Health Ministry calls for e-cigarette ban in Malaysia

Malaysia’s Health Ministry has decided that electronic cigarettes containing nicotine should be banned, according to a Bernama story.

The ministry’s deputy director-general of public health, Datuk Dr Lokman Hakim Sulaiman, said the decision had been reached on the basis of a study conducted by a technical committee tasked with reviewing the effects of electronic cigarettes and shisha on health.

“The sale and use of e-cigarettes containing nicotine liquid are subject to the Poisons Act 1952 and Food Act 1983 under the Control of Tobacco Products Regulations 2004,” he said, before adding that the ministry would take action against sellers and users of e-cigarettes that contained nicotine.

Lokman Hakim was quoted as saying also that the ministry would intensify its anti e-cigarette and vape campaign. [The ministry refers to electronic cigarettes containing nicotine as e-cigarettes and electronic cigarettes without nicotine as vapes.]

“The ministry’s message to the community is do not use e-cigarettes or vaping as it is harmful to your health in the long term,” he said.

The chairman of the technical committee that reviewed the effects of electronic cigarettes and shisha on health, Prof Datuk Dr Abdul Razak Mutallif, said that though there was no nicotine in vapes, the latest trend of vaping could create a new kind of addiction.

“The research we conducted found a lot of long-term effects that will produce new cancer in the future,” said Abdul Razak, who is also a senior medical consultant at the Institute of Respiratory Medicine, Kuala Lumpur Hospital.