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Public health researchers are pressing the government to pass the Control of Tobacco and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill (2018)—as reports show, regulations are urgently required, primarily to protect the youth through a regulated environment.
The Bill’s purpose is to see further regulations in the use and marketing of e-cigarettes and vapes and the sale of these products to children under the age of 18 years old.
The Africa Centre for Tobacco Industry Monitoring and Policy Research (ATIM) recently published a report stating it has been two years since the Bill closed for public comments in August 2018. During that time, the e-cigarette industry, currently mostly unregulated, has further taken hold in South Africa.
Professor Lekan Ayo-Yusuf, director of ATIM at the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University (SMU), stresses research results support an urgent need for a regulated environment to better protect the youth from the health harms of e-cigarette addiction. “While the tobacco and e-cigarette industry likes to position e-cigarettes as cessation aids, the limited effectiveness of these products for long-term quitting, the health harms associated with usage and the industry’s clear and targeted marketing to youth are facts which are conveniently omitted from their narrative. This series of studies provide very useful information to guide policymakers in South Africa.”
The series of recently published studies, conducted by the ATIM at SMU, University of Pretoria and the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) assessed local e-cigarette use, evaluated the effectiveness of e-cigarettes as cessation aids, and analysed the costs of e-cigarette usage using multiple data sources, including two extensive population-level surveys.
One of the studies’ key finding was the substantial prevalence of e-cigarette use by South Africans older than 16 years. Overall, 2.71% of adults, translating to 1,09 million people, used e-cigarettes daily or occasionally during 2018. The majority of current e-cigarette users (97.5%) were concurrently regularly smoking cigarettes.
The numbers of children using these products have rapidly spiked over the years.
In 2015, the former US General Surgeon, Dr Vivek H. Murthy, conducted a report which found that e-cigarettes among high school students increased by 900% from 2011 to 2015.
Furthermore, in 2018, the US Food and Drug Administration took a combative stance by imposing several restrictions against flavoured e-cigarettes and tobacco products which lured young people into vaping and smoking. According to the agency, approximately 3.6 million children under the age of 18 reported using e-cigarettes.
While most cigarette smokers pick up “the dirty habit” in their school years, with minimal regulations in place to control vaping, the smoking culture remains a common feature in society, albeit in a new form. While parents might not see anything wrong with purchasing such a product for their child, there are dangers linked to vapes and similar products.
When looking at the dangers involved with e-cigarettes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) points out that most e-cigarettes contain nicotine, being not only highly addictive but also harmful for adolescent brain development.
E-cigarettes can contain other harmful substances besides nicotine. The health organisation points out, some of the ingredients include aerosol which may also be harmful to the lungs in the long-term. For example, some e-cigarette flavourings may be safe to eat but not to inhale, as the gut can process more substances than the lungs.
The CDC also reports that children and adults have been poisoned by swallowing, breathing, or absorbing e-cigarette liquid through their skin or eyes.
From a South African perspective, the South Africa Heart and Stroke Foundation adds that vaping has sadly reversed the decline in nicotine usage among the youth.
The foundation also lists a series of health-related issues linked to these products, including it, negatively impacting your breathing, hair loss, as well as damaging one’s oral health. Moreover, the health organisation states that vaping is likely to cause cancer.
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