THE VAPING industry is facing its biggest ever crisis after more than 30 countries banned vaping products and e-cigarettes, even though vaping is less harmful compared to smoking.
In Asia, countries which have banned vaping or e-cigarettes include China, India and Singapore.
The Philippines has gone a step further by ordering the arrest of anyone caught vaping.
Indonesia may the next Asian country to ban the practice after it voiced concerns over vaping effects, Bloomberg reported.
The vaping industry in Southeast Asia might suffer paralysis if Indonesia, the second-largest tobacco market in the world, joins its neighbours in the ban.
A decision is likely to be announced soon, as Anung Sugihantono, the Health Ministry’s director general of disease control and prevention, was quoted this week as saying:
“The ministry’s stance is consistent: we want to ban, not limit, vaping and e-cigarettes,” he said.
This follows a case in central Philippines where a teenager, who had been vaping for six months and smoking cigarettes, was diagnosed with a lung injury.
It is the first known case in Asia of a mystery illness that has killed 47 people in the US and afflicted over 2,000, said Bloomberg.
In early November, China asked e-commerce platforms and businesses to close online stores that sell e-cigarette products, partly to prevent minors from purchasing them.
With 300 million smokers, China is the biggest tobacco market in the world, said Channel News Asia.
While the debate continues about the risks associated with vaping, The Independent pointed out that despite the reported deaths and injuries, one must also consider the eight million smokers who die every year as a result of smoking tobacco.
"Any potential harms of using e-cigarettes must always be considered in comparison to the many known harms of continuing to smoke tobacco," said the paper.
For example, it said, tobacco smoke contains around 7,000 chemicals, at least 70 of which are directly and conclusively linked to developing cancer.
The newspaper also said that experience shows that moves to stop vaping are not the answer.
"Recent observational evidence suggests that in the UK alone, around 50,000 smokers who take up e-cigarettes quit smoking every year.
“It is also clear from the data that, since the use of e-cigarettes took off, the prevalence of tobacco smoking in the UK has declined.”
Moreover, it said, banning e-cigarettes will, instead, fuel the illicit economy, exposing more people to the ill effects of unregulated products.