Where there’s smoke, there’s fire crackling in the bellies of teenage activists.
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On Wednesday, December 4, Year 10 students from Greater Shepparton Secondary College sounded the alarm on adolescent vaping rates during their Creative Poster Exhibit, a Greater Shepparton Vaping Strategy initiative.
Established earlier this year, the strategy is a joint effort by Goulburn Valley Health, Primary Care Connect and Greater Shepparton City Council aimed at reducing vaping among youth in the community.
“As health promotion staff, we see time and time again the top-down approaches can miss the mark,” Primary Care Connect harm reduction worker Lily Summers said.
“As a community, we have a responsibility to protect our teens, and high schools play a critical role in this effort.”
The exhibit’s launch event at Community Health @ GV Health in Shepparton drew about 50 people to its pop-up of poster art.
There, the wall was saturated with images of fruit and candy-flavoured vapes, menacing smoke wafting within the pages, and text that read “rat poison”, “weed killer”, and “bleach”.
Year 10 student Chloe McCabe created a particularly distinctive poster: Vapes: A Cosmic Mistake You Don't Want to Make.
Galactic forces collide with frightful facts in her sci-fi-themed poster, featuring a UFO hovering over the smoky fumes as the focal point.
Reality creeps into the imagery with the hand holding the vape, snapping viewers out of the fantasy realm.
After witnessing her peers grow dependent on their vapes, reflexively reaching for the highly addictive substance, Chloe wanted her poster to be “blunt and shocking”.
Dripping bloodstained text listing the poisonous chemicals did just that.
“I didn’t want to sugarcoat the message because the truth is vaping induces toxic chemicals into the body,” Chloe said.
While the illicit products carry unknown levels of nicotine, the community’s concerns about the dangers of nicotine addiction on the adolescent brain undeniably escalate each year.
It is already illegal to sell vaping products to persons under 18 years of age in Australia.
Yet 28 per cent of teenagers aged 14 to 17 in Australia used a vape or e-cigarette last year, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
It estimates that vape usage among this age group has nearly tripled from 2019 to 2023.
In March 2024, the Federal Government introduced new laws to ramp up its battle against vaping among children and teenagers.
One key change is that vapes may now only be sold to individuals aged 18 and older in participating pharmacies.
Year 10 student Giselle Pringle acknowledged that despite legal regulations, she still saw how easily vapes could be bought at corner stores and tobacconists.
“We must hold these companies accountable,” she said.
“Bright colours and fun flavours might seem innocent, but their true purpose is to exploit children’s curiosity and vulnerability.
“As more kids get hooked, vaping becomes normalised in schools and peer groups, creating a ripple effect where non-users feel pressured to try it.
“These companies are not just selling vapes, they’re selling a future where addiction and health problems are the norm for our youth.”
The nicotine in vapes can be highly addictive and pose serious health risks such as lung damage, depression and elevated heart rate and blood pressure.
Year 10 student Noor Alali said one of the most crucial elements on her poster was the inclusion of resources such as a Quitline number and app.
“Many people are unaware of where to find help,” she said.
“The QR code on my poster directs users to the Primary Care Connect website, where students can book an appointment with the drug and alcohol worker who visits the Greater Shepparton Secondary College every fortnight.”
The success of this initiative begs the question: what’s next for the Greater Shepparton Vaping Strategy?
According to Primary Care Connect health promotion officer Jackie Monaghan, the goal is to maintain the partnership with GSSC and expand the initiative to other local high schools until education about vape products becomes embedded in the school curriculum.
GSSC staff member Emily Londrigan agreed, referring to this year as a “pilot program”.
“(This year, we’ve established) a strong foundation upon which we can build a richer initiative in 2025,” she said.
“This vaping project, a display of our hard work, demonstrates the power of student-led advocacy.”
Journalist