Skip to content
Medical Health Aged Care, Youth

Monash Expert: Exponential rise in teen smoking

Monash University < 1 mins read

Cancer Council Victoria has released alarming new data indicating a threefold increase in tobacco smoking by 14-17-year-olds in just four years.

 

Associate Professor Johnson George, Centre for Medicine Use and Safety, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Contact details: +61 (0) 434 439 231 or [email protected] 

  • How efforts need to be directed toward helping teenagers who have become dependent on vapes and tobacco cigarettes. 
  • How restrictions on availability of vape products will help to improve the situation. 
  • Teenagers struggling to give up vaping will need to seek health professional support including Quitline, local pharmacists, nurse practitioners and general practitioners able to assist in combating vaping and tobacco smoking dependence/withdrawal symptoms.
  • When it comes to smoking, evidence-based treatment approaches and behavioural counselling have to be promoted as first line - there is no place for vaping as an evidence-based smoking cessation strategy in the management of nicotine dependence.

Media

More from this category

  • General News, Medical Health Aged Care
  • 11/03/2026
  • 07:45
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health / Public Health Association of Australia

Public health experts call for rethink as dementia becomes leading cause of death

11 March 2026 - Leading public health experts have come together today to warn that deteriorating brain health is a rapidly growing public health threat in Australia, highlighting the need for preventive action. The call to action coincides with a letter published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health referencing recent data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and Australian Bureau of Statistics showing dementia has overtaken heart disease as the leading cause of death in Australia. Letter co-author, Professor Tanya Buchanan, CEO, Dementia Australia, says the latest statistics are a wake-up call. “Dementia is…

  • Medical Health Aged Care, Science
  • 11/03/2026
  • 07:00
UNSW Sydney

IVF not linked to higher overall cancer rates, but study shows differences in some cancers

A UNSW-led study found overall invasive cancer rates in Australian women were no higher after fertility treatments including IVF. Some specific cancers were slightly more common, while others were less common. Women who used fertility treatments had no higher overall risk of invasive cancer than other women, a large Australian study led by researchers from UNSW Sydney has found. The study, published today in JAMA Network Open, analysed health records of more than 417,000 women and found some specific cancers were slightly more common, while others were less common. The researchers say the findings need to be interpreted with caution,…

  • Education Training, Youth
  • 11/03/2026
  • 06:00
Monash University

New guide helps schools address the growing influence of the manosphere in schools

Monash University researchers in partnership with Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety (ANROWS) have developed a new resource for educators to support secondary schools across Australia to respond to the rising influence of the “manosphere” and its harmful impacts on young people. The resource, The Manosphere: Impacts for Young People, Teachers and Schools, is written for educators responding directly to manosphere influence in their schools, and provides an overview of the harmful impacts of the manosphere on young people, teachers and school communities. The resource includes an introduction to key beliefs, links to violence, and recruitment pathways for boys…

Media Outreach made fast, easy, simple.

Feature your press release on Medianet's News Hub every time you distribute with Medianet. Pay per release or save with a subscription.