Tag: ban on e-cigarettes

  • Kazakhstan Readies to Enact Ban on Vape Products

    Kazakhstan Readies to Enact Ban on Vape Products

    Photo: natatravel

    Lawmakers in Kazakhstan voted on July 29 to ban the sale, import, export and production of e-cigarettes and liquids, reports Atlas News.

    “The harm of vapes is undeniable,” said Deputy Nurgul Tau. “That is why the Ministry of Health has been sharply raising the issue of introducing a ban on the circulation of vapes since 2021. In my request, I proposed a complete ban on the sale of vapes.”

    The legislation has been in the works since May 10 following a ban of the use of e-cigarettes in public spaces. The ban was triggered by concern about increased vaping among minors.

  • Zanzibar to Ban Import and Consumption of Vape Products

    Zanzibar to Ban Import and Consumption of Vape Products

    Zanzibar authorities plan to impose a ban on import and consumption of shisha and e-cigarettes, according to The Citizen.

    “We are all witnesses—the consumption of shisha and e-cigarettes has become commonplace, and we shall come up with a special regulatory law to govern those who will have special permits to import and sell shisha or electric cigarettes,” said Masoud Ali Mohammed, Zanzibar’s minister of state, office of the president, regional administrations, local governments and SMZ departments.

    Current importers have been advised not to restock products but rather to reach out to authorities for new directives. “Do not order more products after your current stock is depleted,” said the minister. “You will have to follow the new laws that the government is going to issue.”

  • WHO: Uganda Holding Firm on Vaping Product Ban

    WHO: Uganda Holding Firm on Vaping Product Ban

    Credit: ATDR

    Uganda is standing firm on its eight-year-long ban on the sale of electronic cigarettes according to the World Health Organization (WHO) Country Representative Yonas Tegegn Woldemariam.

    The Tobacco Control Act 2015 sought to effectively remove vaping products from the Uganda market.

    “Despite Uganda’s high and increasing burden of non-communicable diseases morbidity and mortality rates, one in ten people still smoke cigarettes daily, making the practice an ongoing and dire public health threat. This justifies the Tobacco Control Act and all the other government initiatives to regulate products, including e-cigarettes,” said Yonas.

    Uganda is one of the 35 countries globally where e-cigarettes are banned. The law bans the importation, manufacture, distribution, processing, sale, or offer for sale of e-cigarettes, including nicotine- and non-nicotine-containing e-liquids.

    The WHO agent also cited a retracted 2016 study reported in the Lancet journal that found that people who use or have used e-cigarettes are less likely to stop smoking.

    Even though legal consequences aren’t optimally enforced, it is encouraging to see that there are now comparatively fewer people smoking in public, according to the statement.

    Uganda is a signatory to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which provides countries with evidence-based strategies to address the tobacco epidemic in their national contexts.

    WHO continues to support the Ministry of Health Tobacco control initiatives, including sensitizing communities about the negative impacts of tobacco consumption on health and the environment, and encouraging local farmers to plant food rather than tobacco.

  • Media Reports Claim Turkmenistan Banned Vaping

    Media Reports Claim Turkmenistan Banned Vaping

    Credit: Michalknitl

    Turkmenistan has banned the sale of electronic cigarettes and other vaping products, according to media reports.

    E-cigarette use has grown in the country where conventional tobacco products are almost completely banned.

    Buying disposable electronic cigarettes, reusable vape devices, spare parts for them, as well as filling liquids has recently become almost impossible, according to the reports.

    Officially, no regulations were issued, the goods simply disappeared from sale. Sellers tell buyers that they have been banned.

    Previously, electronic cigarettes were sold online and in some brick-and-mortar stores.

    “In particular, high-end night shops throughout Ashgabat have become a popular place[s] to sell this product,” media reports. These shops are owned by relatives of the president’s family.”

    Sources note that even now in some of these stores people can still buy disposable electronic cigarettes, as well as hookahs and tobacco for them, according to media reports.

  • Numerous Vape Shops Close After Taiwan Vape Ban

    Numerous Vape Shops Close After Taiwan Vape Ban

    Credit: Yao Photograph

    Since the vaping ban was enacted in Taiwan on March 22, 15 out of 44 vape shops in Kaohsiung City have closed, according to the city’s Department of Health.

    Among the city’s 44 stores, 10 have completely shut down their businesses while 15 have closed their doors, according to media reports. The rest of the stores have switched to selling other products, as the store owners said that the fines are too high to risk, according to Taiwan News.

    In addition to intensive inspections of physical stores, the health department is monitoring online sales and social media advertisements. So far, one violator who made e-cigarette advertisements will be interviewed and fined.

    The amended regulations to Taiwan’s Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act ban e-cigarettes entirely, raise the smoking age to 20 and increase penalties for violators.

    According to the new regulations, manufacturing or importing e-cigarettes is punishable by a fine of up to NT$50 million ($1.65 million). Advertising agencies, media, and advertisers are subject to a maximum fine of NT$2 million if they are caught advertising unsanctioned tobacco products.

    Selling or displaying unsanctioned tobacco products is punishable by a maximum fine of NT$1 million. The fine for supplying novel tobacco products and their paraphernalia is NT$10,000 to NT$250,000, and vaping is punishable by a fine between NT$2,000 and NT$10,000.

  • Argentina Bans Imports and Sales of E-Cigarettes

    Argentina Bans Imports and Sales of E-Cigarettes

    The Ministry of Health of Argentina has banned the importation, distribution, commercialization and advertising of different types of electronic cigarettes and accessories “throughout the national territory,” reports MercoPress.

    Health Minister Carla Vizzotti signed a resolution prohibiting heated-tobacco products (HTPs) “based on the risks involved” in using them. The health department stated that many studies have shown HTPs “produce aerosols with nicotine and other chemicals, such as acetaldehyde, acrolein and formaldehyde, [and] are harmful and potentially harmful to health.”

    “Evidence suggests that novel products such as HTPs and similar products are particularly attractive to children and adolescents, and their introduction into the market has the potential to lead to tobacco initiation in young and nonsmoking adults, threatening the achievements already made in tobacco control,” the official document stated.

    The National Risk Factors Survey 2018 showed that 1.1 percent of the adult Argentinian population used electronic cigarettes while the 2018 Global Youth Tobacco Survey showed that 7 percent of those aged 13 to 15 consumed electronic cigarettes.

  • Italy Announces Rules for Ban on Indoor Vaping

    Italy Announces Rules for Ban on Indoor Vaping

    New measures against nicotine products will be introduced in Italy to address the prevention and fight against vaping and smoking.

    Italy’s health minister, Orazio Schillaci, announced new measures against vaping and other tobacco products to achieve a “tobacco-free generation,” reports Euractiv.

    “Measures will have to be taken to guarantee all citizens maximum protection of their health, a fundamental right of the individual and an interest of the community,” said Schillaci.

    Smoking rooms indoors will be banned, and the ban on smoking in open-air places in the presence of minors and pregnant women will be extended.

    E-cigarettes and heated-tobacco products will also be included in the ban, taking into account “the constantly increasing diffusion of new products on the market and the growing evidence on their possible harmful effects on health.” Plans to extend the cigarette advertising ban to new nicotine-containing products are also in place.

    “This process aims to allow the different multiple interests related to tobacco products, involving economic ministries, not to override health protection,” Schillaci said.

  • Mexico Bans Public Smoking, Vape Rules to Tighten

    Mexico Bans Public Smoking, Vape Rules to Tighten

    Credit: Sezerozger

    After banning the sale of all vaping products, Mexico has implemented one of the world’s strictest anti-tobacco laws by enacting a complete ban on smoking in public places.

    The move also includes a total ban on the advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco products, which means that cigarettes cannot be displayed inside shops. The step was first approved in 2021.

    E-cigarettes and heated tobacco products are also facing tighter new restrictions, particularly indoors, as per BBC. Last year, Mexico banned the import, sale and distribution of vaping and heated-tobacco products.

    The existing 2008 law in Mexico is responsible for smoke-free spaces in bars, restaurants and workplaces. The same law extended to a total ban in all public spaces including parks, beaches, hotels, offices and restaurants.

    Several other Latin American countries have also passed legislation to create smoke-free public spaces. Last year for example, Panamanian President Laurentino Cortizo also signed legislation banning the sale of vapor products in his country.

    However, Mexico’s legislation is considered to be the most robust and wide-ranging in the Americas.

    However, some smokers are dismayed at the draconian nature of the new law. In essence, it means that many will only be allowed to smoke in their homes or other private residences.

    Others have raised questions about the practicalities of enforcing the law.

    With police corruption so rampant in Mexico, many fear that rather than issuing real fines or punishments for smoking in public, some officers will use it as a pretext for taking bribes.

  • Taiwan Bans Vaping, Heat-not-Burn to be Regulated

    Taiwan Bans Vaping, Heat-not-Burn to be Regulated

    Credit: sharafmaksumov

    Lawmakers in Taiwan passed a ban on vaping products for its third legislative reading Thursday. The measure was necessary to address the increasing popularity of vaping products with the country’s youths, according to officials.

    The sale, manufacture, and supply of e-cigarettes will be outlawed, however, heated tobacco products (HTPs) will only be subjected to tighter regulation, according to an amendment to the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act, according to media reports.

    Manufacturers or importers of HTPs will have to submit a health risk evaluation report for review before they can receive a permit. The advertising of heating tobacco products will be banned, wrote CNA.

    Other changes involve raising the legal smoking age from 18 to 20, increasing the proportion of tobacco package warning messages from 35 percent to 50 percent, and designating childcare centers as well as schools as no-smoking/no-vaping areas.

    The move is hailed as a partial victory for anti-tobacco groups after years of calls for stricter control of cigarettes and novel tobacco products. The last time the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act was amended in Taiwan was in 2009.

    Among the contentious parts of the amendment is how flavored tobacco products are to be regulated. Critics say the change is not bold enough as it only prohibits the use of banned additives, but this can present a loophole as the terminology is vague, wrote UDN.

  • Vietnam Health Officials Again Call for Ban on Vaping

    Vietnam Health Officials Again Call for Ban on Vaping

    Credit: Miro Novak

    Vietnam’s Ministry of Health has again called for a ban on all new tobacco products following the publication of a study suggesting that youth vaping has led to more hospitalizations for psychosis, hallucinations or respiratory failure, reports VietnamPlus.

    A recent study found that the e-cigarette smoking rate among students increased to 3.5 percent in 2021 from 2.6 percent in 2019, according to Nguyen Thi Thu Huong, an official from the Vietnam Tobacco Control Fund at the Ministry of Health.

    “E-cigarette devices that look like USB drives, pen or pen boxes are making it tough for parents to detect and keep their kids from vaping,” said Nguyen Huu Hoang, a lecturer from the Medical Education Center at Ho Chi Minh City’s University of Medicine and Pharmacy. “They also make young people curious and excited by their eye-catching, fashionable and modern designs.”

    In November, Vietnam’s health ministry proposed a ban on next-generation tobacco products (NGPs), reports VN Express International. The country’s current law on tobacco harm prevention lacks provisions for e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products.