Ella* started vaping in July 2023 to help her quit cigarettes. She didn’t intend to replace one habit with another, but she also wanted to save money.
In September, she had an ultrasound appointment, and found out her baby had stopped growing at almost seven weeks old.
“I honestly believe that vaping caused my miscarriage,” Ella, 32, said. “There’s nothing anyone can say to me that would change my mind.”
According to government health advice, chemicals found in tobacco and e-cigarettes can harm a baby, with risks including miscarriage. However, miscarriages occur in at least 15% and as high as in one quarter of confirmed pregnancies, and in many cases there is no cause.
The government implementing reforms targeting the import and sale of nicotine and non-nicotine vapes, and concerns about the health impacts of vaping, has prompted Ella to give vaping up for good.
She is not alone, with data provided to Guardian Australia by Quitline Victoria showing in the first quarter of 2024, one quarter of new clients reported vaping in the last 30 days, and 14% of clients reported attempting to quit vaping, double than from a year ago.
A Quitline spokesperson said the service has received calls from clients as young as 12 and up to 79 years old requesting support to quit vaping.
“We’ve heard of people successfully quitting smoking but taking up vaping, only to become more addicted to vaping and then using smoking to quit vaping,” the spokesperson said.
“Increasing numbers of people report dual smoking and vaping.”
Ella said the trauma she experienced due to her miscarriage initially prompted her to vape more. “Honestly from that moment, it [a vape]was never out of my hand,” she said.
“As time went on and I was vaping more, I started to get dizziness and lightheadedness. My anxiety was never great whilst smoking cigarettes but it’s like something I’ve never experienced whilst vaping.
“It was truly the most debilitating time of my life.”
Ella said quitting has been difficult.
“I’d throw the vape in the bin and wake up the next morning with horrible withdrawals and end up going to buy another one,” she said.
For the past two weeks, she has turned to nicotine patches instead of vapes with a plan supported by her GP to gradually taper off them. Motivated by her son requiring surgery and not wanting to vape around him while he recovered, she has managed two weeks without vapes.
Her dizziness has subsided and she feels calmer.
“I’m excited to see what I’ll feel like when I’m off the patches,” she said. “I really want to have another baby so it’s my goal to stay off both vapes and cigarettes and I also don’t want my son growing up seeing me do either.”
While e-cigarettes may be beneficial for smokers who use them to completely and promptly quit smoking, they are not currently approved smoking cessation aids, with more evidence-based alternatives with established safety and efficacy profiles prescribed by doctors first.
This should be combined with behavioural support, clinical guidelines say. Most smokers who successfully quit do so without cessation aids.
Quit Director Rachael Andersen said the organisation was preparing itself for a further influx of clients to its online and phone line support services, as further vaping reforms make their way through parliament.
The reforms will see vapes only available from pharmacies, with a prescription from a doctor.
“We are seeing a really sharp increase in the number of people seeking support,” Andersen said.
“I think when people first took up vaping, they didn’t readily understand just how addictive it is, and what we are seeing is people realising they now are struggling with an addiction that needs to be managed.”
President of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Dr Nicole Higgins, said when people use vaping to assist with smoking cessation, “the ultimate goal will be to get people off of the vapes too”.
“We have seen a big community discussion, whether it be in my consulting room, or my football club, or among my high school kids, around what’s in vapes, and people actually making decisions to quit the vapes altogether. But I think some people are finding it’s actually more difficult to quit than they thought.”
*Name changed to protect medical privacy
Do you have an experience of quitting vaping to share? Contact melissa.davey@theguardian.com
This article was amended on 22 April 2024. A previous version referred to national data, the data was only for Victoria.
