Taiwan has e-cig ‘problem’

Taiwan’s Ministry of Health and Welfare reported Sunday new data estimating that more than 52,000 teenagers in Taiwan regularly use electronic cigarettes, according to a story in The Taiwan News citing a Central News Agency report.
A poll administered by the ministry found that e-cigarette use went from 2.0 percent among middle school students and 2.1 percent among high school students in 2013, to 3.7 percent and 4.8 percent respectively in 2015.
The ministry estimates also that there are 100,000 adult – over 18-years-old – e-cigarette smokers in Taiwan.
The ministry was quoted as saying that e-cigarettes were highly addictive and that their long-term effects were not fully understood, something, it added, that posed ‘even more of a risk to young adopters’.
The story did not explain what the e-cigarette risk was being compared with. Even so, the Ministry was said to be demanding immediate attention to this problem.
Taiwan legislators continue to discuss how to regulate and manage e-cigarettes, and even ban them; however, legislation remains pending in the Executive Yuan.