E – cigarettes are considered to be” gateway drugs.”
PUBLISHED: 06:40 on September 15, 2023.
According to the Research Centre for Social and Business Development ( SAB ), the majority of student parents concur that the new government should keep the current ban on the import and sale of e-cigarettes because of the potential health risk.
The results were made public at a lecture on Wednesday that the SAB organized and where the survey’s findings on teachers and parents regarding the smoke ban were presented.
According to Suriyan Boontae, the SAB’s deputy director, 91 % of the 5,582 respondents nationwide supported keeping the ban in place because it would reduce the amount of tobacco coverage among young people.
4, 087 parents of students in middle key to large institutions participated in the study. Educators and school officials made up the various respondents.
80 % of responders were aware of the negative effects of e-cigarette use on their health. The exact proportion thought that e-cigarettes might be a doorway to illegal substances.
Asst Prof. Dr. Vijj Kasemsap, director of the Tobacco Control Research and Knowledge Management Centre( TRC ), provided the government with recommendations on how to protect children from e-cigarettes in a message to the new administration outlining these findings.
To keep the ban on importing and selling e-cigarettes in place, the ministers of public health, business, and banking, along with their respective government executives, as well as the consumer protection commission, he said, must cooperate.
E-cigarettes are frequently sold in stores, tourist-heavy places, and online programs, so the Royal Thai Police and local operational agencies may enforce the ban.
He continued by saying that knowledge campaigns should be run by state organizations that involve parents, educators, and the internet to inform people about the risk of marketing campaigns luring children to start using e-cigarettes.
He asserted that the marketing tactics used by e-cigarette manufacturers to entice young consumers and the risks that smoking electronic cigarettes poses should be incorporated into the program of the Education Ministry and state agencies.
According to Dr. Vijj, young people need to be taught a cultural significance in order to avoid e-cigarettes.
Encourage families to stop using e-cigarettes would develop” mental immunity” in their children, according to Niwat Nakawet, president of the Congress of Parents and Teachers in Thailand( CPTT ).
The Ministry of Education supports the ban on e-cigarettes in academic settings, according to Chana Summat, chairman of the ministry’s health center.
The Royal College of Paediatricians of Thailand’s leader, Somsak Lolekha, stated that it also supports the ban.