The Alliance of Banning Cigarettes Taiwan yesterday urged the government to ban all flavored tobacco products, increase the size of warning labels on cigarette packages, and establish a novel and emerging nicotine and tobacco products (NENTPs) crackdown platform.
Ahead of World No Tobacco Day on Saturday, the alliance said last year’s and this year’s campaigns focus on the tactics the tobacco and nicotine industries use to make their products appealing to consumers, especially young people.
The industries’ electronic products are more prevalent among young people, the alliance said, citing a WHO report.
Photo: Lin Chih-yi, Taipei Times
Another report showed that content promoting NENTPs have been viewed more than 3.4 billion times on social media, it added.
Anti-smoking John Tung Foundation’s Tobacco Hazard Prevention section head Lin Ching-li (林清麗) said that among the WHO’s seven strategies for tobacco control, three would mostly be more effective for young people, but the government has been doing a poor job at implementing them.
Those include banning all flavored tobacco products, limiting cigarette packaging design and requiring warning labels, and banning all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship on the Internet, she said.
Although lawmakers had agreed to ban flavored tobacco products and an amendment to the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act (菸害防制法) in 2023 stipulated that additives prohibited by the government should not be used in tobacco products, only 27 additives have been banned so far, Lin said.
Taiwan only requires the warning label to be at least 50 percent the size of the cigarette package, while many countries require plain packaging and larger warning labels, she said.
There are still content promoting NENTPs online, and the government only asks tobacco companies to submit self-control reports, she added.
Taiwan Medical Alliance for the Control of Tobacco secretary-general Guo Fei-ran (郭斐然) said President William Lai’s (賴清德) “Healthy Taiwan” vision includes extending the average life expectancy from 79 to 82, but smoking increases the risk of many of the 10 leading causes of death, including cancer, heart disease, liver disease and stroke.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare statistics showed that more than 25,000 people die of smoking-related illnesses and more than 3,000 people die of secondhand smoke–related illnesses each year, he said, adding that increasing average life expectancy is difficult to achieve if tobacco control is not enhanced.
Taiwan Parents Protect Women and Children Association secretary-general Luo Yi-ru (駱怡汝) said they want to echo the WHO’s No Tobacco Day campaign and protect young people from the tactics of the tobacco industry, urging the government to implement their suggestions immediately.
First, the government should ban all flavored tobacco products and prohibit heated tobacco products from entering Taiwan, Luo said. No heated tobacco products has been approved since the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act was amended in 2023.
Second, it should require cigarettes to be in plain packaging with a warning label that is at least 85 percent of the packaging, she said.
Third, it should also establish an NENTPs crackdown platform to monitor and crackdown on online promotion of NENTPs, Luo said.
Separately, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) yesterday said it conducted physical and online inspections related to e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products more than 710,000 times between Mar. 22, 2023, and Monday last week, imposing 5,970 fines, which totaled more than NT$500 million (US$16.7 million).
The tobacco industry uses bright colors, deceptive product designs and tempting flavors to attract and retain more users, but all types of tobacco and nicotine products are harmful to health, it said.
The HPA said people who need help in quitting smoking can seek professional assistance at one of the nearly 2,700 healthcare facilities nationwide that provide smoking cessation service, or call the smoking cessation hotline at 0800-636363.
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