TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The amendment bill to Taiwan’s Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act that includes new regulations such as banning e-cigarettes and raising the smoking age to 20 takes effect on Wednesday (March 22).
The amendment bill was initiated by the country’s Cabinet in January last year and passed by the legislature a year later.
According to the Health Promotion Administration (HPA), the amendment bill was signed into law by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Feb. 15 and was slated by the Cabinet to come into force Wednesday.
The HPA lays out seven main points in the amendments in a news release.
1. E-cigarettes are banned entirely, including the manufacture, import, sale, supply, exhibition, advertisement, and use of e-cigarettes.
2. Unapproved new tobacco products, such as heated tobacco products, and the components necessary for their use, will have to be submitted to the authorities for health risk assessments, and only when they are sanctioned, can they be manufactured, imported, or sold. Even after the new products are sanctioned, they are forbidden to be sold through vending machines or online shopping platforms where consumers’ ages cannot be proven. In addition, no free tobacco products should be provided at any business premises, and no one should provide tobacco products to people under the age of 20 .
3. The smoking age has been raised from 18 to 20.
4. The required area containing the health hazard warning on a tobacco product package has been increased from 35% to 50%.
5. Tobacco products cannot be laced with additives that are banned or not promulgated by the authorities in the central government.
6. The areas where smoking is banned are extended to include college campuses, kindergartens, daycare centers, and family child care homes. Bars and nightclubs are listed as no-smoking facilities but allowed to install smoking rooms equipped with independent air conditioning.
7. Penalties for violations are increased. For example, manufacturing or importing e-cigarettes is punishable by a fine up to NT$50 million (US$1.65 million).
According to a press release by John Tung Foundation, currently nearly 200 brick-and-mortar e-cigarette shops can be found across Taiwan by searching maps on the internet, and searching the country’s three largest online shopping platforms with names of various e-cigarette brands came up with about 700 sales messages. The foundation urged the government to forcibly enforce the news regulations.
For more information related to the new regulations, visit this website .
(YouTube, Health Promotion Administration video)
