A Victorian father wants tougher restrictions on the sale of e-cigarettes after his five-year-old son was taken to hospital after vaping with his brother and a seven-year-old classmate at school play.

The five-year-old boy has struggled to breathe since ingesting the chemical-laced fruit-flavoured nicotine vape, and had to be taken to hospital by ambulance last Friday after having a coughing fit so intense he vomited four times.

Nicotine vaping pens and fluid.Credit:Cole Bennetts

Education Minister James Merlino said he was aware of the case, warning there would be “severe repercussions” at schools if children were caught vaping on campus.

Mr Merlino said he sought advice from the Department of Education about the incident.

“I can tell you that our schools take a firm view on this. It is absolutely the wrong thing to do. It is harmful to children, and it is prohibited,” he said.

“There are severe repercussions at every single school in Victoria if this occurs, and parents need to support us in this. I want to send a very, very strong message that [vaping] is absolutely not tolerated in our schools.”

Father of two Steve told ABC Melbourne the e-cigarette his sons used allegedly belonged to the mother of a classmate. The boy took it to school and offered it to Steve’s children in the playground three weeks ago, saying it tasted “like grapes”.

“On pickup with their mum, my seven-year-old pulled the vape out, and he said ‘Mummy, look what I’ve got’ and he sucked on it,” said Steve, who asked his surname be withheld for privacy reasons.

“I’d had discussions with my boys about peer pressure now that they’re at school, but vaping never came into the equation because we don’t see it in mainstream media.

“So when they were given the vape at school, they did not attribute that to a cigarette at all.”

(Vaping) is harmful to children, and it is prohibited.

Already prone to chest infections, the five-year-old boy’s health soon deteriorated, and he reportedly had coughing fits and made gurgling noises in his sleep.

The family suspected he may have coronavirus, but he returned negative results for COVID-19 both through PCR and rapid antigen testing and was not showing any other cold symptoms.

“He was unwell within himself and would cry often at night saying he didn’t feel well, but he just couldn’t articulate what his feelings were,” his father said.

Doctors have not attributed the five-year-old’s coughing and ongoing health issues to vaping directly, but Steve said there was a lack of available medical research into the practice.

The potential harms of vaping are still being studied but cases of lung disease and deaths have been linked to the practice overseas.

Steve said the packaging of the vape had no instructions or warnings, and only listed five ingredients. However, laboratory testing of its content commissioned by the father-of-two found up to 21 chemicals, including nicotine and alcohol, in the device.

He now wants Australian authorities to tighten the legislation around e-cigarettes and give greater powers for law enforcement to prosecute those illegally selling the devices.

Barwon Health would not comment on individual cases, but emergency department director Belinda Hibble said marketing campaigns and the release of flavoured e-cigarettes had made vaping attractive to young people, including children.

Dr Hibble urged parents who vape to store their devices and liquids with their prescription medication out of the reach of children. She said the liquids used to fill e-cigarettes could be dangerous if swallowed, inhaled, or spilled on the skin.

“Vaping, like smoking, should never be done inside a home with children, and we recommend having open conversations with children about the health risks of vaping,” Dr Hibble said.

The aerosols also contain and emit many harmful toxins and chemicals, including nicotine which is highly addictive.

Experts warn nicotine exposure during the teenage years can harm brain development. Other dangerous chemicals can include formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and acrolein, and vaping is also associated with the future uptake of cigarette smoking.

The Geelong case comes amid mounting concerns that Australian school aged children are being exposed to an increasing number of vaping and e‐cigarette videos on social media platforms TikTok and Instagram.

The Age recently reported there were live profiles on both platforms offering vaping products with drop-off available in “Camberwell, Glenferrie” and Melbourne’s inner-northern suburbs amid reports an increasing number of children were vaping in school bathrooms.

Meanwhile, a study last year by a group of University of Queensland researchers analysed more than 800 videos, finding 63 per cent of them portrayed vaping and e‐cigarettes positively.

The vaping videos had been viewed 1.1 billion times and the hashtag #vape had more than five billion views on TikTok, the researchers found.

Of particular concern for researchers was the lack of regulation on vaping videos on TikTok, meaning children of any age could watch the footage if they had access to the social media platform.

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, e-cigarette use by Australians aged 14 or older more than doubled from 2016 to 2019, and is most common among people aged 18 to 24, hovering at 18.7 percent – up from 6.8 percent in 2016.

In 2020, principals across Sydney wrote to parents warning them of a significant increase in vaping among teenagers, with teachers catching students as young as year 7 using vapes at school or even becoming dealers.

The principals were reporting that teenagers travelled several kilometres to find retailers willing to sell to them under the counter and then became “dealers” in the high school “black market”.

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