The Tobacco Hazard Control Act (菸害防治法) should be amended so that electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) can be regulated as a tobacco product, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator John Wu (吳志揚) said yesterday.
The government considers e-cigarettes with nicotine to be controlled drugs, which means that importing, manufacturing or selling them is against the law.
However, it is not against the law to smoke e-cigarettes and the devices can easily be bought at night markets or through online auction sites, Wu told a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Holding up a photograph of an auction Web site selling an e-cigarette described as “fruit flavor, clears the lungs,” Wu said that the wording in advertisements could mislead young people into buying e-cigarettes out of curiosity.
“If e-cigarettes are brought onto campuses, and schools cannot do anything to regulate them because they are not considered tobacco products, campuses will soon be flooded with e-cigarette smokers,” the lawmaker said. “You do not know what is in the liquids they are smoking. There might even be illegal drugs.”
The number of e-liquids examined by the Ministry of Health and Welfare has significantly increased in recent years, the lawmaker said.
Of the 1,639 samples tested between January and November last year, nearly 70 percent contained nicotine, while many also contained formaldehyde or acetaldehyde, which can be harmful when inhaled, he said.
Wu said he wants to see e-cigarettes regulated as a tobacco product, and bans on underaged people and pregnant women smoking them.
Food and Drug Administration official Chen Hsin-cheng (陳信誠) said the Ministry of Health and Welfare supports Wu’s proposal and that it would enhance its inspections.
However, not everyone was so supportive.
Democractic Progressive Party Taipei City Councilor Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) wrote on Facebook that “smoking e-cigarettes will not affect other people … prohibiting others from smoking e-cigarettes is as boring as prohibiting others from using inflatable dolls."
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