine listed as an active ingredient.
Concerningly, 30 of the devices in the study contained at least one substance known to harm health including toxic chemicals such as ethylene glycol, which is also found in antifreeze.
Robin Auld from North Coast Population and Public Health and North Coast Vaping Taskforce said nicotine can cause changes to brain development, impaired learning and memory, and may worsen stress, depression and anxiety for young people.”
Products with identical packaging were found to both contain nicotine and be nicotine-free, making it impossible for users to know what they are vaping.
There is strong evidence that non-smoker teens who use e-cigarettes are three times more likely to go on to smoke traditional tobacco cigarettes, compared with those who have never vaped.
The webinars are designed to give parents and carers the tools and information to tackle vaping.
The free webinars will be delivered at the following dates and times:
• 5pm-6pm, Thursday, November 23
• 10am-11am, Monday, November 27
• 12.30pm-1.30pm, Wednesday, December 6
• 6.30pm-7.30pm, Thursday, December 14
Quitline counsellors are available to answer any questions about vapes on 13 7848 (13 QUIT).
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