Shock number of SA kids poisoned by vapes, liquid nicotine

Babies under the age of 12 months are among surging numbers of children poisoned by vapes in SA, prompting health authorities to sound the alarm to parents.

Babies and toddlers are being exposed to potentially deadly nicotine as the popularity of vaping grows.

The Sunday Mail can reveal that calls to the state’s poisons hotline have soared in recent years, as children get hold of dangerous e-cigarettes and liquid refills.

Last year there were 30 reports relating to vapes or liquid nicotine involving children aged five or younger, including four babies under 12 months.

Latest available figures, released by SA Health, show the trend is continuing, with 27 calls involving children aged five or younger received by the end of September.

Two cases involved babies.

And SA Health says “the full extent of potential nicotine poisonings is likely to be higher” than the number of calls to the poisons hotline “as people may be taken straight to hospital without the incident being reported”.

Five years ago there were just four calls to the hotline involving exposure of very young children.

Experts warn nicotine can have long-lasting impacts on brain development in young people, and high doses can be fatal.

In 2018 a 18-month-old boy died in Victoria after drinking concentrated liquid nicotine, which his mother had been mixing into so-called “vape juice” for her e-cigarette.

Coroner Phillip Byrne found the boy’s death in hospital 11 days later followed “a momentary lapse in vigilance rather than neglect” and called for an awareness campaign on the dangers of the substance.

Figures, released by SA Health, show babies and toddlers are increasingly being exposed to deadly nicotine as the popularity of vaping grows.

Royal Adelaide Hospital head of toxicology Professor Sam Alfred said nicotine poisoning could cause symptoms ranging from cramps, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea to elevated blood pressure and heart rate, agitation, seizures and even paralysis.

Professor Alfred said he had seen five or six cases in children this year.

“Kids are pretty vulnerable to nicotine exposure … they don’t need to have very much of it for it to have an effect,” he said.

“They’re obviously much smaller (than adults) so the dose per kilogram is significantly higher. “The risk is an awful lot higher if they’re directly exposed to the vape liquid.”

Professor Alfred said poisoning cases could include teens who were experimenting with vapes or toddlers “exploring and grabbing everything they can get their hands on and putting it in their mouth”, including their parents’ e-cigarettes.

Chief Public Health Officer Professor Nicola Spurrier has warned that one e-cigarette can contain the same amount of nicotine as 50 or more tobacco cigarettes. Picture: NCA Newswire /Gaye Gerard

A SA Health spokeswoman urged parents not to smoke or vape “in front of toddlers to reduce the risk of them copying adult behaviours, as this can result in fatal nicotine poisoning”.

Chief Public Health Officer Professor Nicola Spurrier has warned that one e-cigarette can contain the same amount of nicotine as 50 or more tobacco cigarettes.

Current laws make the sale, possession and use of liquid nicotine illegal in Australia, but a majority of vaping products seized are found to contain the substance.

In raids conducted earlier this year in SA more than 4500 of 4900 seized devicescontained the substance.

One brand was found to contain the equivalent of at least three cigarette packs of nicotine.

Nicotine-containing e-cigarettes can only be legally purchased if prescribed by a doctor to support quitting smoking.

It is illegal in Australia for people under the age of 18 to buy any e-cigarette or

vaping devices or related products.

Poisons Information Centre: 13 11 26

Originally published as Shock number of SA kids poisoned by vapes, liquid nicotine