Stricter controls better than total ban on vape products, says expert

 Dr Sharifa Ezat Wan Puteh of UKM says medical-grade, lab-certified vape products can be made available to adults unable to quit smoking.

Deputy inspector-general of police Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay recently said students as young as 13 years old have been caught using vape products containing substances mixed with drugs.

PETALING JAYA:

 Enforcing stricter controls on products with higher risks over the less harmful versions is a better way to beat the vape scourge than an outright ban, according to a public health expert.

Dr Sharifa Ezat Wan Puteh said such “risk-proportionate” regulations will also make room for safer alternatives, such as medical-grade lab-certified vape products for adults unable to quit smoking.

The Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia lecturer pointed out that attempts to reduce smoking, such as the Generational End Game (GEG), have been abandoned based on poor results in other countries.

For instance, New Zealand has failed to achieve the desired objectives outlined in the GEG, which ties the right to buy tobacco products to a person’s age. “There is no need to revisit GEG,” she told FMT.

The GEG provision, which was to ban the sale and use of tobacco products to those born on or after Jan 1, 2007, has been expunged from the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Bill 2023.

Dr Sharifa Ezat Wan Puteh.

Sharifa pointed out that while vape products that are now allowed in the market do not contain drugs, illicit vendors have been peddling those mixed with banned substances.

Recently, deputy inspector-general of police Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay revealed that students as young as 13 have been caught using such “contaminated” vape products.

He said about 65% of vape products are found to contain methamphetamine and ecstasy, both classified as poisons.

Ayob said fentanyl, which is 100 times stronger and more dangerous than morphine and 20 to 40 times stronger than herion, have been detected in vape liquids.

Sharifa said the authorities should also clamp down hard on the import of unregulated vape products into the country.

“This will reduce the availability of cheap vape products in the black market, restricting access to it for adolescents and teenagers,” she added.

Make it unattractive

Dr Lee Boon Chye.

Former deputy health minister Dr Lee Boon Chye suggested that steps be taken to reduce the desire, among the youth especially, for vape products.

As in the case of cigarettes, the product packaging should be designed to reduce its appeal to young people, he told FMT.

“Steps should also be taken to limit nicotine levels in e-liquid products. Also remove fruity flavours that attract young users and ensure they are free of adulterated illicit substances,” he said.

E-liquid is a vape product that contains nicotine as well as propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin or glycerol and other chemicals, including those used to create a variety of flavours such as fruits, menthol and beverages.

Like Sharifa, Lee agrees that banning vape products is not the way to go.

“While the rapid and largely unchecked growth of the vape industry has created new risks, banning the now multi-billion ringgit industry would be extremely difficult, anyway,” he said.

For now, he said, the tobacco control bill of 2023 remains the best and most practical solution.

He proposed that the quantity of allowable content in vape liquids be regulated. - FMT