Regulation needs to accommodate e-cigarette

Additionally, David Sweanor, a lecturer in the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, who helps the process of policy making progress on e-cigarette in Canada, argues that the reluctance of the government to see vaping products, such as e-cigarette, as a solution for people to stop smoking may yield contra productive. In his opinion, Sweanor suggests for the government to not only enact a regulation governing cigarette consumption and nicotine products, but also to open a new space for a  innovation-based solution.

The consumer also wish the Indonesian government could acknowledge these novel products as an alternative solution. “Current regulation of e-cigarette in Indonesia remains in the grey area. We, on behalf of consumer’s association, want to see a clearer regulation and keen to cooperate with the government, such as National Narcotics Agency (BNN) and Foods and Drugs Agency of Indonesia (BPOM). In short, we just want to make it clear that the product we consume does not contain dangerous ingredients. We hope that the government can support as well as protect us through an unbiased set of regulation based on scientific studies,” said Raynando Siagian, Chairman of Indonesian Vaporizer Association (APVI), who thinks that the government plays an important role in producing a fair regulation that can eliminate untrue prejudices against e-cigarette.

It is interesting to note that following a series of scientific researches, the UK government has created an environment which enables consumers to be informed about the products, have access to them and allows manufacturers to innovate and provide quality vaping products.

Some organizations such as Royal College of Physicians, Public Health England, a professional body that represent the government of England, and Action on Smoking and Health, an internationally recognized anti-tobacco lobbying group, already support the shift to e-cigarette or other alternative products which is scientifically proven to have lesser health risk compared to cigarette.

By being open to these innovations, England has successfully implemented rational health regulation that offers a new solution to public health problems caused by smoking or cigarette. These efforts are clearly paying off as the latest data published by Ernst&Young  clearly indicates that as of 2013, the rate of people switching from smoking to vaping have been increasing and there is a total of 4.2% of the population vape, which equates to over 2 million people.

This means less smoke related diseases and deaths, and also less health related expenses when taking in consideration the fact that as per the data released by Public Health England, vaping is at least 95% safer than smoking.