Dr Chris Moy, Vice President of the AMA (Australian Medical Association), which believes new nicotine vaping laws that come into effect today (October 1), are timely, with the prevalence of harmful vaping rapidly increasing in the community.

The new laws close a loophole in federal legislation which has enabled the unregulated importation and illegal sale of nicotine containing vaping products, or “e-cigarettes”, in each State and Territory.

While the new laws are world-leading, the AMA believes they are only a start and more will need to be done in the future to fulfill their stated aims of the protection of the public, including limiting the maximum nicotine concentration in products to 20mg/ml, the banning of the option of personal importation, and the addition of these products to state-based Real Time Prescription Monitoring systems to prevent doctor-shopping.

Most importantly, the AMA believes an independent national safety-monitoring framework must be funded and implemented to monitor the effectiveness of the changes and for any ongoing residual harms faced by the community.

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