# Myanmar - Possible ban on e-cigs



## Hooked (25/2/20)

https://www.frontiermyanmar.net/en/a-clouded-future-for-e-cigarettes-in-myanmar
24 Feb. 2020

The law is vague on the status of vaping in Myanmar, and the Ministry of Health and Sports may ban e-cigarettes before changes can be made to the relevant legislation.

... the growing prevalence of e-cigarettes has also caught the attention of the Ministry of Health and Sports. On October 3, 2019, the ministry warned on its website about the negative health effects of e-cigarettes and recommended that the public abstain from using them...

For now, the sale and use of e-cigarettes remains legal because the 2006 Control of Smoking and Consumption of Tobacco Product Law does not mention them.

But Dr Aung Tun, an adviser at the Ministry of Health and Sports, told Frontier that the ministry was preparing to amend the law to ban the sale and use of e-cigarettes.

Because it will take “a long time” to enact the changes to the law, the ministry “is considering taking pre-emptive action and issuing orders to ban the import and sale of e-cigarettes”, he added.

It is planning to focus on the role played by importers, Aung Tun said, because the e-cigarettes are either smuggled into Myanmar, or brought in by declaring them as medical devices....Either way, he said, they are being imported illegally.

The National Tobacco Control Committee led by the Minister of Health and Sports will meet later this month to take up the issue, he said. “The meeting will talk about the processes and routes for importing e-cigarettes and will come up with action plans.”

An official from the Consumer Protection Team, which inspects some products that are imported through Yangon port, such as food and health items, said it allowed e-cigarettes to be brought into the country because they had not been explicitly banned by the Ministry of Commerce.

Reactions: Informative 1


----------

