The recommendations made by the House special council on e-cigarettes to restrict its use in the nation have been objected to by academics and health experts, who claim that the recommendations reflect the council’s pro-smoking position.
The council just finished a research on e-cigarettes, which lists three possible methods for the government to continue in the matter. It stated that the government could continue to impose a ban on all e-cigarettes, legalize heated tobacco products ( HTP), which are devices that heat tobacco to release nicotine vapours without burning it, and legalize all different e-cigarettes.
At a recent conference held to examine the specific committee’s investigation on the subject, experts, including members of the Tobacco Control Research and Knowledge Management Centre (TCKC), Action Against Smoking and Health Foundation, and the Thai Health Promotion Foundation, claim the committee’s recommendations should be scrutinised more.
To begin with, the particular council– which is chaired by Pheu Thai MP Niyom Wiwatthanaditkul– counts two people with known relationships to the cigarette industry as members, said Assoc Prof Dr Roengrudee Patanavanich, Faculty of Medicine of Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University.
The agency’s report lacks trust and is likely to be biased in favor of tobacco firms, she said, because people who have close relationships with tobacco companies do so in violation of Article 5.3 of the World Tobacco Control Convention.
Prakit: Expenses of smoking add up
” With two out of the three options properly legalising e-cigarettes in the country, the suggestions go against the current worldwide trend of banning their use”, she said, noting Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Palau, Brazil, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Island, and Vietnam have all rolled out strong measures to suppress their use.
Countries where e-cigarettes are legal have also started to restrict the kinds of e-cigarettes available, with the UK, France, and Belgium placing a ban on disposable e-cigarettes, said Assoc Prof Dr Roengrudee.
Assoc Prof Dr Prakit Vathesatogkit, executive secretary of Action on Smoking and Health Foundation, said the committee’s report failed to list the detailed control measures that should be implemented if the government legalised e-cigarettes.
At present, the products are illegal, but the government has not been able to control their sale, with e-cigarettes readily available to anyone, almost anywhere.
He argued that the UK government should take a closer look at the situation, noting that 25 % of youth have already admitted using e-cigarettes despite regulations that prohibit the sale of e-cigarettes to people under the age of 18 despite this statistic.
” If e-cigarettes are legalised in Thailand, more than 25 % of our youths will be addicted to them”, he said.
Isra: Not worth harm to kids
In addition, he said, the government must allocate a sizable budget to develop and implement control measures, such as ensuring that those who want to quit smoking cessation treatments are available to those who want to quit, limiting the amount of additives used, and handling the added waste from disposable e-cigarettes, he said.
” More agencies, more specialised personnel, more laboratory tools to detect harmful substances will be needed, which are very expensive”, he said.
This is why the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases recommends that policymakers in low- and middle-income countries, including Thailand, ban the sale of e-cigarettes and HTPs, he said.
The House’s special committee is trying to frame the legalization of e-cigarettes as an economic issue, according to Prof. Isra Sarntisart, an expert committee member of the National Tobacco Product Control Board and a former World Health Organization adviser on tobacco taxes.
It claimed that the move would increase tax revenues, but it is frequently disputed. Smokers switch to e-cigarettes to replace tobacco smoking. He said,” Legalizing them won’t increase revenues because the number of smokers will have to increase,” noting that any gains from e-cigarette taxes will be offset by decreased income from tobacco taxes.
Legalising unflavoured HTPs won’t curb the country’s e-cigarette problem either, as such measures are focused on the wrong product, he added, noting most minors smoke flavoured e-cigarettes.
Nitas: Others hurt by smoking
According to him, the tax collected from e-cigarettes is 1,500 times less than the medical expenses incurred as a result of e-cigarette-related illnesses, citing a study conducted in the US. It is not worth the harm to children’s and youth’s health, he said.
According to Assoc Prof. Dr. Nitas Sirichotirat of the Thai Health Promotion Foundation, smoking is one of the four obstacles that prevent the nation from achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in terms of health and economic inequality.
” The burden of covering the costs of treatments for smoking-related illnesses falls on the government, which is effectively funded by our tax money”, he said. ” Moreover, e-cigarettes affect people other than the smokers themselves, especially children and youth. Our responsibility is to shield our children from addictive substances.