Researcher claims vaping could cut smoking rate by half

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 13 — Close to half of existing Malaysian smokers could switch to vaping if it was approved by authorities, claimed the Reason Foundation think tank today.

Authorities previously cracked down on e-cigarettes and vaping over concerns that these were not proven to be safe, despite the absence of conclusive evidence on their effects on users’ health.

“If exactly 200,000 people take up vaping each year from 2011 until 2025 and exactly two thirds of those switch, then by 2025, two million adults would have switched from smoking to (exclusive) vaping,” its vice president for research Julian Morris said.

“If the MOH estimates of the number of daily smokers is correct, then the number of smokers would have reduced by 2 million, or 46 per cent, from 4.3 million to 2.3 million,” he said in a media briefing today referring to the Health Ministry’s published figures.

He said this could help reduce the RM3 billion that Putrajaya spends annually on smoking-related diseases to just RM1 billion in the same period, and would also help the Health Ministry exceed its target of cutting smoking rates to 16 per cent.

The three main smoking-related diseases that Putrajaya spends the most to treat are coronary heart disease, lung cancer, and chronic lung diseases.

But he said this could only be achieved if the government removed the “great uncertainty” surrounding vaping now.

Vaping is styled as an alternative for smokers attempting to quit, but its explosive popularity had raised concerns that it could instead be encouraging users to eventually take up smoking.

The Cabinet last month decided that the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry, the Health Ministry, and the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry will work together to regulate and enforce laws on vaping under the  Consumer Protection Act 1999 (Act 599).

Under the law, the licensing, production, distribution including import, export and sale of electronic cigarette devices, nicotine-free liquid and vapes would be monitored by the Health Ministry.

The Health Ministry would also be drafting a new law to replace the Tobacco Control 2004 Regulations, and the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry would draft a new law that looks into the control of electronic cigarettes and vaping in the next two years.