According to Taiwan media reports, Taiwan is still not up to the curiosity of teenagers even though it is prohibited to heat non combustible products. The utilization rate of middle school students is 2.33%, which is not only comparable to that of South Korea, which has opened heating and non combustion products, but even higher than that of American teenagers.
According to statistics, 5.65% of Taiwan’s junior high school and senior high school students use paper cigarettes, 2.74% use electronic cigarettes, and 2.33% do not burn when heated. In particular, male students, senior students, and parents who smoke have a higher proportion of using heating without burning. Teenagers’ curiosity about new types of cigarettes is undermining the effectiveness of smoking bans. A new study in the United States has found that teenagers’ use of heated cigarettes has overtaken that of adults.
The “Ministry of health and welfare” of the Taiwan authorities proposed a draft amendment to the “law on prevention and control of tobacco hazards” in May this year, which completely banned electronic cigarettes, but the positioning of heating cigarettes was unclear. The authorities said they are still collecting opinions from all parties and hope to get the draft into the priority bill of the next session of the “Legislative Yuan” to protect the health of young people.
Some medical experts say that heated cigarettes are not as attractive to young people as the tobacco companies claim. Even as many as 75% of the young users of heated cigarettes smoke electronic cigarettes at the same time, and 43% smoke paper cigarettes at the same time. According to the information disclosed by tobacco companies, there are 41 kinds of harmful substances in e-cigarettes and 62 kinds in heated cigarettes.
Some scholars have also called for the ban on heated cigarettes in Taiwan, but the use rate of young people has been so high that the authorities should not delay any more. They must amend the “law on prevention and control of tobacco hazards” as soon as possible, so as to completely ban electronic cigarettes and heated cigarettes, and strengthen the education on the hazards of new tobacco products.
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