Evidence

This 2019 report has lots of info about vape liquids, even when they don’t have nicotine in them.

This 2022 study assessed the chemical composition of vapes sold in Australia and found a wide range of toxic chemicals in vape liquids.

This report provides heaps of info about what is in vapes and whether they comply with Australian standards (it gets updated regularly).

This 2023 study looked at whether vapes in Australia have synthetic coolants them (spoiler alert: they do).

This 2022 report gives a great overview of the evidence on the health effects of vapes. It also has information about the impact of vaping on addiction (AKA dependence), injuries, poisoning, environmental hazards and much more. The key findings from the report were published in this 2023 journal article here.

This 2018 review from CSIRO reviews the impact of vaping on health, injuries, smoking risk and much more.

This 2023 Queensland enquiry looked into the toxic chemicals in vapes, health impacts and environmental issues like how difficult it is to dispose of vapes safely.

This 2021 review specifically looked at the association between vaping and starting smoking.

This 2021 review also looked at vaping in young non-smokers and how it is associated with starting smoking.

This 2017 review looked at longitudinal studies that assessed initial use of vapes and subsequent smoking.

This 2022 study in New Zealand explored the effects of vaping on taking up (and quitting) smoking.

This 2008 paper gives a handy overview of the pharmacology of nicotine and how nicotine addiction happens.

This 2010 study explored whether motivational factors are linked to quit attempts and quitting smoking for good and gives info about providing help to smokers to stay off cigarettes.

This 2022 study looked at the link between loss of autonomy and nicotine use in adolescents and explored how to measure loss of autonomy in this age group.

This 2008 review looked at activation and desensitisation of nicotine receptors contribute to nicotine addiction and mood in smoking.

This 2021 paper gives an introduction to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and nicotine receptors.

This 2015 paper gives detailed info about how nicotine withdrawal works, including the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal over time.

This 2007 review covers the symptoms of tobacco abstinence and the time course of tobacco abstinence symptoms.

This interesting 2016 study shows how sugar can work in a similar way to nicotine.

This 2011 review explored predictors of attempts to stop smoking and their success. They found that past quit attempts and motivation to stop were highly predictive of quit attempts, but only cigarette dependence was consistently linked with the success of those attempts.

This 2009 study explored attempts to quit smoking and the factors associate with successfully quitting. They found that recent quit attempts strongly predicted future attempts, but also predicted subsequent relapses too.

This 2005 overview provides a detailed look at the metabolism of nicotine and how it is processed by the body.

Check out the Australian government info about the impacts of smoking and tobacco here. The webpage explains what happens in your body when you smoke, how tobacco damages your body and the health effects.

This resource gives you comprehensive information about the health effects of smoking, including the risk of cardiovascular (heart) disease, respiratory diseases (e.g. lung damage), cancer and heaps more.

This World Health Organisation CDC website has lots of information about smoking, including the number of people who killed by tobacco every year (8 million people).

Here are two webpages that give smokers hope by summarising all of the benefits of quitting: here and here.

To further understand the attitudes and behaviours associated with young Australians, Minderoo Foundation conducted national quantitative surveys in July 2022 (2,905 participants) and July 2023 (2,597 participants). 

The sample for all data points is a nationally representative group 14-25-year-old- Australians.