GEORGE TOWN, Dec 23 — Penang will hold public dialogues to guide its decision on vaping in the absence of a clear policy from Putrajaya, said state executive councillor Dr Afif Bahardin.
“It was agreed that we hold a dialogue session with vapers, vape shop owners, the public and also non-governmental organisations like Penang Consumers Association to get their views about it,” the health committee chairman told a press conference at Komtar today.
Dr Afif said his office has also written to Health Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam to ask for a clear policy on vaping and the selling of e-cigarettes.
Penang will only formulate its policy on vaping after the federal government issues its regulations, he added.
The dialogue session, to be attended by Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, will be held at 12pm on January 5 at the Komtar auditorium on Level Five and is open to the public.
Dr Afif also told vapers in the state to respect the smoke-free campaign by the Penang state government, in which selected areas such as the George Town Heritage have been gazetted as smoke-free zones.
“We ask that they too follow the same procedure, they can only vape at designated smoking areas but don’t vape everywhere,” he said.
Johor and Kelantan will ban vape product sales starting January 1 while the National Fatwa Council have ruled vaping to be “haram (forbidden)”.
