Police have taken one man into custody after reports of a physical altercation between several men in Christchurch.Police were called to the Linwood Burger King around 5.20pm on Tuesday after receiving reports of disorder. DO…

A health charity is calling for a ban on the over-the-counter sale of vapes, after finding harmful chemicals including disinfectant, petroleum and fish euthanasia drugs inside the electronic smoking devices.

Lung Foundation Australia wants action on the sale of vapes, also known as e-cigarettes, which are largely unregulated but, with colourful packaging and fruity flavours, mostly aimed at young people.

Research by Curtin University and partly funded by the foundation found all of more than 50 vapes bought over the counter contained chemicals with "unknown effects on respiratory health".

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Household disinfectant, petroleum, cosmetics, paint and even eugenol, which is used to euthanise fish, were found inside the vaping liquid – as well as nicotine, which they're not supposed to contain.

"With the unregulated, untested and unknown nature of the vape industry, we knew the research into the chemicals and toxicity of e-liquids would uncover strong findings," Lung Foundation Australia chief executive Mark Brooke said.

"We never expected such alarming results."

More than half of the vapes contained chemicals likely to be toxic if repeatedly inhaled, the study said, and some of the chemicals could even cause lung cancer.

And while flavoured vapes are not supposed to contain nicotine – they're prescription-only in Australia – 20 per cent of those studied did.

"The damage caused by the continual use of these products could be costing a generation their freedom to healthy lungs and have our hospital respiratory units facing patients with respiratory issues and even lung disease or cancer," Mr Brooke said.

Young people under pressure

Melbourne woman Cypher Hayden, 19, was diagnosed with a form of pneumonia after becoming a regular user of flavoured vapes she legally bought from a shop.

Her mother Rebekah said her daughter was told by doctors the vapes were the cause of the illness.

"She was in a lot of pain, breathless and coughing," Ms Hayden said.

"I'm really concerned for my daughter but also on a wider level for young people."

While the teen has recovered from her illness, she now sometimes has to use a puffer.

Optometry student Jahin Tanvir, 21, said there is a lot of pressure for young people to get involved in using vapes.

A study by the Alcohol and Drug Foundation found more than a quarter of 18- to 24-year-olds and 14 per cent of 12- to 17-year-olds had tried the devices, figures which have climbed in the past three years.

Mr Tanvir, who is involved with the charity campaign, which also includes the launch of an education project, Unveil What You Inhale, said many friends and classmates at the University of Canberra use them.

He said some often wrongly believe they're "healthier" than cigarettes.

He said he knows as part of his health studies, as well as the recent findings, that's not at all true.

"There is a lot of social pressure especially when people frame vaping as a safer option," he said.

"I've had to say no in a lot of instances."

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While there are new rules are coming in on October 1 to further regulate nicotine e-cigarettes, devices which do not or should not contain nicotine are unregulated in Australia.

Each state and territory except Western Australia allows the sale of nicotine-free vapes to over 18s.

However, many of the devices are sold on social media sites.

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When contacted by nine.com.au, a Therapeutic Goods Administration spokesman said it would undertake a program of laboratory testing on selected vaping products which may or may not have nicotine declared as an ingredient.

"Products which are determined to contain nicotine will be subject to additional scrutiny through our compliance monitoring program which will commence from 1 October 2021," he said.

"Vaping products which contain nicotine must meet the legal requirements for prescription medicines in Australia, along with the requirements of the therapeutic goods standard for nicotine vaping products, as outlined to you earlier.

"Compliance with these requirements is overseen by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).

"Any vaping products that do not contain nicotine are not part of the TGA's remit, including flavoured vaping liquids without nicotine."

Contact journalist Sarah Swain: ss****@******om.au

Exclusive: A young Afghan woman abducted by the Taliban while trying to flee the country has spoken of her ordeal, as she outlined her plans on being a voice for her people.

Marwa Koofi fled Afghanistan last month, on the same day a deadly bomb blast claimed dozens of lives at Kabul's airport.

Ms Koofi told 9News she had gone to the airport days earlier, with her family, when Taliban members recognised her mother as an MP.

READ MORE: Taliban spokesman says Australians 'died in vain'

"Sadly, Taliban standing there recognised my mum's face, our cars were standing there," Ms Koofi said.

"We heard the other guy say, 'They're MPs! They're MPs!'

"Suddenly I saw maybe 20 Taliban, they just surrounded the cars. 

"We didn't know what would happen next, we waited for like 30 minutes, 40 minutes, one of them came, they took out the driver, he sat in the car and started driving."

Ms Koofi said one man was armed.

"He had the gun there. He was saying 'Shh, be quiet! We are going to take you somewhere safe,'" she recalled.

"It was not safe, when Taliban takes you (to a) place, is it safe? No, you cannot trust."

Ms Koofi said there were young children in the car and they pleaded with the Taliban to just take them home.

"They took us on a road, they dropped us, they took our brother-in-law's phone.

"They checked the guys, took their phones.

"They took boys' phones but not girls'.

"They left us in the road. They took the cars and they went.

"We were so happy at least they didn't take us somewhere else, we thought that was the end, that they were going to kill us."

"We are alive!

"I was just hugging my mum, saying, 'What if we died?'"

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Ms Koofi said they ventured back to Hamid Karzai International Airport, where they waited for two days.

They were at the other end of the airport when a suicide bomber struck, killing more than 100 people.

"It was a very hard moment, a very sad moment," Ms Koofi said.

The young woman comes from a deeply political family.

Her mother was an MP, so too her aunt.

Ms Koofi said the women around her had brought her up to be strong and independent.

She worried that might not be possible for young women in Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban.

"People who are going to be staying there, they going to be having hard times," Ms Koofi said.

"In Afghanistan right now, under (the) Taliban they will never have a future," she said.

"I see nothing under the Taliban rule.

"(The) life we had (for the) last 20 years, especially the last six years, there was a big improvement for women.

"For them, it's going to be hard, for us (from a) new generation, it's going to be hard."

Speaking of the Taliban, Ms Koofi said: "Do they respect women or not? The answer is no.

"The way they took us and drop us in the road knowing there were women, and kids with them. They left us in the road, there is no respect for women, there is no future for women."

Ms Koofi got out of Afghanistan and was speaking to 9News from quarantine in London.

"Now I feel safe, now I feel calm," she said.

"I cannot say it was good, what we left behind.

"If you ask any Afghan who left the country, they will give you the exact same response.

"It was a bad experience and a bad feeling."

The young woman, who had aspirations to be a politician in her home country, said she worries for the future of her country, particularly for young women.

"Of course it's sad," she said.

"Sometimes I'm thinking, I was looking at my aunt, my sister, they are role models, I was thinking I would be like them one day, helping people.

"But as long as I'm here, I want to help my people out there.

"I will not sit quiet, I will help them and raise their voice as long as I'm here, and as long the world hears their voice."

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State and territory leaders have fired shots at the Federal Government over its rollout of the Pfizer vaccine, criticising it for appearing to favour NSW.

Premier Daniel Andrews called out "totally unfair" allocations of vaccinations to its northern neighbour, slamming what he called "secret allocations" of vaccines.

He said Victoria has missed out on hundreds of thousands of doses it was meant to have been handed.

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It comes as Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the federal government shouldn't criticise her state for not having a higher vaccination rate when it is sending vaccines initially allocated for Queenslanders to NSW.

"Please don't pick a fight when another state is getting more vaccines and we understand that the other state is going through a really tough time…but don't go then and blame Queensland and Western Australia for getting out the vaccine that we have available," Ms Palasaczuk said.

In Queensland, 53.33 per cent of the population have received their first dose, while 34.75 per cent have been fully vaccinated.

READ MORE: Australian Capital Territory records 19 new local coronavirus cases

Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles said more Queenslanders could be getting vaccinated if the state had a higher vaccine supply.

He said he was sympathetic with the situation in NSW, and understood the need for vaccines to be sent to the state.

However, he said it was important the commonwealth was "honest and upfront about how many vaccines are taken from Queenslanders to give to NSW."

"It's also incredible to see the nerve of Greg Hunt to be out there criticising Queenslanders, calling us lagged, when he knows full well how many vaccines he's taking from Queensland to give to NSW."

In Western Australia, Premier Mark McGowan agreed with his Labor counterparts, expressing frustration the Morrison government has allowed for certain states to be "punished for doing the right thing for NSW."

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"We supported the extra half a million Polish doses going to NSW," he said.

"We supported each and every time the federal government brought forward supply.

"It was the best part of a million extra doses above their per capita share went to NSW.

"We've done our bit. We'd like our share of Pfizer now in Western Australia."

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Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Mr Andrews was wrong to say Victoria had been caught unawares by the NSW allocation.

He said the government had rejected calls earlier this year for NSW to get more doses.

"I'll tell you who said no to that, it was me. It wasn't the states and territories," Mr Morrison told Sky News.

"I wasn't going to have doses move from other states to NSW – I went out and got more doses from Poland."

He said that he personally denied a request from NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian to send extra doses to the state.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt denied any accusations of "unfair" vaccine allocations, saying the government was treating all jurisdictions equally.

"As we've had outbreaks, we've prioritised those areas to save lives," he said.

He said extra doses had been brought forward to help Victoria and Queensland as well as NSW, in the course of the pandemic.

"When there was an outbreak in Victoria, they requested and received additional doses," Mr Hunt said.

"That's exactly what's happened with NSW.

"Everybody receives a per capita allocation, but we can provide additional support, or bring forward supply, to save lives."

Mr Hunt claimed Queensland's ordering rate had been the lowest in the nation, particularly relating to their take-up of their AstraZeneca allocation.

"I get the sense that some people are looking for a fight. We're not," he said.

"We want to work constructively, with everybody."

The Queensland owners of two staffy terriers have warned suburbanites to keep an eye out for snakes after their beloved rescue dog was left in a critical condition at the vet.

Ipswich paramedic Madeline told 9News.com.au her two dogs, five-year-old Milly and five-month-old Tonka, had an encounter with a brown snake in her backyard yesterday afternoon.

"Luckily I was home and had woken up after my night shift," she said.

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She went outside to see Milly already showing signs of the venom within five minutes of being bitten.

She had suffered multiple bites on the neck and legs.

"She seemed to have protected her little brother Tonka, who didn't get any venom," Madeline said.

Tonka, who is inseparable from Milly, was allowed to go home today.

But his "big sister" is still in trouble, and has remained at the vet.

Madeline said Milly had been given the antivenom, and put on an IV. She will need to stay at the vet for a few more days while being monitored for organ failure.

"As a paramedic I've seen a fair share of brown snake bites. It's so frightening when it's in your own home and to hurt my fur babies is a different story," she said.

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"It just shows you don't need to live in the bush to encounter them."

She said Milly, who weighs 17kg, had showed signs of being affected by the venom very quickly.

"If this was a child outside unattended for a few minutes you could only imagine," she said.

Madeline urged people to be extra-vigilant, keep their lawns short and neat, and make sure they were prepared for a snakebite.

"Like any other Australian, you just have to be careful," she said.

"It's important to learn the basics of snakebite first aid, and to know the number of your local snake catcher," she said.

The brown snake, which had been injured by the dogs in the encounter, was eventually removed.

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