Allowing Legal Sales and Proving the Effectiveness of Smoking Cessation Aids, More and More Countries Are Recognizing E-cigarettes!
Since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first authorized the legal sale of e-cigarettes in the United States in October 2021, more and more countries have begun to recognize e-cigarettes, adjust regulatory policies, and promote the legalization and standardization of e-cigarettes in their countries.
The most obvious action is the Southeast Asian country Malaysia. E-cigarettes have long been regulated as drugs in Malaysia due to their nicotine content. But in October of this year, Malaysian Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz said when submitting the 2022 budget that the government planned to impose a consumption tax on e-cigarettes. This is seen as an important signal for Malaysia to lift the ban on e-cigarettes.
Countries such as Thailand and Egypt are also changing their attitudes towards e-cigarettes. Egypt has repealed the ban on e-cigarettes that has been in place since 2015, according to the Middle East Cross-border E-commerce Hui. Similarly, Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn, a Thai politician and Minister of Digital Economy and Society, said he was exploring ways to legalize e-cigarettes.
What makes these countries uncharacteristically? Let's first look at the United States, which "gives the green light for e-cigarettes for the first time ever".
The FDA passed the PMTA (Premarket Tobacco Application) review of three e-cigarette products for the first time, because "there is data to prove that these three products are more likely to be used by smokers to reduce their risk of tobacco harm". That is to say, after layers of testing, the FDA believes that these three e-cigarette products can help smokers reduce harm.
E-cigarettes have also been proven to aid smoking cessation. The latest "Report on the Scientific Basis of Tobacco Product Regulation: The Eighth Report of the WHO Research Group" published on the official website of the World Health Organization (WHO) pointed out that in some cases, e-cigarettes can help some smokers quit smoking and have a positive impact on public health. The constantly updated authoritative research conclusions have become the scientific basis for the country to adjust the electronic cigarette regulatory policy.
In addition to this, there are voices from the public. According to media reports, the results of a national opinion survey in Malaysia showed that 58% of the respondents agreed that e-cigarettes have the effect of reducing harm, and 51% of the respondents said that among all smoking cessation methods, using e-cigarettes to assist smoking cessation is the most practical and most effective. Safety. As of now, there are more than 1 million e-cigarette users in Malaysia.
In fact, countries around the world have seen the huge potential of e-cigarettes in reducing smoking rates. Two countries, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, also use e-cigarettes as an official smoking cessation tool.
New Zealand, located in Oceania, released a regulatory plan for e-cigarettes as early as 2018 to support smokers switching to e-cigarettes. Recently, in order to popularize e-cigarettes to the public, the New Zealand Health Promotion Agency also set up a channel dedicated to popularizing the truth about e-cigarettes, clearly stating that "e-cigarettes are much less harmful than smoking" and "e-cigarettes can help some people quit smoking."
Data show that in the UK, which was the first to recognize the effectiveness of e-cigarettes to assist smoking cessation, the national smoking rate has plummeted from 21% in 2011 to 15% in 2020. On October 29, the United Kingdom, which had tasted the sweetness, set an example again by "incorporating electronic cigarettes into medical insurance". The NHS says it will use e-cigarettes as a prescription drug to help smokers quit. This means the UK will be the first country in the world to license a medical product for e-cigarettes.
With the emergence of more authoritative scientific research conclusions on e-cigarettes, the global regulatory situation of e-cigarettes is becoming clearer. "Regulating e-cigarettes should not be done in the same way as cigarettes. E-cigarettes can be seen as an opportunity to control tobacco to finally achieve a 'new era' of a smoke-free future." The WHO Tobacco Panel's latest report reads.
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