Smoking

A doctor and public health expert weigh in on how to limit passive vaping exposure and what you can do to protect yourself in social situations.

Graphic anti-smoking advertisements on television remain in the minds of Australians and were successful in lowering smoking rates. But campaigns around the risks of vaping might not be hitting home with many young people, a researcher says.

As another tobacco shop burns in Melbourne, the federal government announces a $188 million crackdown on the tobacco black market, hoping to stop imports before they reach the Australian border.

New national regulations taking effect on January 1 will make it illegal to buy disposable vapes from overseas, irrespective of their nicotine content or therapeutic claims, while doctors will be able to prescribe therapeutic vapes to be bought through pharmacies.

Dr Zena Burgess has called for measures to assist young people with vaping addictions, saying it will be hard to quit without psychological support.

After an Adelaide suburban tobacco shop was featured in flyers advertising cigarettes for less than half the normal price, health authorities launched an investigation — and the shop now appears to have shut its doors. 

SA Health is looking into complaints of unlicensed tobacco stores in Adelaide, as leaflets advertising cheap cigarettes were found in suburban letterboxes. 

A new study examining how easily children can illegally access vapes in Melbourne's west has found vape stores less than 200 metres from schools and retailers selling e-cigarettes for as little as $10.

Professor Lisa Te Morenga from the Health Coalition Aotearoa has criticised the new government's plan to scrap the laws banning cigarette sales to people born after 2008.

Single-use vapes will be banned from being imported into Australia from January in the first stage of a government crackdown against recreational vaping.

The generational ban, which would have stopped anyone born after 2009 buying tobacco, has been ditched by New Zealand's new government. 

Without a prescription, the retail purchase of e-cigarettes is not allowed in Western Australia. But in at least one regional city, they're being sold without question.

The involvement of Kezia Purick at the Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum has been labelled "shameful" by the president of the Australian Medical Association.

Rival gangs in Victoria fight for bigger stakes in illegal tobacco business.

Young people are being urged to think about the lifelong impacts of vaping on their appearance – as well as on their health.

Australia will closely monitor a UK plan to ban cigarette sales for future generations, as the government progresses plans to prevent young people from picking up a smoking habit.

The bold plan taken from New Zealand would raise the legal age of smoking by one year every year, meaning a younger generation could grow up "smoke free".

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the smoking age would be raised by one year every year beginning in 2027, meaning the younger generation would grow up "smoke free".

Services to support young people addicted to vaping will get a funding boost, as part of a $6.8 million NSW government package to crackdown on illegal e-cigarettes.

The Queensland Government's multi million dollar anti-vape campaign aims to educate about the dangerous toxins within flavoured e-cigarette vapour.

Albany's mayor says his council has been telling a smoke and vape shop for months it isn't allowed to set up in a major shopping centre. But it put up new signs last week anyway.

We need to know more about exactly what is inside vapes and e-cigarettes and how people use them so we can better understand and quantify the health risks in the real world, writes Alexander Larcombe.

Tamara Styles had been smoking cigarettes since she was 14 years old, until an Aboriginal program gave her a plan to quit.

The South Australian government launches a $2 million advertising blitz to reduce the number of people taking up vaping and smoking, with a special focus on young people.

The government says it's committed to "stamping out" vaping in schools but not everyone's convinced the campaign will do enough.