Issued by Minister Hang Chuon Naron, the ministry’s directive aims to prevent the use of vaping and heated tobacco products, based on claims that the devices are dangerous to people’s health and pose risks to cardiovascular and respiratory health and also have long-term negative impacts on the brain of developing teens.
The new guidelines ban the use, distribution and advertising of these products on school grounds and surrounding areas, and the Ministry is urging all relevant educational units to collaborate with students’ parents, guardians, educators and students in order to identify and report any e-cigarette sales and distribution sites.
Spokesperson for the Ministry of Health Ly Sovann, said that e-cigarettes are toxic and highly addictive. “The Ministry of Health has banned the import and use of such products such as hookah pipes and e-cigarettes in Cambodia,” he said. Sadly, the relative benefits of the products as safer alternatives to cigarettes and smoking cessation tools are being completely disregarded.
Local tobacco warnings
Meanwhile, in December 2020 Cambodia’s health ministry asked tobacco companies to change the existing health warnings to new ones determined by the ministry, which did not happen. In July 2021, the ministry reiterated that this standard must be enforced.
The Cambodia Movement for Health (CMH) explained that the Ministry of Health had stated that the warnings should be changed every two years. In line with this, tobacco companies were meant to change the health warning labels in December 2020, which did not happen.
To this effect, last year the CMH reiterated that all cigarette packs must carry the new text and pictures as determined by the ministry, as of August 2021. “If the picture isn’t changed, the effectiveness of the health warning will be reduced because people have become accustomed to the same picture. So, the Ministry of Health decided that the health warning must be changed every two years,” said the CMH.
