Schools to teach the dangers of vaping
A new digital campaign aimed at discouraging school-aged children from vaping is being rolled out in WA schools.
The Department of Education and Department of Health have joined forces to create a WA Schools Anti-Vaping Toolkit, which will be fully implemented by Term 4 2022.
The toolkit, based on a NSW Health model, contains resources for school staff, students, parents and carers to educate them on the health impacts of vaping.
It is targeted at secondary schools in particular, but the resources will be useful for all schools and made available to the public and non-government sectors.
For schools and their staff, the toolkit will include information on strategies to minimise vaping among students and how to explicitly identify where vaping can be further addressed in the curriculum. Professional learning opportunities for school staff have also been developed in collaboration with the Department of Health.
Young people are being urged to know the facts and dangers of using e-cigarettes and vapes, which are often toxic and can contain harmful substances found in cleaning products, weed killer, nail polish remover and bug spray.
“Vaping is a growing concern for Western Australian parents and school communities,” said Sue Ellery, Education and Training Minister.
“E-cigarettes and vapes are designed to appeal to young people, coming in colourful packaging and a huge variety of flavours — from gummy bears and bubblegum to fruits such as watermelon and peach. They are also easy to conceal.
“There are many misconceptions around vaping that need to be addressed, including that it produces harmless water vapour, is non-addictive and doesn’t contain nicotine.
“It’s important that schools play a part in educating students and families to dispel some of those misconceptions, and these new resources will provide additional guidance for teachers about what they can do to highlight the harmful impacts.
“As with smoking in past generations, we may not see the full impacts of vaping for another decade or more, so it is important that we act now.”
In Western Australia, it is illegal to sell e-cigarette devices and nicotine vaping products to anyone regardless of age, unless they are prescribed by a doctor for smoking cessation purposes and obtained with a prescription from a pharmacy.
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