The claim
Off the back of a Senate inquiry into a government proposal that would restrict access to vaping products in Australia, Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler announced that a number of the nation’s peak health bodies had come together to support Labor’s changes.
According to a statement released by Mr Butler on May 8, the Australian Medical Association, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia were all “backing the Albanese Government’s world-leading [vaping] legislation”.
“The united stand comes as alarming vaping statistics emerge across Australia,” the media release said, before claiming:
“One in six high-school students, and one in four young Australians aged between 18 and 24 are vaping.”
Is that correct? RMIT ABC Fact Check investigates.
The verdict
Mr Butler’s claim is in the ballpark.
A recent national survey of high school students found that one in six had vaped in the past month, while a separate analysis of national data covering the three months to March 2023 found that around one in seven children aged 14 to 17 were considered to be currently vaping.
Experts consulted by Fact Check said it was standard to define current vapers as those who vape at least monthly.
As for whether one in four 18- to 24-year-olds were vaping, several recent surveys have reported rates ranging from 19.8 per cent to 22.4 per cent, or roughly one in five people.
Experts said the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s National Drug Strategy Household Survey was the most nationally representative dataset on the topic.
The institute’s 2022-23 survey put the current vaping rate for this age group at 20.6 per cent, though this figure includes people who vape less frequently than monthly.
The context of the claim
ABC News: Georgia Loney
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Vapes, or e-cigarettes, are battery-operated devices that use liquid cartridges (often containing nicotine, flavourings and other chemicals) to produce a vapour that is inhaled by the user.
Mr Butler’s claim comes amid ongoing debate around Labor’s Therapeutic Goods and Other Legislation Amendment (Vaping Reforms) Bill 2024.
According to the bill’s explanatory memorandum, the proposed changes — which include the introduction of new criminal and civil penalties — would “prohibit the importation, domestic manufacture, supply, commercial possession and advertisement of non-therapeutic and disposable vaping goods”.
Put simply, the bill aims to restrict “access to vaping goods, except … through pharmacy (and medical) settings” so that vapes can only be legally supplied to help with, for example, managing nicotine dependence or quitting smoking.
The bill follows the introduction of other vaping restrictions earlier this year.
In January, the government prohibited the importation of disposable vapes, with or without nicotine, by anyone without a licence or permit. In March, the ban was widened to apply to reusable devices and to limit the flavours of legally imported vapes to mint, menthol or tobacco.
Notably, it has been illegal since 2021 to sell or purchase vapes containing nicotine without a prescription, though as the ABC reported recently, a black market for these products has continued to thrive.
What vaping data is available?
Experts contacted by Fact Check said the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s latest National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS), published in February 2024, was the best source for data on the prevalence of vaping in Australia.
Gary Chung Kai Chan, an associate professor at the University of Queensland’s National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research, said that while there were other data sources, they were “not as nationally representative as NDSHS”.
Emily Stockings, an associate professor at the University of Sydney’s Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, similarly told Fact Check the survey was “the best source of representative data for the proportion of young people vaping in Australia”.
However, Dr Stockings added that when a behaviour was new or concentrated among a specific population, such as young people, it was “also important to consider surveys of the target population specifically”.
With that in mind, she pointed to two national, federally funded surveys on youth vaping: the Australian Secondary Schools Alcohol and Drug (ASSAD) Survey, conducted by Cancer Council Victoria, and the Generation Vape research project, led by Cancer Council NSW.
Fact Check has examined two additional Cancer Council Victoria reports, also commissioned by the federal government, that investigate vaping rates using data from market research company Roy Morgan’s monthly “single source” survey.
Published to the Health Department’s website in June 2023, the reports cover the periods from February 2018 to September 2022 and to March 2023.
In an email, a spokesman for Mr Butler confirmed to Fact Check that the former of these reports formed the basis for the minister’s claim.
What does ‘currently vaping’ mean?
When it comes to vaping rates, the data is often described in terms of people “currently vaping”.
Michelle Jongenelis, the deputy director of the Melbourne Centre for Behaviour Change at the University of Melbourne, told Fact Check that current vaping was “usually vaping at least monthly” but that definitions varied between data sources.
The AIHW, for instance, defines current users as those who “reported using electronic cigarettes and vapes daily, weekly, monthly or less than monthly”.
The various Cancer Council reports, on the other hand, typically limit their definition to those who have used a vape in the last month, though two of the reports also provide a detailed breakdown for more frequent use.
According to Dr Stockings, the best measure of “current use” of vapes was any use in the past month or 30 days.
“This gives a reflection of whether that young person is repeating the behaviour to some degree versus trying vapes and then never using them again,” she said.
The data on high school students
Mr Butler claimed that one in six high school students were vaping, which would equate to roughly 17 per cent of them.
Vaping data relating specifically to high school students is collected by the ASSAD survey.
The 2022-23 survey questioned more than 10,000 students around Australia and found that 15.7 per cent of those aged 12–17 had vaped in the past month, close to the minister’s claimed figure.
In addition, 3.0 per cent of students were vaping daily, 4.8 per cent had vaped on at least 20 days in the past month and 29.9 per cent had vaped at least once in their lifetime.
Other sources examined by Fact Check did not provide data specifically for high school students but did categorise data into age groups corresponding with school-age children.
The report cited by Mr Butler, for example, found that 15.8 per cent of 14- to 17-year-olds (around one in six) had vaped at least monthly in the three months to September 2022.
The more recent release of that report, covering the three months to March 2023, found that this number had fallen slightly, to 14.5 per cent (one in seven).
While the above figures each cover three-month periods, the reports note that the data is typically presented for six-month stretches due to the “wide variability in survey estimates per month — particularly for younger age groups”.
A separate research report, supplied by Dr Stockings and published in 2022, analysed the results of a survey of 721 children aged 14–17 in NSW only and found that 20.1 per cent (one in five) said they typically vaped at least monthly.
Meanwhile, the AIHW’s 2022-23 National Drug Strategy Household Survey found that 9.7 per cent of children aged 14–17 were current users of vapes.
Notably, these figures refer to daily, weekly, monthly or “less than monthly” use (per the institute’s definition), while a footnote warns that the small sample size of this age group means the “estimates should be interpreted with caution”.
What about young adults?
Mr Butler also claimed that one in four Australians aged 18–24, or 25 per cent of them, were vaping.
According to the NDSHS, which uses the AIHW’s broad definition of current vape use, 20.6 per cent of people in this age group (one in five) were considered current vapers in 2022-23.
The report referred to by Mr Butler found that 25.1 per cent (one in four) reported vaping at least monthly in the three months to September 2022, in line with his claim, although the proportion fell to 19.8 per cent (one in five) in the March 2023 data.
A short report published as part of the Generation Vape project similarly put the monthly vaping rate for this age cohort at 22.4 per cent.
Finally, Fact Check also analysed data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ 2022 National Health Survey, which found that 9.3 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds were current vapers.
Importantly, however, the published survey data appears to cover current vapers who use e-cigarettes daily, weekly or “less than weekly”, meaning it is unclear to what extent this data corresponds with monthly vaping.
When it came to school-age vaping, the bureau warned of under-reporting because survey questions are generally answered by a parent or guardian.
Principal researcher: Ellen McCutchan