Today, Taiwan’s Health Promotion Administration (HPA) proposed an amendment to the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act (THP) to strengthen regulations against e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products. The proposal allows the direct confiscation and destruction of these products and enhances online supervision, Tobacco Control Division head Lo Su-ying said.
The THP was amended in 2023 to prohibit the manufacture, import, sale, display, advertisement, and use of e-cigarettes and unapproved heated tobacco products. Since then, more than 600,000 fines totaling $11.2 million have been issued, however, currently, the contraband items cannot be confiscated but are instead returned to the owner. The proposed amendment would fill in this loophole, facilitating the accelerated confiscation and destruction of e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, Lo said.
The new proposal would also stipulate that internet service providers must remove illegal tobacco advertisements and restrict access to related content.