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Why do West Aussies vape?

The popularity of vaping is on the rise, but one of its main appeals may come as a surprise.
Dr Kate Raynes-Goldie
Dr Kate Raynes-Goldie
Award-winning designer & keynote speaker
Why do West Aussies vape?
Image credit: Getty Images

Long gone are the days of hazy bars and smoking sections on airplanes. And while cigarette use in Australia has been in steady decline since 1994, the popularity of vaping is exploding, especially among young people.

Conventional cigarettes create smoke by burning tobacco. E-cigarettes create a vapour from nicotine-containing liquid, which is then inhaled.

A survey conducted in 2019 for the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found that the use of e-cigarettes and other vaping products among young people aged 18–24 had quadrupled since 2016.

Kahlia McCausland is a Research Officer at the Collaboration for Evidence, Research and Impact in Public Health at Curtin University. She is doing her PhD on vaping.

She says that, as well as being much cheaper than cigarettes, the colourful vaping devices and sweet or fruity flavours are particularly attractive for young people.

A way to quit, or a way to start?

In America, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) took vaping company Juul to task for making unauthorised claims that vaping is safer than smoking or even a way to quit.

gloved hands of a laboratory technician working with electronic cigarettes
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has researched the health effects of e-cigarettes

Image credit: Photo by CDC on Unsplash
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has researched the health effects of e-cigarettes

Perhaps unsurprisingly, evidence suggests that vaping and the marketing around it is having the opposite effect.

“Disturbingly, of the students who use e-cigarettes, 48% report that they had not smoked a tobacco cigarette before their first e-cigarette,” says Kahlia.

“And 25% of students who vape before smoking report later trying tobacco cigarettes.”

Kahlia and her team also found that people trying to give up smoking were switching to vaping because “they believed vaping was significantly less detrimental to their health than tobacco smoking”.

Cloud chasers

But what may be surprising is that one of main appeals of vaping may actually be the subculture around it.

A young man wearing a cap holds out his hands and an e-cigarette to look like he's pushing a smoke ring forward
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Image credit: Getty Images

Looking specifically at Western Australia, Kahlia and her team calls these vapers “cloud chasers”.

“Cloud chasers connected with aspects of the vaper subculture. This included engaging in hobbyist activities like collecting mods and flavoured e-liquids, making their own e-liquids and accessories such as coils,” says Kahlia.

They also connect with other vapers through mediums like social media and local vape stores.

“A smaller number of cloud chasers were heavily invested in the vape trick culture, expressing interest in participating in local vape competitions and posting content on their social media pages.”

Is it safer?

So is vaping actually safer than smoking tobacco as vaping companies have claimed?

“There is evidence that suggests e-cigarettes are less harmful than combustible tobacco cigarettes. However, there is also evidence that e-cigarettes are not harmless and may deliver ultrafine particles into the lungs of users,” says Kahlia.

“Studies have found short-term acute health consequences associated with e-cigarette use such as nausea, vomiting, mouth and airway irritation, chest pain and palpitations.”

But the real challenge is time, she says. “As seen with tobacco, it took decades to determine the link between smoking and lung cancer.”

 

A gif from Mad Men showing Betty Draper (played by January Jones) smoking a cigarette and adjusting her sunglasses

If Betty Draper taught us anything …

Image credit: GIPHY
If Betty Draper taught us anything …

Just because it hasn’t been scientifically proven to be harmful is not the same thing as something being safe.

Dr Kate Raynes-Goldie
About the author
Dr Kate Raynes-Goldie
In an age when disruption is the new normal, curiosity is the becomes the key 21st century skill. This is why Dr. Kate is an advocate for curiosity, through her work as a designer, speaker, writer and researcher. She’s written for variety of publications in Canada and Australia and is an innovation columnist for the Business News. She’s also a Certified Facilitator of LEGO® Serious Play®. As a globally recognised thought leader on innovation, Kate has been the recipient of numerous international awards and has spoken at conferences around the globe, including SXSW (Austin), NXNE (Toronto), REMIX Academy, Pecha Kucha, PAX AUS and TEDxPerth.
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In an age when disruption is the new normal, curiosity is the becomes the key 21st century skill. This is why Dr. Kate is an advocate for curiosity, through her work as a designer, speaker, writer and researcher. She’s written for variety of publications in Canada and Australia and is an innovation columnist for the Business News. She’s also a Certified Facilitator of LEGO® Serious Play®. As a globally recognised thought leader on innovation, Kate has been the recipient of numerous international awards and has spoken at conferences around the globe, including SXSW (Austin), NXNE (Toronto), REMIX Academy, Pecha Kucha, PAX AUS and TEDxPerth.
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