Page 44 - Retail Pharmacy Assistants September 2020

42 SMOKING CESSATION
IT STARTS WITH
ENDS
By Peter Howard.
With e-cigarettes threatening to create a new nicotine generation, supporting smoking
cessation has never been so important. While vaping is promoted as either
a safer alternative to tobacco, or a smoking cessation tool, the use of e-cigarettes presents considerable risks to health. However, even though no country or government has approved vaping for a health-related purpose, it’s gaining in popularity.
For those offering smoking cessation advice, this suggests there are challenges ahead:
• Smokers wrongly believing
e-cigarettes are a viable quit tool.
• Non-smokers experimenting
with e-cigarettes and becoming nicotine dependent.
The results of Australia’s 2019 National Drug Strategy Household Survey, released in mid-July, offer an insight into the growth of vaping: around 64 per cent of current smokers and 20 per cent of non-smokers aged 18-24 have tried e-cigarettes – a 400 per cent rise among non-smokers in the six years following the 2013 survey. Furthermore, 65 per cent of adolescents and 39 per cent of young adults using e-cigarettes have never previously smoked.
Melbourne University Centre for Behaviour Change Director of Centre Operations Dr Michelle Jongenelis describes the increased e-cigarette use among Australians as “very concerning”.
“These concerning proportions
are likely being driven by the vaping industry’s narrative that e-cigarettes are harmless,” she said.
RETAIL PHARMACY ASSISTANTS • SEP 2020