Hanoi (VNA) – Amid the increasing use of tobacco,especially e-cigarettes, Vietnam has rolled out measures to minimise tobaccoharms.

The Law on Prevention and Control of Tobacco Harms has beenimplemented for 10 years with a number of achievements. However, Vietnam isstill one of the 15 countries with the largest number of adult male smokers inthe world, while the target set out in the Strategy on Prevention of TobaccoHarms to 2020 was not reached.

Deputy Health Minister Tran Van Thuan said that in recent years, productscalled e-cigarettes, heated cigarettes, and shisha have appeared. These productsare currently not allowed to be imported, traded or circulated in the domesticmarket. However, they have still been advertised and traded illegally,especially on the Internet and among youngsters.

Doctor Le Hoan from the Hanoi Medical University Hospital said that e-cigarettesare very harmful to the health of both active and passive smokers due tochemicals used in e-cigarette production.

This year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) chooses thetheme “We need food, not tobacco” for the World No-Tobacco Day, aiming to callon countries to design policies and strategy as well as provide necessarysupport to alternative crop production and marketing opportunities for tobaccofarmers and encourage them to grow sustainable, nutritious crops.

According to the WHO, nicotine contained in tobacco is highly addictive andtobacco use is a major risk factor for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases,over 20 different types or subtypes of cancer, and many other debilitatinghealth conditions. Every year, more than 8 million people die from tobacco use.Most tobacco-related deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, whichare often targets of intensive tobacco industry interference and marketing.

Smoking rates tend to increase in developing countries.Every day, approximately 21,000 people die and on average 1 person dies fromsmoking every 4 seconds.

Tobacco can also be deadly for non-smokers. Second-handsmoke exposure has also been implicated in adverse health outcomes, causing 1.2million deaths annually. Nearly half of all children breathe air polluted bytobacco smoke and 65,000 children die each year due to illnesses related tosecond-hand smoke. Smoking while pregnant can lead to several life-long healthconditions for babies. 

WHO estimates that the global economic loss caused by tobacco each year is 1.4trillion USD. Globally, about 3.5 million hectares of land is converted totobacco crops per year. Nine of the 10 largest tobacco-growing countries in theworld are low- and middle-income countries, of which four are identified asbeing food deficient.

Every year, about 5% of the forest area is cleared to growtobacco, as well as to get wood for tobacco drying. It is estimated that 18billion trees are needed each year to make firewood for tobacco drying. Annually,the use of tobacco releases into the environment between 3,000 and 6,000 tonsof formaldehyde (H2CO), along with 12,000 to 47,000 tonnes of nicotine, and from300-600 million kilograms of toxic waste.

Responding to the World No-Tobacco Day (May 31), a national No-Tobacco Week have beenheld from May 25-31 with various activities in many localities to raiseawareness of tobacco harms and reduce the percentage of smokers in thecommunity. The activities include a marathon themed “Vietnamese youngster sayno to e-cigarettes”.

TheMinistry of Health has suggested the adjustment of the Law on Prevention andControl of Tobacco Harms with the addition of regulations on "e-cigarette"and "heated tobacco" products to control and minimise the use ofe-cigarettes and new generation cigarettes. 

Recently, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha signed adecision issuing a national strategy on tobacco harms prevention and controluntil 2030 with strong and synchronous measuresto strengthen the efficiency of tobacco harm prevention and control efforts.

Under the strategy, Vietnam is striving to reduce the rateof tobacco use among males aged 15 and above to less than 36% in the 2023 – 2025period.

The strategy also aims to reduce the rate of passive smoking at work to lessthan 30%, at restaurants to less than 75%, at bars and cafes to below 80%, andat hotels to below 60%. The figures are hoped to drop to below 25%, 65%, 70%and 50%, respectively, in the 2026-2030 period.

Thuan said that the implementation of the strategy aims toensure the right of all people, especially non-smokers, to live, work and studyin a smoke-free environment./.