KUALA LUMPUR: The Advanced Centre for Addiction Treatment Advocacy (ACATA) has expressed disagreement with the government's move to ban less harmful alternatives, including vape.
President Dr Arifin Fii said that while it is encouraging to see the government's commitment to reducing smoking prevalence in the country, a sweeping, catch-all ban that includes harm-reduced products such as vape will be counter-productive.
Dr Arifin said the tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats to the world, killing more than 8 million people a year, including around 1.2 million deaths from exposure to second-hand smoke.
It kills 27,200 Malaysians annually.
"The stagnating Malaysian prevalence of smoking warrants a more realistic solution in tackling the country's smoking problem.
"Misinformation and inaccurate theories will certainly not improve, let alone solve the problem," he said in a statement today.
Dr Arifin said there is substantial and credible evidence to support that vape products are much less harmful than smoking.
"Evidence also shows that vaping efficiently helps smokers to quit.
"Further, studies have shown that the percentage of never smokers who take up vape is significantly small. This is especially true in Malaysia," he said.
A local study in 2020 found that only 0.6 per cent of non-smokers use vape, debunking the fact that vape appeals to new users.
Therefore, Dr Arifin said it is very inapprehensible for the government to take such a counter-productive measure which will deny current smokers access to vape, a less harmful alternative to tobacco smoking, which causes an overwhelming number of deaths.
He said this move sends a wrong message to current smokers as the government portrays vaping as harmful as traditional cigarettes without any differentiation.
"The ban on less harmful alternatives, including vape will make it inaccessible and thus make quitting smoking harder for current smokers.
"As a result, Malaysia's smoking prevalence will continue to stagnate, if not grow, over the next decade.
"ACATA believes that it is important for all stakeholders to work together to develop an appropriate regulatory approach which provides consumers who might otherwise continue to smoke the accessibility and the confidence to use less harmful products," Dr Arifin said.
