Vapeboss – The vape industry's efforts to reduce the number of smokers continue to face challenges. Although vape products are considered safer than cigarettes, there is still widespread misinformation that misleads the public about these products. To make the vape industry successful in reducing the number of smokers, the fight against misinformation must be more aggressive.

"As part of the community that uses alternative tobacco products and actively reaches out to the government to change policies on them, I am always confronted with misinformation circulating in society," said Samsul K Arifin, Head of the Malaysian Organization of Vape Entity (MOVE).

At the Innovation Summit Southeast Asia 2023 held on Wednesday (10/5/2023) at the Asia School of Business, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Samsul explained that he was often surprised by one piece of misinformation stating "e-cigarettes cause erectile dysfunction" even though no research proves this.

Samsul revealed that, on the contrary, several studies have shown that alternative tobacco products can reduce the risks of smoking by 95 percent.

"The British government released 'The Tobacco Control Plan for England' in July 2017, emphasizing that alternative tobacco products can play a role in reducing the risks caused by smoking. In addition, Japan also introduced alternative tobacco products in 2013, and their use continues to increase. This increase in numbers parallels the decline in the number of smokers in Japan," Samsul said.

According to Samsul, governments of other countries need to emulate the use of alternative tobacco products like these two countries.

Similar sentiments were expressed by the President of the Advanced Center for Addiction Treatment Advocacy, Arifin Fii. He stated that governments need to reconsider the policies applied to alternative tobacco products. Arifin also emphasized that regulations need to be based on scientific evidence.

"By using a science-based approach, governments can formulate regulations based on the risk profile of alternative tobacco products. Ideally, responsible, science-based, and proportional regulations will provide opportunities for anyone to access alternative tobacco products that have been proven to have lower risks than cigarettes," he said.

By opening access to alternative tobacco products, as the UK and Japan have done, other governments are expected to reduce the problem of smoking, which has been difficult to overcome. The health losses arising from smoking can be reduced if access to lower-risk tobacco products can be provided.

Source: Detik Finance

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