Steep increase in teen smoking for first time in two decades

According to Cancer Council’s Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer (CBRC), Aussie teenagers are taking up smoking at alarming rates, particularly when it comes to vaping.

The data shows a huge spike in tobacco smoking rates in those aged 14 to 17-years-old in just four years, up from from 2.1 per cent in 2018 to 6.7 per cent in 2022.

Rebekah Hayden's daughter became sick from vaping. — Preliminary data from the first quarter of 2023 shows a whopping 12.8 per cent of 14 to 17-year-olds surveyed reported smoking. (Supplied)

Preliminary data from the first quarter of 2023 shows a whopping 12.8 per cent of 14 to 17-year-olds surveyed reported smoking.

For context, the national rate of daily Australian smokers is about 12 per cent.

Data on E-cigarette use revealed that fewer than one per cent of 14 to 17-year-olds reported vaping in 2018.

In 2022, that figure sat at 11.8 per cent and 14.5 per cent in early 2023.

The statistics come just days after Heath Minister Mark Butler announced a raft of sweeping changes to the country’s tobacco laws, aimed at targeting skyrocketing rates of youth smoking and daily smokers.

Warnings on individual cigarettes, health inserts inside packs and the banning of flavours in vapes and other items are among the new “world-leading” changes proposed by the federal government.

Butler said he hopes the proposed legislation – some 300 pages long – will be introduced to parliament later this year and written into law by April 2024.

He said said the changes are primarily aimed at driving down soaring vaping rates among the nation’s youth, while tackling the 12 per cent of Australians who still smoke daily.

South Australian law proposes tobacco companies pay for and clean up cigarette litter — The statistics come just days after Heath Minister Mark Butler announced a raft of sweeping changes to the country’s tobacco laws. (Nine)

“Here in Australia, still, tobacco, or smoking, is the leading cause of preventable death and disability in this country,” he said.

“About 12 per cent of Australians are daily smokers, although that’s come down dramatically over the last decade, but it still accounts to over two million Aussies smoking on a daily basis.”

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Another recent study published in the British Medical Journal “indicated that Australia is currently not on track to meet the targets that were agreed by all governments in the National Tobacco Strategy.

As a result, the health minister announced that Labor intend to implement following:

Standardise package sizing and products
Standardise the look and the size of filters (to deal with vogue-style cigarettes in particular)
Prohibit flavours and additives
Limit and prohibit use of names that are designed to mislead users
Update the warnings and the graphic images that are on cigarette packs
Include health warnings on each individual cigarette inside a pack
Require the tobacco industry to include public health inserts in all of their packs