Australia strongly regulates e-cigarettes, amends the law to protect young people

According to Bloomberg News, in a speech at the National Press Club today, May 2, Australia’s Health Minister Mark Butler will announce a plan to quell the riots in the e-cigarette market, a reform campaign approved by the Australian Government˳ rated as the most powerful in the past 10 years to prevent a health crisis˳

Mr˳ Butler will also pledge a budget of AUD 234 million ($155 million) for publicity, education and awareness campaigns to “eliminate” e-cigarettes˳

According to the newspaper Guardianspeaking on ABC’s Q&A program (Australia) on the evening of May 1, Mr˳ Mark Butler accused the tobacco industry of deliberately creating “a new generation of nicotine addicts” with e-cigarettes, and he was determined to get rid of it˳

Canberra will also stop the import of commercially available e-cigarettes (including those that do not contain nicotine), ban their sale at most retail outlets such as convenience stores, etc˳

In addition, to prevent teen use of these addictive products, the new regulations will set minimum standards, including restrictions on flavors, colors and other ingredients˳

E-cigarettes must use plain pharmaceutical packaging, comply with permissible nicotine concentration standards, as well as reduce the capacity of accompanying containers˳ The law would also ban all disposable e-cigarettes (smoke and then quit)˳

Mr Butler said that although e-cigarettes were initially thought to be an alternative to help heavy smokers quit smoking and were banned from being sold to children˳

“But now it has become the biggest loophole in Australian history,” Mr Butler said˳

There have been calls to hotlines in Australia to report children under the age of 4 falling ill from vaping˳ In addition, around one in six teenagers aged 14-17 in Australia have ever used an e-cigarette˳

While vaping is still allowed in some countries, including the UK and Canada, in many other countries around the world, these products are either banned outright, or subject to restrictions˳ management regulations are very strict˳

Since 2009, for example, Brazil has banned the sale, import, and advertising of e-cigarettes, while the billion-strong nation of India announced a similar ban in September 2019˳

Ban e-cigarettes as soon as possible

Talking to Tuoi Tre, Ms˳ Tran Thi Trang – Deputy Director of the Legal Department (Ministry of Health) – said that the view of the Ministry of Health is still the proposal to ban all new tobacco products because of these products˳ are all harmful to health˳