New data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) covering Australian smoking trends on Monday has revealed just over one in five (21.7%) people aged 18-24 years had used an e-cigarette or vaping device at least once.

The same report showed just under one in twelve (7.6%) people aged 15-17 years had used an e-cigarette or vaping device at least once.

Ballarat Community Health health promotion manager Louise Feery said the national figures where in line with vaping trends in the Ballarat region.

"We have had an increasing number of queries from schools and parents about vape products and their effects on the health of young people - Most don't know what they actually contain and the safety of the products," she said.

The Grampians health region, including Ballarat, in recent years had one of the state's highest smoking rates with one in five adults smoking, according to a 2020 Cancer Council Victoria survey.

While data shows smoking in the region has slowly decreased, Ms Feery said e-cigarettes were not a healthy alternative, and their manufacture, contents and labelling were unregulated with no quality or safety standards.

"Nicotine vaping products have been promoted as a treatment for people trying to give up smoking cigarettes, however it is not a first line treatment for smoking cessation, the evidence is still unclear," she said.

"Some people mistakenly believe the 'cloud' from vaping is a vapour, like steam. It is really an aerosol, a fine spray of chemicals that enter the body via the lungs and small particles that can lodge in the lungs."

Alcohol and Drug Foundation spokesperson Laura Bajurny said social media had huge impact on the rising trend among young people, with apps like Instagram and TikTok difficult to regulate.

"If you get on somewhere like Instagram and you search hashtags 'vape', you'll get a lot of images and it's a hard space to regulate because you have some things that are user generated content," she said.

"Then we have people who are paid influencers, and there's all kinds of regulatory issues with influencers being paid but not promoting that they're being paid - or whether that actually has any impact on how people see the content anyway, even if they know it's essentially an ad."

The data on e-cigarettes, from the 2020/21 ABS national health survey, was collected for the first time following the inclusion of questions on e-cigarette in the annual survey.

E-cigarette use was more common among 18 to 24-year-olds than any other demographic surveyed.

Those under the age of 45 were three times more likely than over-45s to have used an e-cigarette.

The ABS report noted vaping numbers in young people may be underrepresented because responses were provided by an adult in the same household or due to reluctance to report use.

Vapes are heavily regulated in Australia, with nicotine vapes unable to be purchased without a prescription, and both nicotine and non-nicotine vapes allowed to be purchased only by people aged over 18.

Ms Bajurny said young people were accessing vapes via neighbourhood dealers or - most often - online stores.

"There is a pretty clear targeting of young people, whether that's looking at the range of flavours that are available, it's a massive range of flavours and a lot of them are very candy and fruit focused," she said.

"The packaging of the devices and the liquids can really look quite appealing to young people, it's all kinds of bright colours, and the imagery that's used."

The Alcohol and Drug Foundation offers advice on speaking with young people about vaping, noting the issue is best tackled in a casual setting, approached calmly, and is based in fact.

Ms Bajurny said more broadly, positive health outcomes were interconnected.

"There's lots of positive protective factors in the lives of young people - they've got good family relationships, that they're involved in school, they've got social and leisure opportunities," she said.

"All of those things can contribute to making it less likely that young people we'll use alcohol and other drugs, including nicotine."

Ms Feery said in Ballarat, more education across all groups was needed to tackle the problem.

"More education to parents, teachers and young people on the impact of vaping on young people's health and also that buying and selling an e-cigarette device or any liquid that contains nicotine without a doctor's prescription is illegal in Australia," she said.

"The short-term side effects of e-cigarette use can include vomiting and nausea and the long term effects are not yet known, but it is clear that the inhalation of chemicals damage the lung and heart - even e-cigarettes without nicotine can cause harm."

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