Cabinets decision not to ban vaping must be

respected, says Khairy

By:

A Azim Idris
Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin stresses the need for regulation with regards to
vaping. TRP pic by Mokhsin Zamani
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KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8, 2015:

The Cabinets decision not to ban e-cigarette smoking in the country must be respected, said
Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.
Without intending to interven into other ministries affairs, Khairy said the stance not to outlaw
vaping was clear, despite opposing views among the ministries involved.
The decision has been made and is final and the Health Ministry must take clear action on this.
Now it (Health Ministry) has formed a special task force (on vaping) and we hope that it would
not proceed with conducting raids on the shops (involved), he told reporters after attending the
National Inter-Varsity Debating Championship 2015.
In a Twitter posting earlier today, Khairy called on the government to ban cigarettes as well if it
wanted to proceed with the proposed ban on vaping.
I favour strong regulation for both. But if going to ban one, ban both. Plus weve spent way too
much time on this, he tweeted.
Asked to elaborate on the posting, Khairy said he weighed in on the issue because there had been
to much speculation on the matter.

He added that many quarters among the youth have voiced their opinions which he conveyed in
the Cabinet meeting and had reiterated on social media.
Last week, the Health Ministry launched a wide-scale offensive against shops selling nicotinelaced e-cigarette refills, which saw hundreds of shops being raided nationwide and millions of
ringgit worth of products seized.
Cabinet had decided not to haramkan (illegalise), so I hope the seizures would not continue.
If it (Health Ministry) wants to continue confiscating (the e-liquids), it must first hold
discussions with the entrepreneurs because we must remember that the traders opened the
businesses when there were no rules (on vaping).
They (traders) have made large investments and suddenly had all their stock seized which had
burdened their businesses, Khairy said, adding that he felt that the raids were done in a rash
manner.
However, Khairy said he understood that this was a health issue, which was why he stressed the
need for regulation. He also urged traders in the industry to remain patient despite being affected
by the raids.
I hope the Health Ministry can make rules to regulate the industry as soon as possible so that
everyone would be clear on the amount of nicotine that could be contained in a single bottle, and
so on, so that the entrepreneurs can know clearly what they can or cannot do, the Rembau
parliamentarian said.
Khairy, when asked, also agreed with veteran politican Tan Sri Rafidah Azizs remarks on
Facebook that vaping addiction should not be an aspiration among the nations youth.
Of course, we should not aspire to vape or to smoke. I mean, as a sports minister, I dont want
youths to aspire to vape or to smoke, although the risk of vaping is lower than cigarettes, it still
has its risks.
But what I am saying here is in terms of the industry we cannot prevent our people from
making personal decisions on whether or not they want to smoke.
But we can have campaigns to explain to them on the dangers of cigarettes and vaping,
although in the end, they (people) make the decision.
As a Youth and Sports Minister, I do not encourage them to smoke or to vape and this surely
should not be an aspiration for the youth.
Nevertheless, what we are discussing here is the need for regulation in the industry, he added.

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