Keep ecigs away from kids

Subbarow: Ban ecigarettes and vapes immediately to protect our children.

CONGRATULATIONS on featuring very good stories about how ecigarettes and vapes are turning students into nicotine addicts (“Use of ecigs among students worrying” and “Youths at higher risk of nicotine addiction”, StarEdu, Feb 13).

Recreational inhalation devices (RIDs), which cover the entire spectrum of ecigarettes, vapes, heated tobacco products (HTPs) and electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), are cleverly – and falsely – marketed as safer than tobacco cigarettes and as smoking cessation aids.

In reality, these devices are addictive alternatives to smoking as most contain nicotine.

Devices like ecigarettes and vapes use eliquids which come in thousands of nicotine-containing flavours to appeal to the young. Once hooked on the illegal drug, they are likely to be addicted for life.Students are going to school carrying ENDS with them instead of books. They are using vapes and ecigarettes to consume nicotine.According to some disciplinary teachers, they have been confiscating more and more of these dangerous devices and eliquids from students who hide them in their school bags.

Compared to bulky cigarette packs, these devices can be easily concealed as some are as flat as a pack of chewing gum.

These students may forget to bring their school textbooks but they will not forget their precious devices.

More students are vaping because the devices are easily available everywhere. More shops have mushroomed and these unscrupulous traders are offering heavily discounted prices for students.

Often, such devices are sold to students through friends at lower prices because profits will come from the sale of eliquid refills to repeat customers who are addicted to nicotine.

The number of young vapers is increasing and it is worrying. We call them “nicotine students” or “nicotine youths”.

The devices, which do not smell as bad as tobacco cigarettes, have attracted girls who are picking up the habit to show independence and to rebel. They are now trying to keep up with the boys when it comes to vaping.

Students who bring these devices to school spread the unhealthy habit through influence and peer pressure.

When I saw two teenage girls vaping in front of a restaurant, I told them that vaping is bad for health. They told me they would do as they wished, laughed and walked off, puffing on their devices. There are some 1.5 million vapers in the country. People, especially students, using such devices are not aware of the dangers, including the presence of heavy metals in eliquids and the toxic effects of those chemicals on the body.

With conventional cigarettes making an exit, RIDs are set to replace these products in propagating nicotine addiction. It is estimated that 50 Malaysian youths will start on nicotine daily if we do not ban these devices immediately. The Health Ministry has announced that Malaysia will introduce a new law to ban smoking and the possession of tobacco products, including ecigarettes, for those born after 2005 to achieve the country’s goal of becoming a smoke-free generation by 2040.

How effective the law will be depends very much on whether it is strictly implemented. Even now, there is a law against the sale of eliquids containing nicotine but poor enforcement has seen retail outlets and convenience stores openly selling them even to children. Let’s not wait for the new law. Ban ecigarettes and vapes immediately to protect our children.

N.V. SUBBAROW

Senior education officer

Consumers Association of Penang (CAP)