Calls to poison hotline spike as babies play with vapes

More than 170 children, including a four-week-old baby, have been exposed to nicotine after puffing on a vape in NSW. 

More than 170 children including a baby as young as four-weeks-old have been exposed to nicotine after puffing on a vape in NSW, prompting warnings from experts over the potentially lethal consequences. 

NSW’s poisons helpline has received more than 170 calls in 2021 over concerns children under the age of 15 - including a baby aged four weeks old - have been exposed to toxins after puffing on a vape. 

Health professionals say even small amounts of nicotine can be toxic to children who are mimicking the behaviour of their parents by putting brightly coloured vapes that look like toys and taste like lollies in their mouths.

There were 171 calls to the NSW Poisons Information Centre regarding children aged 15 and under regarding vapes and e-cigarettes in 2021. 

Three out of four calls – or 127 – concerned children aged between one and four while 27 were for children aged between five and seven related to infants aged between four weeks and one-year of age. 

There was one call relating to a baby under the age of four weeks. 

The figures represent an almost tripling of the number of calls made about children under the age of 15 in the previous year. 

In 2020 there were 42 calls regarding children aged between one and four years, seven about children aged between four weeks to one year and nine about kids aged five to fourteen.

NSW Poisons Information Centre specialist Elissa McLean said often the calls related to children picking up vapes left around the house and having a puff as they imitated the behaviour of their parents. 

“These products they’re often quite brightly coloured, they smell quite nice and young children of that age group are very inquisitive,” said Ms McLean, adding vapes were quite easy for children to activate 

“They do often pick things up and one of the first things they do is put things in their mouth.” 

Ms McLean said any inhalation of a vape could potentially cause symptoms such as coughing and coughing fits as well as nausea and vomiting if the child absorbs any nicotine. 

“In more serious cases where children get access to more concentrated or ingest nicotine liquids it can cause really serious toxicity like loss of consciousness and seizures,” said Ms McLean. 

“Potentially nicotine liquid can be fatal to children.” 

The number of calls to the NSW Poisons Information Centre regarding children aged between five and 19 has steadily risen over the past seven years. 

There was one call made in 2014, five in 2018, 10 in 2019, 17 in 2020 and 52 in 2021.

Australian Medical Association vice president Danielle McMullen said there had been a number of cases of children overdosing on blends of liquid nicotine and flavours. 

“It’s really important that young people in particular don’t have access to vape liquid because that can be a serious and life threatening overdose if children inadvertently ingest that liquid,” said Dr McMullen.

Australian National University professor Emily Banks from the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health said there was insufficient data on the health impact on children of inhaling second-hand aerosols. 

But Professor Banks, who led a global systematic review into the dangers of vaping, said children who saw their parents use e-cigarettes were more likely to start vaping. 

“If children see a lot of smoking around them they will tend to think smoking is more acceptable and children whose parents smoke are more likely to smoke,” she said. 

University of Sydney emeritus professor in public health Simon Chapman, a longtime campaigner against cigarettes and tobacco, said the campaign on second-hand smoke took about 30-years after evidence of the dangers emerged. 

Professor Chapman said first public transport went smoke free in the 1970s then public sector offices went smoke free then private sector workplaces then nightclubs clubs. 

He said people started to realise the dangers of smoking inside their homes as the workplace bans started to take effect. 

“You’d have to be pretty stupid not to figure out that if you were doing it at home you were going to expose your own kids, people who you love, to the same sort of toxic fumes that you weren’t allowed to spray around the workplace,” said Professor Chapman. 

Under current Australian laws, vapes and vaping products containing nicotine can only be purchased with a prescription and all products, regardless of whether they contain nicotine, can only be purchased by people aged 18 and over. 

However, enforcement of the laws is virtually non-existent and a black market is operating in plain sight of authorities as vapes are sold in convenience stores and tobacconists around the country.