Why vaping is included in negative tobacco screens

The team behind Verve Super’s investments* recently signed a statement to support global action against vaping. Vapes are bad for people (particularly children and adolescents) and bad for the environment.

The investor statement was coordinated by Tobacco Free Portfolios. By signing it we openly lend our support to global action against vaping and the threat it poses to health and development.

Vapes, also known as e-cigarettes, are often marketed as a healthier alternative to smoking tobacco.

Like regular cigarettes, vapes contain highly addictive nicotine – but there are no regulations around how much nicotine each vape can deliver. Vape brands use aggressive marketing tactics – particularly on social media – using influencers and promoting flavours like pink watermelon, blue raspberry or lime cola, which appeal to children. These marketing tactics appear to have worked, with a surge in adolescents and young people aged under 24 embracing vaping in recent years.

Vaping and smoking can damage developing brains. And it’s not just about the nicotine. Vapers also inhale a cocktail of other chemicals that can include:

• Formaldehyde: used in glues and to preserve corpses before funerals

• Acetone: found in nail polish remover

• Propylene glycol: a solvent used in fog/smoke machines; creates the ‘throat hit’

• Acetaldehyde: Found in perfumes and plastics

• Acrolein: a common ingredient of weedkiller

• Heavy metals like nickel, tin, and lead.

Adolescent brains continue to develop until they’re around 25 years old. The long-term effects of bombarding them with these chemicals are still unfolding, but the Department of Health cautions that known health risks include permanent lung damage, DNA damage, poisoning, seizures, nausea, coughing, anxiety and vomiting.

It’s not just people’s bodies that are being polluted. E-cigarettes contain non-biodegradable plastic, mercury and heavy metals like nickel, tin and lead. Flammable lithium-ion batteries deliver the aerosol into the lungs, and the e-liquids are often packaged in single-use plastic cartridges or pods. All of this is difficult to recycle and can easily end up in waterways, soils and other natural environments, where they harm wildlife and disrupt natural ecological processes.

• Young vapers are up to three times more likely to become smokers than non-vapers.

• Almost three-quarters of Australian secondary students who vape prefer fruity-flavoured vapes.

• 60% say they get their vapes from a friend.

• 45% said that friend was under 18.

• Two-fifths had their first vape at aged 13 or 14.

• 178 people were hospitalised in Australia due to vapes (2020-2023). Two died.

• The youngest vaping-related hospitalisation in this cohort was 2 years old.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has called for urgent action to protect children’s and adolescents’ health and the environment.

The Australian government has introduced new legislation around vaping, too. It is now illegal for retailers to sell any type of vape; only pharmacies are licensed to sell them, and from 1 October 2024, anyone under 18 needs a prescription to access vapes to ensure they get medical supervision.

 We want global action to reduce the appeal of vapes to children and to enforce age restrictions, particularly around online sales. The investor statement by Tobacco Free Portfolios pushes for this change.

This needs to be supported by stronger legislation, education and support – such as increasing public awareness and providing support for anyone concerned about vaping.

We don’t believe vaping – or tobacco – makes the world a better place, so it makes no sense to finance it. That’s why e-cigarettes are screened out of Verve Super's investments through expanded tobacco screen definitions. This means your money is kept out of direct investment in the farming, production or manufacture of tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, as well as screening out significant business exposure (5% or more annual revenue) to the sale or distribution of tobacco products.

*Statement signed on behalf of Verve Super by Future Group Australia Holdings Pty Ltd (ABN 68 618 367 927 ‘Future Group’). Future Group is the parent company of Verve Superannuation Pty Ltd, the Promoter of Verve Super, , and Future Group Investment Management Pty Ltd, the Investment Manager of the unit trusts Verve Super invests in.

All information is general and does not take account of your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. Before deciding whether a particular product is appropriate for you, please read the relevant Product Disclosure Statement, Target Market Determination and Financial Services Guide available at vervesuper.com.au, and consider speaking with a financial adviser.