Mum left ‘mortified’ after finding vape in daughter’s backpack

An Australian mother-of-three was left horrified by what she found in her 12-year-old’s backpack.

Sarah, from Perth, discovered an electronic cigarette in her daughter’s bag and panic set in after realising she smokes vapes. 

‘Honestly, I was mortified, it has completely imploded now. We’ve, to some extent, left it a little bit too late,’ she told 7News.

The electronic cigarettes that usually contain nicotine and are available in different flavours; they’ve become increasingly popular among young adult and teenagers and are a substitute for regular cigarettes. 

Young people who vape nicotine are exposed to a toxic chemical that can harm adolescent brain development. 

According to a survey by the Alcohol and Drug Foundation (ADF), in Australia around 14 per cent of 12 to 17-year-olds have ever tried an e-cigarette, with around 32 per cent of these students having used one in the past month. 

The survey also found 74 per cent of young adults aged 18-24 initially only tried vapes out of curiosity in their younger years, and now 64 per cent of them are still addicted.

Cancer Council Australia CEO Ashley Reid said: ‘Young people are attracted to vapes for their bright colours and broad range of flavours, and then become hooked due to the nicotine content.

Vapes have become increasingly popular among young adult and teenagers and are a substitute for regular cigarettes. Young people who vape nicotine are exposed to a toxic chemical that can harm adolescent brain development (stock image)

‘These products carry serious health risks, such as nicotine addiction, poisoning, seizures, burns and acute lung injuries from inhaling harmful chemicals.’

Research strongly suggests non-smokers who use e-cigarettes are three times more likely to go on to smoke ‘combustible tobacco cigarettes as non-users’.

Cancer Council will receive $375,000 from Healthway to develop a pilot project highlighting the impacts of e-cigarette use.

Maurice Swanston, the recently retired CEO of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health, admitted the achievements made in kicking the national nicotine habit could vanish thanks to vapes.

‘E-cigarettes are undermining the incredible progress that Australia has made in the last 40 years I have been working in reducing smoking,’ he previously told Daily Mail Australia. 

Federal Minister Mark Butler signalled in early December that the Albanese government would look at cracking down on the e-cigarettes, also known as vapes, flooding into Australia.

Mr Swanston said it’s the right approach.

‘Our borders are leaking like a sieve, there are massive illegal imports of e-cigarettes and those cigarettes have been intentionally mislabeled, so that Border Force can’t tell whether they contain nicotine or not,’ Mr Swanston said.

In October 2021, the Therapeutic Goods Administration made it illegal to buy e-cigarettes, which electronically heat a fluid mixture to produce an aerosol or vapour to be inhaled, without a doctor’s prescription. 

A recent study on e-cigarette use by 14-17 year-olds in NSW illustrated how freely available vapes are.

It estimated more than 30 per cent of young people in the age group had tried vaping.

Seventeen-year-old Ruby Ellis told the study she had vaped for three years but had been trying to quit for nine months.

‘I knew that it was addictive when I first started vaping, but you don’t really think about it too much,’ Ruby said.

‘You don’t fully realise what addicted means or how addictive it is until you become hooked’.