This summer, Hawai‘i became the first state to raise the smoking age to 21. That includes electronic cigarettes—a product that’s now coming under close scrutiny in one Asian country. HPR’s Bill Dorman has more in today’s Asia Minute.
Nobody else in Asia vapes like the Malaysians.
That market for electronic cigarettes and related products reportedly tops 200-million dollars. That’s according to one of the organizers of the “Vaporizer Convention Kuala Lumpur 2015”…who also claims it’s grown to be the biggest market for those products in Asia—trailing only the United States in the rest of the world.
Malaysia’s Health Minister now wants to ban electronic cigarettes - or at least tightly regulate their use. He says the health effects of vaping are still unknown. Opponents of a ban say vaping can help tobacco smokers quit that habit. Malaysia’s Minister of Rural and Regional Development says tobacco use is a far more serious problem in his country - and the Malay Mail Online reports he’d rather ban tobacco than vaping.
Malaysia’s National News Agency reports nearly 40% of Malaysian men are smokers - along with a little more than 1% of Malaysian women. The Health Minister says 20,000 Malaysians die each year because of tobacco use. Electronic cigarettes are regulated in Asia Pacific countries from Japan and the Philippines to Australia and New Zealand. And in neighboring Singapore - in about six weeks, electronic cigarettes will become illegal.
