So, what’s the new thing with kids these days?
Its things called vapes.
Have you ever heard of this?
I mean, back in school, right?
Like there were no vapes.
But, yeah, it’s a big thing now, it seems.
Yeah, yeah.
And, you know what Nathan, I feel like you’re the kind of guy who knows what a vape is.
You’re a smart guy. He’s a lawyer.
Well, what is a vape?
Vapes are short for vaporizers.
So back in the day, it’s not like, what a Frisbee is.
You know, it’s not a brand name.
It’s actually an abbreviation for vaporizer.
So when you heat up the vape, it vaporizes the liquid chemical.
And the person using the vape inhales it.
Sometimes, you know, it’s shaped like a cigarette, cigar pipe of even a highlighter.
So it’s probably why that is, common in schools nowadays.
You know what else is similar?
A taser, doesn’t it stand for something?
It’s the same, same concept.
What does it stand for? I don’t know.
It’s Thomas A. Smith electric rifle.
Similar thing where they name the brand, but it’s actually a stun gun.
No, it’s news to me that vape, a vape is short for vaporizer, I actually didn’t know that.
Yeah this is brand new information. I’ve never heard of this.
Thank you.
It was. It was quite insightful.
Yeah, its just great.
Some of the chemicals found in vapes, are actually quite harmful.
You know, there’s things like…What is that?
Formaldehyde?
I can’t even pronounce it.
It’s, it’s found in, hospitals and also, funeral homes that are used to embalm bodies. Preserves it from going off.
Why is that even in there? Yeah.
Yeah. Who’s cooking up these recipes?
There’s also acetone, which is in your nail polish remover.
So it’s.
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
If you can strip nail polish and imagine what it does…
Acetaldehyde is also in it.
You’d find that in perfumes and plastics, and then acrolein, that’s a weed killer.
And then you get heavy metals like nickel, tin, lead, and everyone knows what that does…
Interestingly, when vapes were first introduced they were more of a way to quit smoking, which is interesting because it feels like everyone around us that we know is staring to vape.
I don’t know if you guys feel the same way.
Yeah, I agree, like even it, I feel like it’s more common than smoking now, as in more people are vaping than smoking.
But personally.
Yeah. Yes. You have stats.
Oh, I do Nathan.
Let’s pull it up.
So if we look at the National Drug Strategy household survey, this is on the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
They found an increase in the rate of people using an e-cig daily where you’ve got, about 0.5% of people, which is an estimate of a 100,000 to 3.5%, which is an estimate of about 700,000 people in 2022 to 2023.
And the use of e-cigs is higher among young people, with 9.3% of people ages 18 to 24 and 6.5% of people aged 25 to 29 using them daily in 2022 to 2023.
That’s a big jump.
Is that the national number? 700,000 people in Australia?
Well it’s an estimate. Yeah.
That is a lot. Yeah.
That’s like 1 in 10 of like young people, right?
It’s 9.3%.
Yeah. It’s close to 1 in 10. Yeah.
The research into long term health effects is still being investigated with vapes.
And obviously that hasn’t been around long enough for us to really know what the long term effects are. Yeah, but.
But there are things that are popping up in the short term.
Yeah.
That are observable almost. Yes.
Care to list some Nathan?
Lung inflammation, persistent coughing, breathing problems, lung damage, nausea nicotine poisoning and nicotine dependence.
I think, breathing problems is a really pronounced one that I’ve noticed with people personally that vape.
Yes of course.
And its not great if, you know, look, if you’re going to be on holiday, you know, I think we talk about Japan a little bit on this podcast.
And if you are going to be having some, having some breathing problems, how are you going to climb the steps of Fushimi Inari?
Yeah, we love Japan. If you can’t climb to the top and see that it’s, it’s not going to be a great experience if you can’t experience all of Japan.
It’s true. There’s a lot of walking over there.
Yeah. I mean, you’re easily doing what, 20,000 steps a day?
I remember we did, we did. I think we did more.
Did you guys actually get to the top of Fushimi Inari? No.
I don’t remember, but I don’t think so.
I think you guys went ahead, but we stopped because mainly because I was unfit.
Yeah, we went exploring.
But I don’t think we reached the top.
Yeah, okay. Well, that’s just one thing. You could reach the top. You could do it now.
Now that you’ve gone 15km. And I posted it on Strava.
So yes, I have, I can actually I can do it now.
So is that why you don’t vape? You’re just conscious about the cost?
No. I mean, look, its one of the reasons, but the main thing is there’s a lot of negative, health impacts.
So, if you go outside, no one’s charging you for air.
All right? Oxygen’s free, and that’s a bargain.
If you spent $20 a week on vaping, that’s over $1,000 a year.
If you quit.
A thousand?
Yeah. Thousand dollars. That’s a lot of money.
You know, that could get you 125 cups of matcha.
125 cups of matcha.
So, one every three days. That’s pretty-.
That’s a lot.
Yeah, that’s a that’s a great drink. Very trendy.
Maybe if you, pull the purse strings, we could switch it for oat milk or something.
It’s a lot healthier than vaping that’s for sure. Or strawberry matcha. Strawberry, blueberry all that you know
Oh, is that the, is that the one of the popular ones?
Yeah, I think so. Yeah.
Okay. Well, maybe you could add a bit more and get strawberry matcha instead.
Yeah.
It’s also so easy to get addicted to, like, you just pick it up and then nicotine is so addictive, and it effects your mental health as well.
Obviously when you inhale nicotine. Right? As a young person, it would like, you know, it could actually harm your brain. And your brain is always still developing late into your late 20s, which is our age.
So, our brain is still developing. So, it’s quite a worry for, like, for it to be, you know, like, possibly harming, harming your brain.
Yeah. Personally, I think your brain hasn’t developed at all Matt.
Yeah, like, sometimes, I don’t know, I don’t think it has developed as well. So I don’t want anything else stopping my development on my brain.
My brain. Its going quite slow already. Yeah. We need all the, all the wrinkles we can get.
Okay? We need to retain all this all this information and knowledge that we have.
You got issues with, if you try to quit too, you go through the withdrawal symptoms. It’s pretty hard to deal with those.
You can observe mood changes, difficulty concentrating. You might feel anxious and nervous.
And like those withdrawal symptoms are probably the hardest things to manage when you’re trying to quit as well.
So, you know, if anyone’s listening right now, those symptoms aren’t like they’re totally normal. And with the right support, you can manage them. Yep.
And there’s plenty of resources out there. If you have a look at the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, there’s a lot of info and resources out there. If you’re looking to try and quit.
Theres a number of things. One of which could be the quit line. You can give that a ring. You could also use the My QuitBuddy app if you don’t want to chat to anyone. That’s fine.
You know, I don’t like chatting to people to order pizza. I like to order it online. So, no judgement there. Yeah.
You got he My QuitBuddy app, which I think is probably the easiest one in my opinion.
I’ve had a look at it. I have a look at it on the App Store.
I mean yeah, we had a look at it and then you know we saw a feature where you can add a motivational goal, to remind yourself why you’re on the journey.
I mean quitting is hard. So, you know it could, it could take a few times.
You know, you might need to. Yeah. Try as few times to quit. But having a motivational goal and or a reminder, you know, to know why you’re quitting, is pretty useful.
Yeah. Like running a half marathon. Yeah, that could be one.
Well, I only quit because of injury, but.
Quit with the half-
Yeah, quit training. Yeah.
And, there are little things on there like you got, they’ve gamified it a lot, so they’ve got achievements, and they’ve also got games. If you feel like maybe you’re craving or something. So, take your mind off of it. Yeah, that’s pretty cool.
So check it out.
And yeah, quitting can be hard, so don’t do it alone.
There’s also motivational messages from other community members that can also be useful to, keep you motivated.
I think it’s important to remember it takes multiple times sometimes to reach your goals. So same thing with this.
It takes multiple attempts to quit sometimes, but don’t let it get you down. Just pick yourself back up, keep going.
Yeah, same. Same with, training. It took me a while to get to the gym. A couple goes.
Took a couple goes to finish the 15km too. Yeah, yeah.
So, check out the My QuitBuddy app. If you’re trying to quit.
This segment of the episode is brought to you in partnership with the Australian Government.
To find out more about how to quit vaping, visit www.health.gov.au/vaping