Illustrative image (Source: AFP/VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam has seen certain
achievements made in tobacco harm prevention and control but challenges continue
to emerge, including the increasing trend of smoking e-cigarettes, Associate Professor
and Dr Luong Ngoc Khue has said.
At a meeting with partners of the Bloomberg
Initiative in Hanoi on January 19, Khue, who is also Vice Chairman of the
National Medical Council and Director of the Fund for Tobacco Harm Prevention
and Control, highlighted encouraging outcomes after seven years of implementing
the law on prevention and control.
A decline has been recorded in smoking in public
places like schools, offices, and public transport; a behaviour subject to increasing
objections from the community. Smoking is now almost never seen at meetings,
weddings, or funerals.
Many non-smokers have also recognised their right
to have their health protected and spoken out to remind others not to smoke in places
where it is banned, Khue said.
Pointing out new challenges, he cited the results
of a 2020 survey on tobacco use in 34 cities and provinces as showing that the
rate of e-cigarette use among adults is increasing, from 0.2 percent in 2015 to
0.7 percent last year, and was 1.2 percent among males in 2020, up from 0.4
percent in 2015.
A student health survey conducted in 2019
revealed that 2.6 percent of students aged between 13 and 17 use .
Meanwhile, the expert added, tobacco manufacturers
provide insufficient or incorrect information about next-generation tobacco
products, including heated tobacco products and e-cigarettes, misleading users,
especially young people, into thinking that these products are less harmful
than normal cigarettes and help people quit.
Inspection and punishment of those committing
violations have been carried out relatively well in recent years but not
frequently enough due to a shortage of resources, Khue added.
At the meeting, he called upon international
organisations to continue supporting the Fund for Tobacco Harm Prevention and
Control to ramp up measures to minimise tobacco harm in Vietnam, such as hiking
tobacco taxes, boosting the management of tobacco retailing, increasing
communications about related harm, promoting support for nicotine addiction
treatment, and stepping up the examination of compliance with the law on
tobacco harm prevention and control.
Khue also expressed his appreciation of the
assistance and contributions from Bloomberg Philanthropies, while sympathising
with people in the US for what they have experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Bloomberg Initiative to reduce tobacco use,
funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, is financing efforts to eradicate and
monitor tobacco use in low- and middle-income countries like Vietnam, Bangladesh,
China, India, and Indonesia. It seeks to minimise the practice via coordination
with partner organisations, including the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the
CDC Foundation, the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease,
and the World Health Organisation./.
Source: VietnamPlus
