KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Vape Chamber of Commerce (MVCC) hopes the new act that will be introduced to regulate the vape industry will allow sale of regulated vape liquid with nicotine.
This is following recent statement from Ministry of Health last week where discussion relating to the new act to regulate the vaping industry is in the final process before it is being tabled to the Cabinet and Parliament next year.
"The industry supports regulations to regulate the vape industry to be introduced as soon as possible and also call for the regulations to take into consideration the direction and development of this industry especially on the use of vape liquid with nicotine.
"In the UK, Canada, New Zealand and neighbouring ASEAN countries such as Philippines and Indonesia, sale and use of vape liquid with nicotine is allowed as regulated consumer products and the amount of nicotine in the vape liquid is capped," MVCC president Syed Azaudin Syed Ahmad said in a recent statement.
Hence, the industry calls for the government to introduce regulations to allow sale of vape liquid with nicotine where the nicotine level does not exceed 5 per cent of the total liquid content and sold as a regulated consumer product, consistent with other countries that also introduced regulations to regulate the vape industry, Syed Azaudin said.
Further, the industry also regrets over the recent incidents that took place in the United States.
Investigation from the United States authorities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed most cases that happened came from misuse of vape product linked to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) that are found in marijuana.
"We hope all parties especially the Ministry of Health take an objective view and consider the result of this investigation. The incidents happened because of misuse of vape and not as stated by various parties who made confusing statements and frighten the public about danger of vape nicotine,” said Syed Azaudin.
On some suggestions from certain parties for government to ban sale and use of vape nicotine in Malaysia, Syed Azaudin said domestic industry is developing in parallel to the fast development of this industry at the global level and it has created more jobs in Malaysia, attracts domestic and foreign investment and contributed millions of ringgit to the country’s economy apart from reducing the number of cigarette smokers.
"Should the government ban the sale and use of vape, it will give a negative impact to the economy and sends a message that the government supports the cigarette industry even though cigarettes that also contain nicotine has been proven to be more harmful than vape nicotine," he said.
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