Charyl Robinson: Vape Free Kids Co-Founder on misleading vape labelling

Misleading vape labelling is a worry for youth vaping. 

A study in the medical journal shows more than half of vape juices have incorrectly labelled how much nicotine they contain.

Most of the mislabelled products had significantly less nicotine than advertised—some by over 50%.

Vape Free Kids Co-Founder Charyl Robinson told Ryan Bridge there's no funded support for youth quitting vaping and families are paying the price. 

She says it's hard enough on families trying to support their children, let alone with no confidence in how much nicotine is actually in the product they're using.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
When you study in the medical journals found more than

(00:02):
half of vape juices have been labeled with the wrong
concentration of nicotine, but not in the way that you
would think. It's with less nicotine than advertised, not more.
They reckon this is a bad thing because it could
mean that vapors vape more often or even revert to smoking.
Cheryl Robinson is co founder of Vape Free Kids with
Me This Morning.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hey, Cheryl, good morning, Ryan.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Good to have you on the show. I thought this
was surprising because you would think that they would load
it with more nicotine so that you are more addicted.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Well, I think they've probably got a lot of money
to find out.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
What works better to addict people.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
It's no surprise or no secret that we don't trust
a lot of what this industry get up to. But
it's very worrying to think that.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
There are irregularities on the labeling of their products and
when what is actually contained in them, whether that's nicotine
level or other chemicals that aren't stated, it's worrying.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Do you think they're doing it on purpose? Do you
think that they're purposely under cooking what the nicotine level
is so that people will do it more often, therefore
buy more product and also you know, get more addicted.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Well, I'm no expert on how the intricacies of how
nicotine levels impact a person's addiction level, but what I
have learned over the last few years that this industry
don't do anything by accident. Everything they do is very intentional.
And you know, we've we're neutral when it comes to

(01:38):
adults of vaping, and it's it's hard. If this has
been touted as a quit smoking tool, it makes it
a bit difficult for those who are using it as
such to be able to monitor their intake, the nicotine
intake and use it effectively as a quick smoking tool.
If they can't be confident there what is on the

(02:00):
package is what they're actually getting. It's quite a precise,
a precise thing to try and do to monitor your
intake to give up an addiction. And even more worryingly
for us, as children are our main concern here is
there is no funded support for quitting vaping for use,

(02:24):
and so there's families out there going it alone. And
that's hard enough without not being able to have confidence
on how much nicotina is in the product that you're
using to try and wean your child off.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Yeah, because normally you kind of need to know what
your dose is before you can start to taper your
way off it. And if you don't know what your
doses and that becomes very difficult. Cheryl, I appreciate your
time this morning. Thanks for coming on the show. Cheryl Robinson,
co founder of Vape Free Kids. For more from Early
Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to news talks. It'd
be from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.