Ministry of Health sounds alarm over e-cigarettes

The ministry recommended the ministries of Public Security, Culture, Sports and
Tourism and Information and Communications, as well as the General Department
of Customs strengthen inspections into the products.

Tran Thi Trang, Deputy Director of the Legal Affairs Department, at the
, has said the new cigarettes are products that cannot be
advertised, imported or traded in Vietnam.

“However, there still exists the use of these products as well as illegal
trading, advertising in the country,” she said at a seminar on August 10 hosted by
the Ministry of Health. “And this is an alarming problem.”

Besides traditional cigarettes, new cigarettes have appeared, including
e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products and shisha.

The seminar alarmed about illegal advertising and trafficking of e-cigarettes,
heated tobacco products and shisha.

E-cigarettes have been sold and advertised on social networks, attracting young
people, experts warned at the seminar.

According to experts, e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products have mainly been
brought into Vietnam by tourists or smugglers.

The Anti-Smuggling and Investigation Department at the General Department of
Customs has seized large quantities of smuggled e-cigarettes and heated tobacco
products.

Vietnam’s Law on Tobacco Harms Prevention and Control which came into practice
in 2013 stipulated advertising, trading, and transporting tobacco materials,
smuggled cigarettes were not allowed.

However, in recent years, new tobacco products have been traded and advertised
illegally, according to Trang.

Due to the negative effects of and shisha, particularly on young
people, the Ministry of Health is working with the Ministry of Industry and
Trade to propose the Government and the National Assembly to ban the use and
import of e-cigarettes and shisha into Vietnam.

The number of Vietnamese people smoking in public and areas with smoking bans
remains high. Authorities and schools should continue to spread information to
raise public awareness of the harmful effects of smoking, experts said.

The seminar also revealed that e-cigarettes had been sold at exhibitions or
trade fairs in public places, even near schools.

Hoang Thi Thu Huong, an expert from the Legal Affairs Department, said the
tobacco industry was using many tricks to promote the new cigarettes.

Huong said tobacco companies used online influencers and hashtags on popular
social media sites like Facebook and TikTok to advertise products and attract
young customers.

They also advertised e-cigarettes at sporting and music events by printing
tobacco products on hats, clothes and bags to be used as gifts for attendees.

“Cheap prices and the curiosity and tastes of a group of young people has
turned Vietnam into one of the markets for the smuggling of new modern tobacco
products,” she said.

“This may cause harm to people’s health, the economy, social order and security
and the future generations of Vietnam.”

Measures should also be taken to prevent promotion, sponsorship and
advertisement programmes relating to cigarettes, according to Huong.

A school-age health survey in 2019 showed that up to 2.6 percent of students
aged 13-17 used e-cigarettes.

According to Nguyen Tuan Lam, from the World Health Organisation in Vietnam,
e-cigarettes and shisha have the same harmful effects on people’s health as
traditional tobacco. They could cause cancer, including lung cancer, and
respiratory-related diseases.

Forty-two countries have banned e-cigarettes, 56 countries allow e-cigarettes
but have imposed strict regulations on trading and 30 countries have set a
limitation for the amount of nicotine or other chemicals in e-cigarettes./.