Laws needed to prevent underage vaping, says Lee Lam Thye

PETALING JAYA: There is an urgent need to regulate vape products to combat underage vaping in the country, says Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye.

"There must be laws in place to regulate the sales of vape products – especially to prevent sales to minors.

"Sales of vape products containing nicotine are unsupervised but we do not have any regulations to monitor it," he said when contacted on Sunday (Sept 24).

Lee, who is the Alliance for Safe Community chairman, said current laws do not cover nicotine-based vaping products purchased by youths since its removal from the Poisons List in April this year.

Lee was supporting Vape Consumer Association of Malaysia (VCAM) president Tengku Aslahuddin Ja'afar's call for the government to form proper regulatory framework on vape products to curb underage vaping.

Lee also suggested schools should include dangers of tobacco and nicotine-based vape liquids in the school syllabus.

He said the Health Ministry estimated there are five million smokers in the country, of which 1.5 million are those who vape.

"My concern now is for young people as vape liquids come in fruity flavours and contain nicotine," he said.