Banks strikes gold with coveted public health accolade

Professor Emily Banks AM. Photo: The Australian National University - A prominent public health physician and epidemiologist from The Australian National University (ANU) who has shaped public discourse on e-cigarettes by highlighting the dangers they pose has been honoured by the peak professional body for doctors in Australia. The Australian Medical Association (AMA) has awarded Professor Emily Banks AM with the AMA Gold Medal - the highest honour bestowed by the medical body - for exceptional contributions to medicine and public health. Earlier this year, Professor Banks and her ANU colleagues published a major report that reviewed the emerging global evidence on e-cigarettes. It found use of nicotine e-cigarettes, or vapes, carry significant harms - particularly among young people - and could lead to a range of adverse health outcomes, including poisoning, seizures, trauma, burns and lung injury. The report also found young non-smokers who vape are three times as likely to take up smoking compared to those who don't vape. The findings were widely reported in the Australian media landscape and sparked a national discussion about the dangers of e-cigarettes and the growing uptake of vapes among young Australians.