Training to get youths off vaping

A WORLD Health Organisation global report released last year estimates that 15 million adolescents aged 13 to 15 were using e-cigarettes. In countries with available data, adolescents were, on average, nine times more likely to vape than adults.

In Malaysia, the National Health and Morbidity Survey 2022 showed that e-cigarette and vape use among Malaysians aged 13 to 17 rose from 9.8% in 2017 to 14.9% in 2022.

Sweet flavours, colourful packaging, discreet devices and social media promotion have made vaping appear fashionable, modern and harmless to young people.

But vape liquids are not as harmless as they are claimed to be because they may contain nicotine that can lead to addiction, other toxic chemicals and, increasingly, substances never meant to be inhaled outside a hospital or laboratory.

These materials are particularly harmful to children and adolescents whose brains are still developing.

Moreover, vapes are increasingly being used as delivery devices for illicit and psychoactive drugs. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has warned that unregulated vape liquids have been found to contain synthetic cannabinoids, ketamine, methamphetamine, etomidate (a fast-acting, short-duration intravenous general anaesthetic and sedative) and even powerful synthetic opioids.

These products may be mislabelled, contain unpredictable concentrations or combined with several substances, leaving users unaware of what they are inhaling.

Last month, the Home Ministry reported that the authorities had seized 718.43kg of vape and e-cigarette products suspected of containing prohibited substances since 2023, involving 585 arrests and 400 cases. In the first five months of 2026, 267 arrests were recorded, almost twice the total for the whole of 2025.

The authorities have also warned that these products are increasingly being targeted at young people, including schoolchildren, through social media.

The Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Act 2024 (Act 852) prohibits the sale (including online) of any regulated product and provision of smoking-related services to minors.

But legislation alone will not give a teenager the confidence to resist peer pressure, question an influencer’s claims or recognise the early signs of addiction in a friend. This is why community education and youth advocacy matter.

On July 15, Universiti Malaya, the Muallim District Health Office and Politeknik Sultan Azlan Shah (PSAS) jointly organised the “HEBAT – Henti. Elak. Basmi Asap Tembakau” Training of Trainers programme. This strategic collaboration united healthcare professionals, educators and students around one shared purpose: to develop knowledgeable and confident advocates capable of carrying tobacco- and vape-prevention messages into their institutions and communities.

Participants explored the background of tobacco control and policy, the health, environmental and economic harms of tobacco and vape products, smoking-cessation support, media ethics and persuasive communication.

They also analysed misleading media messages and developed social-media advocacy materials capable of competing in the same digital spaces where vaping products and harmful behaviours are promoted.

Most importantly, the Training of Trainers model transformed participants from passive listeners into multipliers of change. Each advocate can reach classmates, colleagues, families and communities.

The programme does not end when the workshop closes; that is when its real work begins.

Another HEBAT Training of Trainers programme will be held at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris later this year.

We must stop describing youth vaping as merely a lifestyle choice. It is often an engineered pathway to nicotine dependence and, for some young people, a route to dangerous illicit substances.

A tobacco- and vape-free generation will not be created by fear alone. It will be built through truthful education, trusted relationships, consistent enforcement and young advocates prepared to protect one another.

DR CHONG KARLEEN

and DR MOHD HAFYZUDDIN MD YUSUF

Universiti Malaya

(The writers are fellows of the Nicotine Addiction Research and Collaborating Centre.)