Following, the E-cigarettes debates, A students insights where published in the Herald Sun

As a Year 12 student, e-cigarettes have been worrying me since I was an 11 year old. In Year 5, I watched fascinated as my fellow 11 year old classmates blew smoke from what looked to be a lolly pen. Now, at 17 I listen to my peers discussing the latest vape devices, in the midst of a pandemic that attacks our lungs. And they say it’s not a problem! ! Really! ! Australian laws are lax, so e-cigarettes are perfectly legal. People say they help ease their tobacco addiction and are a safer option, US FDA research states ‘it is appropriate for the protection of public health". But is it worth the switch? The National Health and Medical Research Council advises that e-cigarettes contain chemicals and toxins such as formaldehyde and heavy metals, known to cause cancers and lung diseases. These studies suggest vaping may be just as deadly as smoking. Yet, Health minister, Greg Hunt disclosed ‘the Government's position on e-cigarettes remains unchanged and we will continue to take advice from medical experts’. So now, it’s a waiting game, until enough deaths sting the economy, to take action. The Americans, took action and banned flavoured e-cigarettes for good, once 2500 cases of lung disease and 55 deaths were reported associated with vaping. Is this what it has to come to for us to change? 55 deaths and 2500 ill Australians, sounds like a useless waste of life to me, don’t you think Greg? Public Health England, PHE, the government executive reported the risks of smoking e-cigarettes are 95% safer than tobacco smoking. Percentages are a merely chance, do you want to know something more reliable? Instead of promoting another disease stimulate, why don’t we use that money on resources to address and support tobacco smokers, rather than producing an alternative that can induce smoking behaviours within youth. Why should you invent another device, if research says it’s just as deadly, to help smokers? This is not help, it’s leading us into an epidemic like America. Maybe it’s the money, usually is. Ever since Quit educated us on the dangers of smoking, tobacco companies became endangered species leaving desperate billionaires to prey on youth for their next cash feast. Fishing kids in with an exotic smoky baits of strawberry cheesecake, cinnamon cookie custard, mermaids milk and even Hubba Bubbas grape bubble-gum, whilst the public knows little of the dangers. Cigarettes were cooler when less was known, it’ll only be a matter of time until someone discovers the real dangers of e-cigarettes and then they are deemed no longer safer too. If you honestly believe, e-cigarettes produce addicts, maybe you should think again. Kids are quite adventurous. They start on soft foods and move to junk foods and sweets, what’s not to say a little harmless smoke and then tobacco too. Australia doesn’t need to catch up with the world, and follow the UK, Russia, Italy who legalise ecigarettes, because we would only be joining the race to death.