Amid the push to greatly reduce the number of cigarette smokers in Malaysia, a panel of experts has agreed that providing people with alternatives like e-cigarettes could greatly assist in achieving that objective.
The experts provided their opinions at a media roundtable that took place in conjunction with the release of a report released in January, 2022 by the Datametrics Research and Information Center (DARE) titled Clearing the Smoke – A game-changer in Malaysian smoking issues.
The roundtable consisted of DARE managing director Pankaj Kumar, Dr. Arifin Fii – a medical expert with a focus on addiction therapies, and Dr. Steven Chow, who is the president of the Federation of Private Medical Practitioners' Associations Malaysia (FPMPAM).
During the session, Kumar suggested that proper regulation and education for vaping in Malaysia, if implemented soon enough, could actually drop the number of smokers in the country from five million to four million by the year 2025.
This figure was also present in DARE's report, which claimed that Malaysia's government could stand to save up to RM1.33 billion (US$320 million) in healthcare expenditure in 2025 alone, should such targets be met.
"I think it's vital for people to understand that these possible outcomes are not wild guesses," Kumar said. "Our report was based on data from international agencies, and our findings are consistent with the growing mountain of evidence on vape and smoking cessations."
He continued by saying that in order to get people to quit smoking cigarettes, it was vital that there be less harmful alternatives like vapes that have been proven to be effective in getting individuals to give up smoking tobacco products.
Arifin also once again pointed out that smoking was the single most preventable cause of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and that it would be wise for the authorities to continually assess strategies to reduce smoking habits among the people, even if it included providing them alternatives rather than outright banning the sales and consumption of cigarettes.
"In this space as a medical practitioner, I believe that public health is not served by discouraging adult smokers from switching to less harmful alternatives, nor by implementing overly restrictive regulations that stop existing consumers accessing these products," he said.
Chow also agreed with this, saying that while stopping smoking altogether by going cold turkey was the most ideal solution, it has been noted as being extremely difficult for most smokers – with most of them failing to achieve their goals and returning to old habits eventually.
"FPMPAM proposes that smoking cessation counselling and management should be part and parcel of the scope of work of specially-trained general and family practitioners," he said. "Doctors are the right professionals to advise patients on how to quit."
"With regards to vaping, the government should urgently enact risk-proportionate regulations. The regulations must be comprehensive and spell out safety standards for the device used as well as its contents."
With the vaping scene in Malaysia now having become pretty sizeable, regulators may soon impose stricter laws regarding the sales and consumption of vape products – which may well lead to a diminishing of the number of smokers in the country.
Back in August 2021, The Edge Markets reported that the local vaping industry had grown to capture around 42 percent of the tobacco market, surpassing illicit cigarettes (37 percent) and legal cigarettes (21 percent), although regulation for such a relatively new segment was still lacking.
Right now, there is still no real control over what is put into the e-liquids that can be readily found in stores throughout the country, nor has there been any enforcement on proper testing of products before they're allowed to go on sale.
Should Malaysia ever view vaping as a recommended alternative to traditional cigarettes, most consumers would likely hope that proper laws and regulations come into effect before anything else.
At the tabling of Malaysia's Budget 2022 last year, the government announced that it had plans to begin taxing the sales of e-cigarette and vape liquids, and in early 2022 it was also announced that there were plans to ban e-cigarettes and vapes (alongside traditional cigarettes) for all those born after 2005.
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Cover image sourced from Khazanah Research Institute and Malay Mail.
