Vietnam Holds Tobacco Harm Control Seminar as Experts Urge Rejection of Heated Tobacco Pilot Program

Vietnamese experts are calling for a ban on the circulation of e-cigarettes in order to reduce tobacco-related harm. In light of the rising rate of e-cigarette use, Vietnam is considering imposing a ban on e-cigarettes to address the issue.

Breaking news: According to VietnamPlus, on Thursday, November 23, Vietnam’s Ministry of Information and Communications, together with the Ministry of Health’s Tobacco Control Fund, organized a meeting in Hanoi aimed at improving communication capacity for tobacco harm prevention and control. 

According to data from the Tobacco Control Fund, 8 million people die from smoking worldwide each year, including about 1 million from secondhand smoke. In Vietnam, the figure is 40,000. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the global economic loss caused by tobacco reaches as much as US$1.4 trillion per year. In Vietnam, the cost of combating the negative effects of tobacco amounts to about 1% of GDP. 

In 2022, according to a survey on tobacco use among adolescents aged 13 to 15, the e-cigarette use rate in this age group was 3.5%, a significant increase over the 2.6% recorded in 2019 over the span of three years. 

In response to the growing number of young people using tobacco products, especially heated tobacco, Dr. Nguyên Thi Thu Huong of the Tobacco Control Fund recommended not approving a heated tobacco pilot program, in order to prevent e-cigarettes from entering the Vietnamese market under the name of heated tobacco. 

Meanwhile, Nguyen Trung Nguyen, Director of the Poison Control Center at Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi, proposed an immediate ban on the circulation of e-cigarettes in Vietnam.