HPA eyes ban on vaping, heated tobaccoBy Lin Hui-chin, Wu Liang-yi and Dennis Xie / Staff reporters, with staff writerThe Health Promotion Administration (HPA) yesterday announced draft amendments to the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act (菸害防制法) that would ban the local sale and manufacture of vaping devices and novel tobacco products such as e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products. The agency said that it drafted the amendments to provide a legal basis for the regulation of products such as e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products — also known as non-combusted cigarettes — which are not included in the act. One amendment would raise the legal age for smoking and the minimum age for buying tobacco products from 18 to 20, it said. A survey released on Thursday by the agency found that smoking among young people and vaping rates increased last year. The smoking of cigarettes and e-cigarettes by junior-high and high-school students last year increased for the first time since the act took effect in 2009, HPA Tobacco Control Division Director Chen Miao-hsin (陳妙心) said.

Source: Taipei Times May 29, 2020 15:56 UTC