Vaping may have slowed Australia's progress in reducing teen smoking

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-07-28 16:56

Australia; NSW

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Australia's remarkable progress in reducing adolescent smoking slowed significantly from 2010 onwards, which coincides with the emergence of vaping, according to Australian research. From 2014 to 2022–2023, the rates of teens who had ever vaped increased from 13.2% to 29.9%. While the rates of smoking declined from 1999 to 2022-2023, that decline slowed significantly from 2010 onwards, coinciding with the emergence of vaping. The authors say that while historic tobacco control measures like taxation, smoke‐free legislation, and plain packaging have yielded remarkable public health gains in Australia, the emergence of e‐cigarettes may have subtly undermined these measures.

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Journal/
conference: Medical Journal of Australia

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: The University of Sydney

Funder: Sam Egger is funded by an Australian Government scholarship. Becky Freeman has received payments to her institution from Cancer Council NSW, the Medical Research Future Fund, the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Ian Potter Foundation and NSW Health. She has also received consulting fees from the World Health Organization, NSW Health, Cancer Council Australia and the Sax Institute, and payments for lectures, presentations and educational events from the Department of Health, Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. She has been reimbursed for travel expenses related to her attendance at several conferences, including the Oceania Tobacco Control Conference, the Australian Public Health Conference, the Australasian Epidemiological Association Annual Scientific Meeting and others. She has served as an unpaid expert advisor to the Cancer Council Australia’s Tobacco Issues Committee, a paid expert member of the NHMRC Electronic Cigarettes Working Committee, an unpaid advisor to the Vaping Communications Advisory Panel, and an unpaid expert member of the New South Wales Chief Health Officer’s E-cigarette Expert Panel. All other authors declare no potential conflicts of interest

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