The AMAQ boss says her organisation and others in the health field have been “calling for reform for years” as they’ve increasingly watched e-cigarettes take a hold of young people and smoking rates among adults barely shift in more than a decade.

The Palaszczuk Government has this week introduced legislation to Parliament to strengthen Queensland’s anti-smoking laws that will include stronger enforcement action on illicit tobacco sale and supply, the introduction of a licencing scheme for the sale of tobacco, the expansion of smoke-free areas and tougher restrictions on cigarette sales in licenced venues.

Separate to the new legislation, the government will also move to establish a Health and Environment Committee inquiry into the prevalence and use of e-cigarettes, better known as vapes.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath told Parliament this week that vaping was an “emerging threat” to the health of Queenslanders – “particularly young Queenslanders” – as it heated liquids of unknown ingredients into a vapourised mist inhaled into the lungs.

“With colourful labels and sickly-sweet flavours, these products are clearly marketed to young people,” she said.

“The evidence shows that people who take up e-cigarettes are three times more likely to take up smoking.”

Boulton said she welcomed the government’s decision and shared their concerns, while describing her experience with vapes at odds with D’Ath’s assessment that vapes were an “emerging” problem.

She said the Australian National University study the minister cited also showed that one in five teenagers who had never smoked were using vapes.

Her organisation, she said, along with other medical groups, including pharmacists, were frequently fending off the approaches from ‘big tobacco’ lobbyists looking to infiltrate their conferences and messaging to members that vaping was a “healthier alternative” to smoking.

Boulton said the problem was so insidious in the absence of regulation and enforcement that education administrators had taken their own measures by installing highly sensitive smoke alarms to bring usage on school grounds under control.

Doctors were seeing asthma symptoms inflamed in regular vape users, she said, along with increased presentations of “burn injuries to the lungs”.

“They can cause seizures and if ingested by a child who gets hold of the vapes containing nicotine, they are potentially lethal,” she said.

Under Queensland law, vapes containing nicotine can only be sold under prescription.

But Boulton said the regulation and enforcement was so loose that it was impossible to track what is being sold through illicit channels.

“There was a study done last year where some vapes being sold as ‘non-nicotine’ had enough nicotine in them equal to 50 conventional cigarettes,” she said.

“The government needs to seriously catch up with what’s happening on the ground.

“It’s a real shame because Australia is a world leader when it comes to smoking cessation, but it seems the government here has missed the boat when it comes to vaping.

“We hope this leads to urgent action because it is rampant through our schools.”

Opposition health spokesperson Ros Bates said she had written to D’Ath in July 2021 on behalf of a constituent in her Mudgeeraba electorate raising concerns about the proliferation of unlicensed tobacco outlets, commonly known as “chop shops”.

Bates said her concerns had been waved away with the line that enforcement was largely a Commonwealth responsibility and that the State Government was looking at tightening legislation in the future.

A spokesperson for D’Ath told InQueensland that plans for this week’s announcement had been advancing, starting with the launch last May on World No Tobacco Day of the government’s “consultation with key stakeholders” and a “comprehensive regulatory impact assessment process” that was finalised in December.

“We have asked stakeholders for their input, listened, and developed legislation accordingly that is being introduced into Parliament,” they said.

The spokesperson said the State Government was not alone in probing vapes deeper, with health ministers across the country establishing a working group to review and advise on measures to protect young people from the harms of e-cigarettes.

“The work we are doing at a state level complements this,” they said.

“Our inquiry will consider research from scientists and health experts, in order to recommend approaches to keep Queenslanders – especially young Queenslanders – safe.”