PETALING JAYA: Malaysia is currently facing a serious “double burden” contributed by smoking of conventional cigarettes and electronic cigarettes, says Malaysian Association of Adolescent Health president Prof Dr Mohamad Haniki Nik Mohamed.
He said this has worsened due to high smoking prevalence among adolescents aged 13 to 15 – who are dual users – for both conventional cigarettes and electronic cigarettes.
“Vaping is popular among our youths and it renormalises smoking behaviour as well as acts as a gateway to conventional smoking among new smokers.
“The THR concept applied in other countries may not work given the context of ecigarettes use in Malaysia.
“Furthermore, it is heavily promoted by the tobacco industry, which also produces their own brands of ecigarettes. So it actually promotes harm substitution or even creation, given that more harmful effects of ecigarettes smoking and exposure are identified,” he said.
In a recent poll by Malaysia think tank DARE (Datametrics Research & Information Centre) conducted by market research Green Zebras, the majority (80%) of Malaysians believe that the adoption of tobacco harm reduction (THR) strategies in the country will help smokers quit traditional tobacco cigarettes.
The poll on “Clearing the Smoke: An Insight on Tobacco Harm Reduction”, also revealed that over half of the respondents (58%) are aware of multiple studies that have proven THR products to be less harmful than traditional cigarettes.
Of all the THR products available, about half of the respondents (51%) indicated that vaping was the most practical and safest way to quit smoking.
Public Health England, the UK’s leading public health agency, found that vape products were the most popular method used by consumers who wanted to try to quit smoking.
Since the THR’s strategy of using vape products to help reduce smoking habits has been implemented, two million smokers have successfully quit smoking between 2011 and 2019.
Dr Haniki added that if the generational endgame is not implemented soon, the country will also bear a greater burden of long-term treatment costs associated with smoking due to the fact that the percentage of smokers will be the same or even higher.
“With an estimated population growth of 1.5% in five years as well as an increase in medical cost of 5% yearly for the cost of treatment for service providers and diseases, the government will bear the cost of treating only three diseases due to conventional smoking (lung cancer, heart attack and chronic obstructive airway disease) by as much as RM8.77bil in 2030
“The projected number of electronic cigarette users was calculated based on an incidence rate of 0.04% and treatment costs were calculated based on ward admission for four days and ward admission for 12 days.
“With the percentage of electronic cigarettes used at the current rate, the government will bear the cost of treatment of RM369mil by 2030,” he said.
On the issue of illegal cigarettes, he said that it needs to be controlled simultaneously and that enforcement must be tightened by the relevant agencies in accordance with the implementation of generational endgame.