A coalition of parents’ groups, public health groups, and consumer groups has held a press conference calling for the regulation of e-cigarettes. The press conference, held Friday, comes after reports of e-cigarettes in Taiwanese schools.
Speakers at Friday’s press conference said that e-cigarettes are a gateway to smoking for young people. They called on the government to amend the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act so that the law applies to e-cigarettes as well as conventional tobacco products. The head of the health ministry’s Health Promotion Administration, Wang Ying-wei, said that he will work with anti-tobacco groups to push for the regulation of e-cigarettes.
Wang said surveys show that more than 90% of the public support strengthening controls on e-cigarettes. Meanwhile, Wang said other surveys show that e-cigarette use is becoming more common among students. Between 2012 and 2013, the percentage of middle schools students who said they used e-cigarettes grew from 2% to 3%, while use among high school students grew from 2.1% to 4.1%.
Wang said his administration will submit a proposed revision of the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act at the end of October.