Malaysia:''Both cigs and vapes should be banned''

Source from:  The Star 11/06/2015

Cigarettes and vapes should be banned, says Deputy Health Director-General Datuk Dr Lokman Hakim Sulaiman.

He said both are harmful to the body, "if you ask my professional opinion as a medical doctor".

"But the question is, do we have the political will to do this?" he said.

Speaking at a press conference on vaping and e-cigarettes yesterday, he stressed that this was merely his opinion.

"The human body should only inhale oxygen, inhaling anything else will only cause harm to it," he said.

He said e-cigarettes contain liquid nicotine while devices that use flavoured liquids are vapes.

"The sale of nicotine is controlled under the Poisons Act and can only be prescribed by a licensed pharmacist," he said.

He said there was no law on vapes because this product was very new.

"But don't vape. We don't know the long-term effects and before we find out too late, it's better to stop now," he said.

"We have enough evils in the world, why add another?"

Dr Lokman said this was the Healthy Ministry's aim, to get the public to stop smoking and vaping, or not start at all.

He confirmed that the ministry would begin confiscating e-cigarettes or vapes with nicotine "as soon as possible".

Datuk Dr Abdul Razak Muttalif, chairman of the ministry's technical committee to study the health effects of e-cigarettes and shisha, has looked into vaping.

He said there were "enough studies worldwide to show it is harmful" and the committee has advised the ministry to ban vapes.

"We only found out in the 1960s that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer but people have been smoking for the past 100 years.

"We do not want to start a new trend of addiction, so our advice is to ban vaping," said Dr Abdul Razak, who is also director of the National Institute of Respiratory Medicine.

On Oct 28, the ministry said it wanted vaping to be regulated or banned before it became a public health issue.

But the Cabinet the following day announced that it has decided against imposing a ban.

National Cancer Society of Malaysia president Dr Saunthari Somasundaram fears e-cigarettes could become a "gateway" to tobacco smoking among the younger generation.

"E-cigarettes are often promoted as a safe alternative to regular cigarettes.

"But the safety of e-cigarettes and their accessories should be assessed as a standalone product instead of as a comparison," she said in a statement.

There is a lack of holistic studies on the health effects and safety of e-cigarettes, she added.

Dr Somasundaram said the Government should follow the lead of countries such as Singapore, Thailand and Cambodia that have banned e-cigarettes.

There are alternative smoking cessation methods, including counselling and Nicotine Replacement Therapy, which are more reliable and safe, she said. Enditem