Health experts and activists have raised alarm over vape sellers allegedly targeting children to market their products.
This comes after the government exempted liquid nicotine from the Poisons Act beginning April 1, which had purportedly led to more youths picking up vaping.
According to Galen Centre's Azrul Mohd Khalib, a vape manufacturer was found giving away Hari Raya Aidilfitri money packets, on which they advertise a range of the company's disposable pods and flavours.
This was worrying as money packets are usually distributed to children during the festive season.
"What could happen between April 1, when nicotine for vape and e-cigarettes got exempted, and when the bill is supposed to be tabled in May or June?
"Hmm... let's see. Who would get these Raya packets? Children.
"So, this clearly shows who is the target of their marketing strategy, showing off their 10,000 puffs (disposable pods)," he said on Twitter.
When contacted later, Azrul (above), who is the centre’s health and social policy chief executive officer, elaborated that the marketing principles, in this case, were straightforward.
According to him, more vape producers have also been seen aiming at children in marketing their disposable pods, a tactic he said had also been employed by some tobacco companies in the past.
"You target advertising towards your potential consumer base. Children receive Raya packets adults give.
"Anyway, we see more vape products aimed at children as they are clearly designed that way - shape, colour, flavours and messaging.
"Historically, tobacco companies also denied targeting children until this line from a 1981 Philip Morris memo described 'today's teenage tomorrow's potential regular customer'."
A similar concern was aired by Dr M Murallitharan, who is the chairperson of Malaysian Council for Tobacco Control (MCTC).
He told Malaysiakini that the council had been receiving a lot of complaints from parents about their children picking up vaping.
Legal loophole
This was especially after the exemption of liquid nicotine from the Poisons Act, which created a legal loophole where sales and purchases of the product are no longer regulated under any law.
"The moment the health minister removed liquid nicotine from the act, it is now legal for vape companies to (openly) promote their products.
"And of course, they are targeting, as you can see from the Raya packets... you get the idea. It is something that is going to happen and in fact, this will become more prevalent.
"Because it is now legal to do so. It is even legal for children of any age to go into any vape shop and purchase vape pods," he said.
According to the doctor, among the many complaints that came to MCTC, they found that it involved children as young as seven.
Murallitharan, who is also the managing director of National Cancer Society Malaysia, expressed his scepticism on the government's promise to enact the Tobacco Control Bill anytime soon.
He said the government used tax collection as an excuse to rush the exemption on liquid nicotine, purportedly to not lose out in revenue, and promised to table the tobacco control law as soon as possible.
‘Plucking numbers from the sky’
"But the joke is, the government only recently has opened registration for companies that manufacture vape products.
"So what is the point of them rushing to exempt nicotine from control, but you still can't collect any tax yet?
"When we met the Finance Ministry, they said the government will be able to collect RM1 billion or at least hundreds of million a year from vape products.
“But all these magic numbers are plucked from the sky because they don't even know how many manufacturers (are there) and volume of production," he said.
Murallitharan said they are now waiting to see if the government will hold true to its promise to table the tobacco bill when Parliament comes back to session next month.
"Forgive us if we are being a bit pessimistic. We just don't believe it, but we are hopeful. Because we have waited for this bill to be tabled since 2003."
It was reported that Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa had signed off on the nicotine exemption to pave the way for vape liquids including those containing nicotine to be taxed beginning April 1.
The exemption was done even before the government tabled the Tobacco Control Bill, which Zaliha had vowed to expedite its tabling.
The move had since received criticisms from many health experts and groups, including the Malaysian Medical Association, which raised concerns that vape containing nicotine can then be sold in the public domain legally, and with no control to prohibit the sale of these items to minors. - Mkini
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