THE sale and advertising of e-cigarettes will be restricted in Queensland from next year.
STATE parliament voted on Wednesday to prohibit the sale and supply of electronic cigarettes to children and restrict their advertising and display at retail outlets from January 1.
The use of e-cigarettes will also be banned in enclosed and outdoor smoke-free places under the Health Legislation Amendment Act. The laws will also ban tobacco smoking and using e-cigarettes on school grounds, in prisons and on hospital grounds. Health Minister Lawrence Springborg says the changes are in line with community expectations. “Public health facilities are supposed to be a place of health and wellbeing; if we can’t send a very strong message there … we may as well give up,” he told parliament on Wednesday night. “Many of the people who are in our hospitals … they are there because of the consequences of smoking illness and disease. “We have to do something to say it is not acceptable.” E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that look like cigarettes or pipes. They heat a fluid, which usually contains liquid nicotine, into a fine vapour for inhalation into the lungs. E-cigarettes don’t contain tobacco or produce smoke.