Study reveals how vaping companies make teens addicted to e-cigarettes

Vaping giants are turning to new dirty tactics to draw teens into two pack-a-day habits, as the full extent of the damage to a person’s body can be revealed.

Exclusive: Vaping companies have tripled the amount of nicotine in their products and are using other dirty tricks to get teens addicted to the equivalent of a two pack-a-day habit in record time.

The high levels of nicotine and a number of toxic and banned chemicals in e-cigarettes has hospitalised hundreds of young people and been implicated in the death of a grandfather and a toddler.

It is now 24 times cheaper to maintain a nicotine habit using e-cigarettes, with a single vape costing just $30 compared to the $728 it would cost to buy the equivalent number of cigarettes.

A switch to using nicotine salt in the products, which is far less abrasive to the throat, means vapers can tolerate three times higher doses of nicotine, a leading researcher has found.

Only one in four vapes declare that they contain nicotine but it is present in 98 per cent of devices tested by University Wollongong vaping expert Dr Jody Morgan.

University Wollongong researcher Dr Jody Morgan has found toxic substances in vapes. Picture: Supplied

“There are a large number of people, young people, who are going through a device in less than a week. So that is the equivalent in terms of nicotine content of smoking about two packs a day,” she said.

Selling nicotine containing vapes without a prescription is illegal and selling vapes to anyone aged under 18 is illegal.

E-cigarettes from Dr Jody Morgan and Dr Celine Kelso’s study at the School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience at the University of Wollongong. Picture: Supplied

Despite this, one in three teens has tried vaping and 87 per cent say they are easy to get hold of, and many are addicted, University of Sydney public health expert Associate Professor Becky Freeman’s Generation Vape research found.

“They’re waking up in the middle of the night and wanting to use it, they’re feeling anxious when they don’t have nicotine in their system, and those are sure signs of addiction,” she said.

Over four in 10 vapers aged 18-24 she surveyed wanted to quit.

The use of coolant in vapes is another trick used by manufacturers to get teens hooked. The tasteless ingredient provides a cooling sensation in the mouth similar to when you brush your teeth or eat a peppermint.

Dr Jody Morgan (left) and fellow University Wollongong researcher Celine Kelso have found toxic substances in vapes. Picture: Supplied

People who vape are at risk of organ failure and death, with a recent analysis discovering antifreeze or ethylene glycol, a chemical banned by the TGA, in around four per cent of vapes.

University of Wollongong researchers found it in vapes in quantities 100 times higher than the predicted tolerable levels considered safe in humans.

Research has found tooth decay is worse in those who vape, and vapers and smokers both have similar DNA damage in their mouth that can lead to cancer, Macquarie University Respiratory expert Professor Matthew Peters said.

People who have vaped for just three years have the same amount of DNA damage in their mouth as people who have smoked for seven years, he said.

An X-ray of an Aussie teen’s lungs damaged by vaping. It comes from a Medical Journal Australia article in 2021. Picture: Supplied

Cough wheeze and shortness of breath are more pronounced in people who vape, and bronchoscopy studies have found airway inflammation in vapers is similar to that found in smokers.

Vaping also makes arteries stiffer and this could lead to future heart disease.

Studies of an early vaping product called Puritane showed healthy people in their mid 30s lost 5 per cent of their lung function after using the product for two years.

“We know it’s harmful. No question about that,” Professor Peters said.

“To say it’s better or worse, or the same harm as smoking nobody knows because the truth is over a longer period of use,” he said.