Establish regulations regarding underage vaping

PETALING JAYA: Immediate guidelines and rules on selling vape products to children are needed, say groups representing e-cigarette and vape traders.

Malaysian Organisation of Vape Entity president Samsul Kamal Ariffin said vape shops are finding it difficult to differentiate certain minors from adults due to the lack of legislation governing the law on vaping.

“Vape shops are forced to self-regulate to identify and prevent minors from buying nicotine-based vape products, which is challenging due to the lack of legal control tools.

“Shop assistants are not legally allowed to force a suspected minor to show their identification card to buy vape products. Only police are allowed to do so.

“Instead, shop assistants must depend solely on their own judgment or ask the customer to voluntarily prove their age before deciding whether to kick them out of the store.

“This can get very confusing as there are plenty of minors whose growth spurts make them look like adults while some legal adults look like they are still schooling, adding to the fact that adult-looking minors can easily lie about their age.

“Like in the recent viral video, we never get to see the supposedly young girl’s face or stature, which could easily have resembled a young adult’s,” he said, referencing a recent viral video released by international news agency Al-Jazeera on July 16.

The video, part of a documentary on the rise of vaping, has since been widely shared online, with former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin commenting that Malaysia has become like a “Wild West” for vape products.

Samsul added that the government should consider developing temporary measures for vape shops until the Generational Endgame (GEG) Bill can be passed.

“We will continue to condemn vape shops that sell to minors openly and willingly. However, the government must either pass the GEG Bill as soon as possible or at least develop some guidelines for self-regulating vape shops to follow and enforce,” he said.

Malaysia Vape Industry of Advocacy (MVIA) president Rizani Zakaria noted that the lack of regulation had resulted in an over-saturation of vape products; even non-vape stores are selling vape products.

“The issue now isn’t just vape stores selling vape products, but that every other store and even restaurants are selling vapes due to the lack of regulation or control.

“With vapes usually placed right at the checkout counter and nearly every shop or mamak restaurant selling them, it increases the likelihood that young, curious students will begin vaping due to constant exposure.”

He added that the supply of vape products also needs to be regulated to prevent oversupply in stores.

However, Consumers Association of Penang education officer NV Subbarow said that a direct, immediate ban will be more effective at curbing vaping among children.

“I have spoken to over 3,000 students below 12 years old that have begun vaping, and none of them said they had ever been asked for their particulars at any vape store,” he revealed.

Half of the 3,000 students also said they sourced their vapes from online stores, which will remain untouched as any temporary vape sales laws or regulations will only target physical stores, he said.

“An immediate hard ban on all vape products has to be done to curb this excessive increase in vaping among children until the GEG is passed,” he said.

Last year, the then health minister Khairy tabled the GEG Bill to ban tobacco sales to the generation born after 2007, which saw wide public and institutional support.

Passing the Bill has since been repeatedly delayed, with the date for the second reading of the bill still unknown as the Health Ministry awaits a report from the Parliamentary Special Select Committee on Health.

However, on April 1, the ministry decided to exempt nicotine liquids and gels as controlled substances under the Poisons Act 1952, allowing them to be sold on the open market and taxed.

The move resulted in a complete absence of government regulation on vaping, which has since been met with significant backlash by health experts and anti-smoking groups.