More than 80 per cent of disposable vapes sold in Gold Coast stores illegally contain nicotine, a Queensland parliamentary inquiry into reducing rates of e-cigarette use has heard.
The inquiry was announced in March amid reports primary school-aged children were becoming addicted to vaping products.
Principal of AB Paterson College on the Gold Coast Joanne Sheehy told the inquiry e-cigarettes had first been noticed on school grounds at the beginning of 2021.
"It started with the 14, 15, 16-year-old kids," Ms Sheehy said.
"And I can say that none of the children that were vaping at that point were smokers beforehand."
She said the school had incorporated education programs about vaping into its classes, as a response to a visible increase in vaping among students.
The acting director of public and environmental health at the Gold Coast Public Health Unit (GCPHU), Anne Cowdry, told Thursday's public hearing in Southport the availability of disposable vapes, many of which contain nicotine, had "exploded" since 2021.
Ms Cowdry said the GCPHU had seized nearly 11,000 disposable vapes since 2019 in response to complaints from the community.
She said laboratory tests on 1,518 of those vapes showed 83 per cent illegally contained nicotine.
"The amount of nicotine in each product varies but most of the flavours are strawberry, grape and other things that appeal to children," Ms Cowdry said.
"The average was about 35,000 to 45,000 milligrams of nicotine per kilogram.
"The highest we found was 190,000 milligrams per kilogram."
By comparison, a typical packaged cigarette weighs about one gram and, on average, contains between eight and 20 milligrams of nicotine.
'Disposable vapes designed to addict'
Mount Tamborine vape vendor Leah Tankard told the hearing "cheap and nasty disposable vapes" were the "scourge of the industry" and should be banned.
"We're finding these are often sold in tobacconists, corner stores, newsagents and on social media channels," Ms Tankard said.
"Disposable vapes are what are causing the increase in children taking up vaping."
She said re-usable vapes that required users to purchase liquid separately and refill were "too much hassle for a child".
"The disposable vapes are a one-step system so they [children] can just walk into a store and access that nicotine problem right there.
"We don't want them in the hands of children, they're an adult product.
"The high amount of nicotine in there [disposable vapes] is designed to get children addicted."
Ms Tankard said Australia's attitude towards vaping products was lagging behind countries with similar public health systems like New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
In the United Kingdom, smokers are being encouraged to swap cigarettes for vapes, with pregnant women to be offered financial incentives to help them quit tobacco smoking.
"[Australia's] prescription model for nicotine has been a flop," Ms Tankard said.
"There were good intentions behind it but it hasn't worked.
"When the prescription model came in a few years ago, we lost half our market when the black market started up."
