Proposal to ban the circulation of electronic cigarettes in Vietnam

On November 23, the Ministry of Information and Communications coordinated with the Tobacco Harm Prevention Fund ( Ministry of Health ) to organize a training conference to improve communication capacity on tobacco harm prevention in Hanoi.

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Electronic cigarettes are attacking young people. Photo: VNA

Mr. Ho Hong Ha, Deputy Director of the Legal Department, Ministry of Information and Communications, said that this is a conference to provide new information to the press on the work of preventing and combating the harmful effects of tobacco, especially new generation tobacco products; to enhance coordination and information sharing between agencies and organizations implementing the work of preventing and combating the harmful effects of tobacco in order to improve the effectiveness of legal communication on the prevention and combating the harmful effects of tobacco in the press.

According to statistics, more than 1 billion people smoke in the world, of which 847 million are adult males, 153 million are female; and 24 million are adolescents aged 13-15. Tobacco is a risk factor for death, disease, poverty and environmental, economic and social harm worldwide.

According to information from the Tobacco Harm Prevention Fund, Ministry of Health, each year, the world has up to 8 million deaths due to smoking, of which about 1 million deaths are due to passive smoking. In Vietnam, this number is 40,000 people. According to estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO), the global economic loss caused by tobacco is 1,400 billion USD each year. Tobacco is the cause of deforestation and environmental pollution. Every year, about 5% of the forest area is destroyed to grow tobacco, as well as to get wood to dry tobacco. It is estimated that every year, 18 billion trees are needed to make firewood to dry tobacco. The use of tobacco releases into the environment each year about 3,000 to 6,000 tons of formaldehyde, 12,000 to 47,000 tons of nicotine and 300 to 600 million kg of toxic waste from cigarette butts. In Vietnam, the cost of dealing with the consequences of tobacco is estimated to account for 1% of GDP.

Updating new information on the situation of tobacco use in Vietnam, Master Nguyen Thi Thu Huong, Tobacco Harm Prevention Fund said that in 2022, according to the survey on tobacco use among adolescents aged 13-15, the rate of e-cigarette use among students aged 13-15 was 3.5%. In 2019, this rate was 2.6%. Within 3 years, the rate of e-cigarette use among students has increased significantly. This puts the achievements Vietnam has made in reducing the rate of regular cigarette use over the past 10 years at risk of being destroyed by the increased use of e-cigarettes targeting young people.

Currently, heated tobacco products are very diverse, many are hybrid products between heated tobacco and electronic cigarettes, mixed, marinated with electronic solutions and even those that do not directly heat tobacco products but combine electronic cigarette solutions and tobacco ingredients. In the face of the increasing use of tobacco by young people, especially new heated tobacco products, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Huong proposed not to allow the pilot of heated tobacco products, not to let electronic cigarettes penetrate the Vietnamese market under the name of heated tobacco because the disguised use will be very difficult to control.

Dr. Nguyen Trung Nguyen, Master, Director of the Poison Control Center of Bach Mai Hospital, shared impressive videos about the harmful effects of tobacco on the physical and mental health of smokers. With knowledge from professional experience and practical synthesis, updating the current situation and management status, Mr. Trung Nguyen said that the chemical and drug components of e-cigarettes are much more complex than those of traditional cigarettes. Synthetic cannabis is and will be the largest, most complex and most challenging group of drugs in the coming years, in which e-cigarettes (vapes) are the main environment for synthetic cannabis drugs. To manage e-cigarettes, Mr. Nguyen Trung Nguyen proposed that the circulation of e-cigarettes in Vietnam should be banned immediately, completely, without testing, without evaluation or monitoring.

The conference provides misconceptions, facts and international experience in controlling new tobacco products, challenges in global tobacco control as well as recommendations from the World Health Organization (WHO) on the perspective of providing tobacco-free products.

According to VNA

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