New South Wales Government Takes Action Against Illegal E-cigarette Sales

According to a statement released on September 25th by the official website of the Australian state of New South Wales, the state government has pledged to invest $6.8 million over the next three years to combat illegal e-cigarette sales and provide increased support for young people addicted to e-cigarettes.

The New South Wales government has announced that it will allocate $4.3 million over the next three years to strengthen compliance and enforcement, ensuring that the state government fulfills its responsibility for the retail, wholesale, manufacturing, and drug control of e-cigarette products. In the next 12 months, $2.5 million will be allocated to enhance smoking cessation services for young people, including the development of new digital platforms, improved functionality for the iCanQuit platform, and an online learning module specifically targeted at youth across the state.

The work being carried out by the New South Wales Health Department highlights the importance of taking further action against the illegal sale of e-cigarettes and establishing regulations to support young people addicted to e-cigarettes.

The New South Wales Health Department is ramping up compliance and monitoring activities across the entire state while continuing to crack down on retailers illegally selling nicotine e-cigarettes. In a targeted operation that commenced on September 5, 2023, health inspectors conducted a week-long crackdown on illegal e-cigarettes. These raids resulted in the seizure of 23,247 e-cigarette devices with a market value exceeding $695,000 AUD.

Currently, the number of illicit e-cigarettes seized in New South Wales is expected to more than double by 2022. From January 1 to June 30, 2023, the New South Wales Health Department recovered a record-breaking 187,000 items, surpassing the 61,000 items seized during the same period last year.

From January 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023, the New South Wales Health Department conducted over 5,000 inspections, resulting in the seizure of approximately 369,000 nicotine e-cigarettes and e-liquids with an estimated market value exceeding AUD 11.8 million. Retailers found guilty of selling nicotine-containing e-cigarettes will face severe penalties, including a maximum of six months' imprisonment.

In a recent study funded and commissioned by the New South Wales Department of Health, Wollongong University conducted research testing the levels of nicotine and other known toxic chemicals harmful to health in e-cigarettes. This study comes as a warning to retailers.

The sample includes 428 e-cigarettes seized from retailers and 322 e-cigarettes voluntarily surrendered by school children in Sydney. Out of the 750 e-cigarette devices analyzed in this study, 737 were found to have high nicotine concentrations. Interestingly, most of these devices did not list nicotine as an active ingredient.

Of concern is the fact that at least one harmful substance known to be detrimental to health is present in 30 of these devices, including toxic chemicals that the Therapeutic Goods Administration prohibits the use of in e-cigarettes containing nicotine. One such substance is ethylene glycol, which is also found in antifreeze.