Health ministry proposes ban on vaping, heated tobacco products

At a conference held Wednesday on solutions to prevent the negative impacts of tobacco, Tran Thi Trang, deputy head of the legislation department under the Ministry of Health, said the current Law on Tobacco Harm Prevention does not have provisions to deal with e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

Allowing the distribution of these products on a trial basis has revealed the potential negative impacts including management costs, which means the state having to expend human and management resources to resolve social issues stemming from the use and abuse of the new tobacco products, especially their impacts on the youth’s behaviors and lifestyles, she said.

Trang said the health ministry’s proposal to ban new-generation tobacco products, including e-cigarettes and heated tobacco, was in line with its aim of protecting people’s health.

Nguyen Thi Thu Huong from the health ministry said the percentage of people using e-cigarettes in 2020 has increased 18-fold compared to 2015 (from 0.2% to 3.6%). Every year, around 40,000 people die of tobacco-related causes in Vietnam, she added.