BANGKOK, Oct 2 (TNA) – The director of the Tobacco Control Research and Knowledge Management Centre (TRC) supports the Thai government’s ban on electronic cigarettes as India has just done the same and vaping-related deaths soared in the United States.
Dr Ronnachai Kongsakon, the director, said about 15 people died of vaping and 805 others fell sick from the same cause in the US while Thailand banned the import, sale and possession of e-cigarettes.
Many countries were concerned about vaping-related health problems and India announced its ban on e-cigarettes on Sept 18, he said.
According to him, Indian academics considered as baseless a report from England released on Aug 19, 2015, which claimed e-cigarettes were 95% safer than cigarettes. The report referred to the opinions of 12 writers and one-third of them were stakeholders in the tobacco industry.
Electronic cigarettes used nicotine and would otherwise increase the number of people addicted to the carcinogenic substance in India, Dr Ronnachai said.
Dr Ronnachai said that TRC sent its policy proposals that supported the e-cigarette ban to Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit and he hoped that the minister was well aware of the threats of e-cigarettes because the minister won the World No Tobacco Day Award. (TNA)
