At a recent conference on the harmful effects of new cigarettes and proposed measures to manage these products to protect public health organized by the Ministry of Health, Dr. Nguyen Tuan Lam from the World Health Organization (WHO) in Vietnam said that new tobacco products and e-cigarettes with nicotine are highly addictive and are harmful to health in the long term.

Currently, new tobacco products are not allowed to be imported, advertised and sold in Vietnam. However, pirated products are widely sold nationwide whereas the governmental control is very weak.

Dr. Lam fretted that if the current lax management of pirated products continues, the use of new cigarettes among young people will increase. Therefore, Dr. Lam proposed that the National Assembly should issue a resolution to ban the import, production, distribution and advertisement of new e-cigarette and tobacco products in Vietnam.

According to the Ministry of Health’s statistics, the rate of e-cigarette smoking in 2020 in the country has increased from 0.2 percent to 3.6 percent, 18 times compared to 2015. Most smokers are between the ages of 15 to 24.

In addition to nicotine, the ingredients of e-cigarettes contain many toxic chemicals and more than 16,000 flavoring chemicals to attract users, especially young people. As a result, the Ministry of Health proposed that the state government need to have sanctions to ban the production, business, import, and advertising of new cigarettes and e-cigarettes.

Currently, 5 countries in the ASEAN region including Thailand, Singapore, Laos, Brunei and Cambodia completely ban e-cigarettes.

SGGP