Crackdown on vapes after state records 50 children under four ingesting nicotine

The alarming number of children under four vaping has been revealed as health officials look to introduce tougher measures.

Health Minister Mark Butler says 50 children under the age of four in Victoria alone have ingested nicotine from vapes in the last year.

He said vaping is now the biggest behavioural issue in primary schools across the country as he looks for way to crackdown on the multimillion-dollar industry.

Health ministers across the country are considering greater import and enforcement controls after the use of vapes, or electronic-cigarettes, exploded in recent years with the market left largely unregulated.

Despite changes to rules last year that made nicotine vapes only available with a prescription, a black market has emerged – which has primarily targeted children.

Mr Butler said products with “pink unicorns on them, bubblegum flavour and such” were causing “very real harm to our children” and threatened to undo all the hard work to phase out smoking rates.

Mark Butler says there needs to be a drastic crackdown on vaping. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Ian Currie

“The Victorian poisons hotline has reported that in the last 12 months, more than 50 children under the age of four have had to be reported to the hotline because of the dangerous ingestion of nicotine,” he told ABC Radio.

“Four. This is now the biggest behavioural issue in primary schools.

“This is an industry shamelessly marketing, not just to teenagers but to young children. When you look at these things, pink unicorns and bubblegum flavours aren’t marketed to adults.

“This is an industry that is trying to create a new generation of nicotine addicts so they get around all of the hard work our country and other countries have done over recent decades to stamp out smoking.”

He also cited an example of a “very young” child who had been found with an “insidious” vape in her pencil case made to look like a highlighter.

A distressing video of an 11-month-old baby boy smoking a vape surfaced online earlier this month, showing a mother from the NSW mid-north coast watching on and smiling as the infant’s aunt places the vape into the baby’s mouth. Picture: 7 NEWS,

The baby was told ‘it’s OK bubba’. Picture: 7 NEWS

Earlier this month, an 11-month-old baby was made to suck on and inhale a vape in a video posted online.

In the video, the young boy from NSW can be seen struggling for air while propped on his teenage mother’s lap, as those around him laugh and say “it’s okay bubba”.

An earlier clip shared online featured a woman asking the baby “want to try it?”, before sticking the vape in his mouth.

Days later, videos emerged online of an infant girl from South Australia vaping alongside a relative.

In the first video, the baby blew smoke at the camera; while in the second she is handed the vape, inhales and exhales.

Mr Butler said he was concerned by reports children under four were ingesting nicotine. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Mr Butler said “all options were on the table” when it comes to cracking down on the industry, including greater import controls and control over sales.

One idea he won’t be considering, however, is that of “normalisation” floated by the Nationals party.

Leader David Littleproud earlier this week said retailers should be allowed to sell nicotine vaping products, but that sales limited to people 18 and over.

He also said attractive packaging marketed at children should be banned.

“We have to get ahead of this because children are the ones that are the victims of this,” Mr Littleproud said on Tuesday.

Mr Butler rubbished Mr Littleproud’s proposal.

“We can’t just say oh, well, it’s all too hard, let’s just normalise it because we know why these products exist,” he said.

“These products are pushed so hard by the tobacco industry is because they want to create a pathway back to cigarettes.”

Mr Butler pointed at research that shows those who vape are three times as likely to take up cigarettes.