Consider This: Can Malaysia Ban Vape by 2026? (Part 1)

AWANI

Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad recently announced that Malaysia is moving towards a nationwide ban on the sale and use of vapes by mid-2026, and that government consultations are underway on the legal, economic and enforcement aspects. On this episode of #ConsiderThis Melisa Idris speaks with Dr Nur Amani Ahmad Tajuddin, Associate Professor in the Department of Primary Care Medicine at Universiti Malaya’s Faculty of Medicine. She is also the Deputy Coordinator of UM’s Nicotine Addiction Research and Collaborating Group.

Transcript

00:00hello and good evening i'm melissa idris welcome to consider this this is the show where we want

00:15you to consider and then reconsider what you know of the news of the day after the collapse of the

00:21generational end game bill the geg malaysia is once again debating how to regulate nicotine

00:28products health minister dr zokifle ahma recently announced that malaysia is moving towards a

00:34nationwide ban of the sale and use of vapes by mid-2026 and that the government consultations

00:41are now underway on the legal economic and enforcement aspects of enforcing this ban now

00:48will this be another public health breakthrough towards a nicotine free malaysia or could it be

00:55another policy that may be may prove difficult to implement and enforce joining me on the show

01:03to discuss this further is dr noor amani ahmad tajuddin who is an associate professor in the

01:07department of primary care medicine at university malaysia's faculty of medicine she is also the

01:12deputy coordinator of um's nicotine addiction research and collaborating group dr amani it's

01:18good of you to join me on the show today so with the nationwide ban that's been announced that will

01:23take place or will happen by mid next year i'm just wondering whether um what are your thoughts are

01:30whether this kind of phased approach to implementing a ban is the right way to go what what do you think

01:36from a public health perspective is it the right method the right approach all right hi hi melissa

01:41thank you for um having me um well if you ask me because i'm from primary care medicine uh i am pro for

01:49health so i would say that it is the right approach um having this um vape ban um this faced a ban in

01:57malaysia that um we are seeing now um especially when we see that on the 1st of of october that you

02:05know um when there is a ban of point of sale so that is one of the initiative that is uh being taken by

02:13our ministry of health which uh must be applaud so i think the practicality of this faced approach

02:20it allows the regulators businesses and consumers to adapt rather than face sudden disruption for them

02:29and also making enforcement more realistic but in the perspective of public health priority the ban

02:36actually aligns with uh malaysia's tobacco and game strategy that we are moving towards 2040

02:41uh where the prevalence should be less than five percent of smokers in malaysia so what we are trying

02:46to do is to reduce the exposure to nicotine addiction particularly among youth and also children and also

02:54when we talk about youth protection we're trying to gradually remove um aggressive marketing towards

03:01teenagers and also prevent new generation uh from becoming nicotine dependent so that's uh my take on this

03:08um face back then can i ask you about vapes let's um zoom out a little bit and talk about um

03:16the narratives around vapes some people some quarters argue that vape is being used as a tool to quit

03:23smoking and then on the other side there are those who say well actually that narrative is is tobacco

03:29industry driven what does independent science actually say about this okay i think when we talk about

03:36independent science is um the evidence based based on studies done from researchers especially in the

03:44medical fraternity so if we look at a study done in 2013 actually so this was more than 10 years but

03:51it has been proven from 2013 this was a study done by prof chris bullen in new zealand where they had

03:58650 smokers who wanted to quit and they were divided into different groups there was three groups number one

04:05people using nicotine um e-cigarettes number two is nicotine patches and the third group was non-nicotine

04:12e-cigarettes so what um it shows here was that this e-cigarette whether it contains nicotine or non-nicotine

04:21is not more effective than these patches why is this because after six months the quit rates for all these

04:29groups were about the same only like seven percent out of 100 um quit with nicotine e-cigarettes only

04:37six out of 100 quit with nicotine patches and only four out of 100 quit with non-nicotine e-cigarettes i

04:43would like to highlight another um another important thing in this study is that they found that these um

04:51people who were the participants in this study they actually became dual user which means that um instead

04:58from switching from cigarette to um e-cigarette they were actually using both at the same time during

05:04this um study duration so um it doesn't help in people to quit um actually another study that looks

05:13into this is um a systematic review and meta-analysis which was published in 2016 in the lancet respiratory

05:20medicine so um it the the summary of this is that um people who use e-cigarettes were actually 28

05:28likely to successfully quit smoking a regular cigarette so this has been proven and there are

05:35so many many other studies to show that e-cigarette is not an effective tool to quit conventional cigarette

05:42okay then having said that then should we should governments treat cigarette vapes like cigarettes because

05:50if we think about cigarettes they're not banned they're still legal but just tightly regulated

05:55while vapes may be banned altogether so if we see cigarettes and vapes and e-cigarettes in the same

06:02category should we be treating them similarly with um vaping with strict controls um or do you think

06:08there is still a case for complete prohibition okay so the question here is uh why not and why can't we

06:16um have a complete prohibition um of e-cigarettes because we are seeing um um reports you know case reports

06:25cases when they are admitted to the hospital with um e-liquid uh being contaminated or manipulated with

06:35um illicit drugs so um talking about this when by by reading observing and analyzing the evidence you know

06:42um we should have we can have strict control on vape and also the vaping habit itself um if you ask me

06:51personally complete prohibition would be the way to go actually to save our young young people the young

06:58generation however we are seeing that if there is complete prohibition of this there will be a lot of

07:04repercussion on this so yes for now strict control very strict control control on vape uh vaping um habit

07:13um is a must uh tight uh and street enforcement must uh be done from now onwards um when either either

07:21street control or complete prohibition there will be people in the industry talking about oh then it will be

07:28sold in the black market people can still get it from the black market um yes they can still get it from

07:34the black market similarly with the conventional cigarette however if we do not start now it will

07:40get worse and worse now now um you know the vape juice is easily modifiable um when they say about this

07:47they said that the open system is easily modifiable they can add on other materials into the e-liquid however

07:55when we talk to people who are actually vape users or vapor they even say that the closed system can actually

08:02be manipulated so other illicit substances can still be inserted into the e-juice under the closed

08:09system so um yeah we have got to be um you know stakeholders have got to come in and put in their

08:17ideas on how to solve this problem but we have got to have for now strict control but uh moving forward

08:23because we are aiming for uh smoke-free malaysia 2040 complete prohibition would be the way forward

08:29well dr money you're a family medicine specialist um and i do i do wonder for the parents who are

08:36watching right now for the um school leaders the community health um service providers what do we do to

08:45ensure that um we prevent initiation of young people to vaping in the lead up to the ban uh in 2026.

08:56okay so number one is um everybody who has the knowledge or if you do not have the knowledge

09:03go read up about it listen to talks on the danger of vape and also still you have to talk about

09:09cigarette also make noises but smart and educated noises not just team kosong you know so um you know we

09:17have to prevent new vapors and smokers by continuous education and awareness program so at every level of the

09:24community in our society everybody must actually realize that vape is dangerous and damaging not

09:31just to the physical or mental health but to our financial health country economy and environmental

09:37health so what university malaya is doing we are having this um henti elak basini asap tembakau or we

09:43call it hebat program so we have been collaborating with multiple government agencies uh we are a partner of

09:49m quick program um and also we partner with public and private universities to actually educate um

09:55school and also the people in the university so that they can go out um to educate more um in the

10:03society on the um on how you you know to prevent the uptake of cigarette on how to stop smoking and also how

10:11to stop vaping so we also do it with the ngos and interest industry so um education knowledge and helping

10:19people in this vape um area is a long battle to fight for but parents teachers ourselves you know um

10:29anybody who's listening now we should help them to keep so now the important thing is that um if you

10:36will notice that children or teenagers they are being penalized they are undergoing harsh punishment

10:43if they are found to be vaping in their school however um for my opinion i think they are the victim of

10:52the industry so what it should be done for them is for us to help them to quit make them realize that yes

11:00their action was not correct however there are available help out there but parents please

11:05realize that if you find that your children or teenagers are vaping please help them do not

11:12punish them you they need help and you do not want them to run away from you so seek help for them

11:18because they need your support so yeah um and also another thing is that um you know um the uh

11:25marketing of this we have got to control the marketing of vape products in the social media

11:30especially and also the marketing of these uh products by influencers and celebrities in

11:35malaysia that is among the way that we can curb the use of vape in malaysia thank you so much

11:43dr amani for giving us some food of food for thought today appreciate your time that was associate

11:48professor dr noor amani ahmad tajuddin from um's faculty of medicine there we're going to take a quick

11:54break here and consider this we'll be back with more stay tuned

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