Malaysia ban equates vaping with smoking

Malaysia’s Ministry of Health has said it will enforce from next year a ban on vaping in 21 areas gazetted as non-smoking areas, according to a Bernama report.

The deputy health minister Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya said the imposition of the ban on vaping had been made possible after a special committee chaired by the director-general of health Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah had made a change to the relevant legislation.

The change adds the word ‘vapor’ to the word ‘smoke’ in legislation that currently bans tobacco smoking under the Control of Tobacco Product Regulations 2004, which is part of the Food Act 1983.

Meanwhile, Liew Chin Tong, a member of the Malaysian parliament for the Kluang constituency in Johor, said the Johor state’s ban on electronic cigarette sales would create an unregulated, underground market for these products, according to a Malay Mail story relayed by the TMA.

He said the ban would anyway be ineffective because electronic cigarettes would still be sold in neighboring states.

He instead called for standardized regulations across all states in the country.

Johor opposition leader and Penggaram assemblyman Gan Peck Cheng said states should not unilaterally ban electronic cigarette sales when the Health Ministry is already considering new regulations such as a ban on e-liquids with nicotine.

Inconsistent bans created confusion, he said.

The Johor state government has announced that electronic cigarette sales will be banned from January 1, and the Kelantan state government has said that it will ban vape shops from January 1.