What is Tobacco?
Tobacco use (‘smoking’) includes cigarettes, roll-your-own tobacco products, chewing tobacco, ‘snus’ oral pouches, and any other way of accessing tobacco. Smoking is still the biggest avoidable cause of disease and death in Australia. In Victoria, smoking claims about 4,400 lives each year. The most recent Geelong data indicates that 10% of residents are current smokers (of tobacco and/or vapes). This is higher than the state-wide average, with some areas in our region as high as one in three. Tobacco contains nicotine, which is highly addictive making it difficult to stop smoking (chewing, using a pouch, etc.) once started.
Department of Health and Human Services Annual Report 2018-19
What is Vaping?
Vaping refers to the use of small, battery-operated devices (‘e-cigarettes’ or ‘vapes’) that heat a liquid to produce a vapour, which is then inhaled. All vape liquids contain a mixture of harmful chemicals including arsenic, lead, volatile organic compounds found in paint and cleaning products and ultra-fine particles harmful to the lungs. Whilst e-cigarettes were initially considered a less harmful alternative to cigarette smoking, current evidence shows that the use of e-cigarettes (vaping) increases the risk of a range of adverse health outcomes, including poisoning, toxicity from inhalation (such as seizures), trauma, burns and lung injury. E-cigarette use is also associated with future smoking, particularly for young people
What are we doing?
The Healthy Communities Unit works to prevent smoking and vaping and encourage people who are dependent on nicotine to get help.
We are working with health services, community agencies and local governments through the Barwon Southwest region to generate resources that assist young people to develop skills that help them resist vaping. We are also working to help families and friends support those who vape to be able to stop. Regional support services. Start a conversation about vaping
We have worked with mental health and youth agencies throughout Geelong to develop a list of resources that young people can access to assist them to cope with the feelings and reasons why they might be vaping. Support Services
Our team have developed a video that can be placed on display screens to cycle through messages that inform users of the harms of vaping – to their health, their friend’s health, their mental health and the environment. The video provides them with links to seek help to quit.
The Healthy Communities Unit is working with schools, councils and health organisations across our region to create a public campaign to help smokers and people who vape quit successfully. We are achieving this by applying a mental health lens to understand smoking and vaping behaviours and producing messages that encourage action at whatever stage of the quitting process people are ready for, in a non-judgemental, supportive environment.
The campaign is called ‘Give Smoking and Vaping Away campaign’ culminating in World No Tobacco Day on May 31
We are starting new work with our LGBTIQA+ communities with data showing 21.7% of LGBTIQA+ Victorians smoked, versus 14.4% of heterosexual Victorians, and 12.2% of LGBTIQA+ Victorians currently vaped, compared to 5.8% of heterosexual Victorians Quit 2022. Additionally, we see the proportion of people who had successfully quit was significantly lower among gay, lesbian, bisexual individuals, and those who use different terms to describe their sexual orientation, compared to heterosexual individuals.
Page last updated: January 20, 2026