Fourteen heated tobacco products from two tobacco companies were conditionally approved after health risk assessment reviews mandated by 2023 amendments to the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act (菸害防制法), the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday.
The conditional approval does not mean that any heated tobacco products people have are immediately legalized, Tobacco Prevention Division Director Lo Su-ying (羅素英) said.
Products would not be considered legal until distributors have received official notice of the decision and have implemented required changes to the labeling and packaging of the products, Lo said.
Photo: Lin Hui-chin, Taipei Times
The two companies were among seven that have applied for inspections, the HPA said.
Stricter controls would be implemented across the board for heated tobacco products, it said.
Specialists subjected the 14 products to toxicology, clinical pharmacology, addiction and public health reviews, and the Ministry of Health and Welfare also inspected them, Lo said.
Conditions under which the products were approved include that young people and pregnant women must be protected from them, and they may not be sold to people younger than 20, she said.
The HPA would monitor sales channels and enforce the regulations, she said.
The companies should contract a third party to monitor and research the products’ impact after they are approved for sale, Lo said, adding that the research must be fully funded and be statistically relevant.
The companies must submit annual reports on heated tobacco product use, as well as rates of abuse, addiction and other risks linked to the use of the approved products, she said.
The HPA must be notified immediately if the companies identify factors that increase the likelihood of addiction, Lo said, adding that any changes to manufacturing processes would require a reassessment of the products.
Labeling must adhere to regulations and marketing should not use misleading terms or phrasings, Lo said.
Contraventions of the conditions or the act would not be tolerated, she said, adding that the HPA would take immediate action, potentially leading to the termination of the approval.
According to the 2023 amendments, electronic cigarettes are generally banned, while heated tobacco products face strict controls.
Heated tobacco products and other similar items can only be sold after they have passed a health risk assessment, the amendments say.
The Customs Administration said yesterday that travelers are still barred from bringing heated tobacco products into Taiwan, even as authorities move forward with conditional approval for commercial imports.
It added that potential changes to personal import rules remain under discussion between government agencies, with no timeline yet provided for a decision.
Customs officials said heated tobacco products seized before March 22, 2023, may be reclaimed within three months of approval, while unclaimed items could be destroyed.
Illegal imports seized after that date will be referred to the local competent authority, the agency added.
Since the law's amendment, the customs agency has confiscated more than 4 million packs of heated tobacco products, it added.
Additional reporting by CNA
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
RSS