Australia to ban single-use vapes in crackdown on recreational vaping

May 2 (UPI) -- Australia announced Tuesday that it would ban recreational vaping as it passes new laws to crack down on the tobacco industry.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's government announced it will allocate funding from the national budet toward efforts to curb vaping including banning all single-use, disposable vapes and also limiting the levels of nicotine in other vapes. It will also increase taxes on tobacco by 5% per year for the next three years.

"Vaping is creating a whole new generation of nicotine dependency in our community. It poses a major threat to Australia's success in tobacco control and the Albanese Government is not going to stand by and let this happen," Health Minister Mark Butler said in a statement on Tuesday.

Other new laws would stop the import of non-prescription vapes and limit the number of flavors and colors that vapes can be sold in. Tuesday's new laws also include funding for a public health information campaign to discourage Australians from taking up vaping and smoking and encourage more people to quit.

"Young people who vape are three times as likely to take up smoking. So is it any wonder that under 25s are the only cohort in the community currently recording an increase in smoking rates?" Butler said.

The government will also invest in a new national lung cancer screening program that is predicted to prevent 4,080 deaths from lung cancer.

"These reform measures will help protect the health of Australians, while reducing the pressure on our health system and critically it will help to achieve a reduction in smoking rates to 5% or less by 2030," Butler said.