E-cigarettes sale geared to attract children, youths

Mom Kong, president of the Cambodia Movement for Health (CMH) said although e-cigarettes and heated tobacco product (HTP) products have been banned, the products are still being advertised on social media such as Facebook, Telegram, and WhatsApp.

Kong said E-Cigarette makers have been producing flavoured e-cigarette liquids to attract young people to use the electronic nicotine delivery systems.

"The goal of this e-cigarette product is to attract new smokers, young people, and children, and more and more are becoming addicted to cigarettes," he said.

He said distributors and manufacturers are also promoting e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation product but on the contrary to that, e-cigarette users are twice as likely to end up smoking cigarettes.

According to Kong, nicotine can cause poor memory, forgetfulness, and difficulty concentrating, which affects the ability to work and learn, while other substances such as propylene, and glycerine glycol, can seriously affect the lungs and heart.

"We see that e-cigarettes and HTPs are banned by the government. I see that these products are widely advertised on social media, so CMH will report to the relevant authorities to prevent sales and distribution of these products on social media in the future," he said.

The National Authority for Combating Drugs (NACD) secretary-general General Meas Vyrith said NACD has been taking action against e-cigarette dealers and users and will continue to do so.

Gen Vyrith also said that in mid-August, the NACD held two workshops with provincial commissioners in 25 provincial capitals to raise awareness and fight the sale of e-cigarettes and HTP products.

He added that despite efforts, unscrupulous traders were still importing and selling the products.

"We will continue our crackdowns to stop vendors from selling e-cigarette products on the market and authorities will continue to look for distributors to reduce the number of e-cigarettes on the market," he said.