Kids as young as 6 caught vaping in Qld primary schools

Children as young as six have been suspended or expelled from school over a concerning habit, new data reveals.

Children as young as six years old have been found vaping in schools, new data has revealed.

More than 600 cases of children vaping and e-cigarette usage was reported in Queensland primary schools over 18 months, Education Queensland data has found.

Thirty-one year 3 students were suspended or expelled for vaping-related incidents between the beginning of 2023 and the end of semester 1 this year. Another 18 year 2 students and two year 1 students suffered the same fate.

A staggering 5998 cases of vaping were reported in Queensland high schools.

More than 700 of those cases were year 7 students.

A staggering number of children are vaping in schools. Picture: NewsWire /Gaye Gerard

Royal Australian College of GPs acting vice-president Ramya Raman said vaping could cause “irreversible” damage, The Courier-Mail reported.

“Vapes contain hazardous aerosols in them in itself, including formaldehyde, which causes irreversible lung damage, nicotine, which is highly addictive, and another one propylene glycol, which is very toxic to human cells,” Dr Raman said.

“These chemicals can have negative effects on learning, behavioural development and attention span.

“Other health harms include lung injury, acute nicotine toxicity, which can cause seizures, risk of burns and injuries, and vaping long term is associated with the uptake of tobacco smoking and the risks that come with that too.”

Purchasing vapes without a prescription wade illegal on July 1.

However, from October, individuals aged over 18 will be able to purchase vapes from behind the counter following a conversation with a pharmacist about the health harms associated with vaping.

It comes after the Albanese government struck a deal with the Greens to soften the proposed retail ban on e-cigarettes.

Greens leader Adam Bandt previously backed the changes under a deal with the Greens. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Greens leader Adam Bandt backed the changes under a deal with his party, declaring “prohibition doesn’t work” in an interview on ABC radio.

“I mean, history is replete with examples of politicians telling adults not to use certain drugs only to find that that doesn’t actually fix the problem,” he said.

Mr Bandt said the party’s other key motivation was to keep the issue “out of the criminal justice system”.

“There is a real public health problem and especially amongst children, the kind of flavoured types that children have been using for us is something that we really wanted to tackle but we wanted to make sure that it was treated as a health issue and kept out of the criminal justice system,” he said.

“And so the changes that we’ve secured mean now the adult vape user, and children as well, won’t be criminalised for their vape usage and can walk down the street with a Rock Princess or a Lush Ice and know that it’s not a crime.”