While the prevalence of smoking has been falling in Australia, our progress has slowed since the emergence of vaping.

And in the UK new research has found that teens who currently vape are as likely to start smoking as their peers were in the 1970s.

But it’s not all bad news – there are signs that new restrictions have helped to slow the rate of young people taking up vaping in the first place.

Guest/s

• Professor Becky Freeman, member of the Prevention Research Collaboration at the University of Sydney

References

• Vaping and young people: Assessing early impacts of Australia's comprehensive approach to vaping product control
• Trends in adolescent smoking prevalence before and after the emergence of vaping in Australia: an interrupted time series analysis, 1999–2023
• Risk of adolescent cigarette use in three UK birth cohorts before and after e-cigarettes