An anti-vaping professor was questioned during a Senate inquiry to provide examples of e-cigarette deaths before ultimately admitting that the only known deaths occurred when vape batteries exploded.
Professor Emily Banks was questioned on Wednesday during the Senate inquiry into the Therapeutic Goods and Other Legislation Amendment (Vaping Reforms) Bill.
The head of the Center for Public Health Data and Policy at the Australian National University in Canberra is a leading advocate for stricter regulations on vaping due to health concerns surrounding the popular devices.
Federal Nationals Senator for Queensland Matt Canavan told the enquiry that ‘after all these years’ he is still not sure whether anyone has died from using a vape in places like Britain or New Zealand.
“Or even just a serious medical episode. Because I’m trying to reach the threshold here before we ban anything,” he said.
Professor Emily Banks (pictured at Wednesday’s Senate inquiry) was asked to give an example of deaths from vape use, which she could not
Senator Matt Canavan (pictured via link at the Senate inquiry into vapes) had to keep asking the professor to answer his question
“Is there any evidence for that?”
Professor Banks spoke about the 34 countries that had banned vaping before saying the problem is bigger than adults consenting to buy the product as companies are targeting companies to get addicted.
Mr Canavan admitted that although it was an important point, he wanted an answer to his question, which Professor Banks ultimately answered.
“So we’re not just talking about deaths, there are examples of deaths in those countries from things like exploding batteries,” she said.
Although Professor Banks could not point to anyone dying as a result of inhaling e-cigarettes, she listed other health consequences.
‘There are also examples of serious lung injuries. “I was recently at an international forum where a doctor was talking about having a teenager on a ventilator, with tubes in the chest, because of lung trauma related to vaping,” she said.
‘They talked about how it is very difficult to remove the tubes because the lung damage is so severe, and also noted that they had never had a teenager in their care in that situation because of smoking.
‘So there are examples of serious consequences.
The most important thing is that we don’t have to talk about serious consequences; all you can talk about is the fact that large numbers of people are becoming addicted.
It doesn’t have to be serious or fatal.’
The professor also said that it is too early to know the long-term effects of rape and that we do not know what impact they have on the heart and cancer cells (pictured stock image of a vape being smoked)
Professor Banks told the study that 30 percent of Australian e-cigarette users have never smoked, while just under a third say they would find it difficult to quit.
However, Senator Canavan still asked for evidence of serious impacts and whether they were the result of illegal or regulated vaping, saying he had very “limited time” for her response.
He then returned to the point about companies targeting children and directed his questions to Dr Becky Freeman, depriving Ms Banks of the opportunity to respond.
Western Australian Greens Senator Jordon Steele-John asked Professor Banks if she agreed that vaping is ’95 per cent safer than smoking tobacco’.
“There’s really no evidence to support the ’95 percent less harmful’ factoid, as I guess you could call it,” she responded.
‘If you say it is 95 percent less harmful, what outcome are you talking about? When talking about childhood addiction, you could actually say that e-cigarettes may pose a greater risk than smoking.
Professor Banks believes vapes (pictured) are worse than cigarettes when it comes to childhood addiction, mainly because of the flavors available
‘We see that 23 percent of students who start using vaping start at the age of 12 and another 23 percent start at the age of 13. These are not aggressive for your throat, they have flavors, they are very easy to use.
‘You could also say that they are at greater risk when it comes to poisoning children. Having one general statement is problematic.”
She also admitted that the impact of vaping is largely unknown because it is a recent product.
“We don’t know much about the effects – we don’t know what it does to cancer and we don’t know what it does to cardiovascular disease – it is very difficult to actually arrive at an appreciation of the comparison,” says Professor Says Banken .
According to the study, about 24,000 Australians lose their lives to cigarettes every year Cancer Councila fact that has divided health advocates and politicians in their support for vaping, with some believing them to be safer.