Vaping captures headlines in the United States, where outcry over a perceived youth “epidemic” drives health misinformation and efforts to restrict products that could save smokers’ lives—with international implications.
But tobacco harm reduction’s most important battleground, where more than half of the world’s smokers live, is Asia.
The continent is home to a diverse range of nicotine policies, ranging from innovative approaches that the world should watch to harsh prohibitions.
Taiwan has chosen the latter path. Nicotine vapes are broadly banned in the country of 24 million off the coast of mainland China—although there are legal complexities and gray areas, with one lawsuit by vape sellers succeeding against the government and legislative amendments pending.
Last year, smoking among Taiwanese youth reportedly increased for the first time in a decade. Vaping, despite the restrictions, rose even faster, however—and was duly described as a “stepping stone” to smoking by government sources. It’s tempting to wonder whether youth smoking would have increased in an environment where vapes were unequivocally more readily available than cigarettes.
Danny (Yu-Yang) Wang is a human rights activist who leads VAPE Taiwan—a tobacco harm reduction media and advocacy organization that he founded in Taiwan’s capital of Taipei in 2017. Filter reached out to him to learn more about his work and the challenges that he and his allies face.
Michael McGrady: What are the current laws in Taiwan governing e-cigarettes and other tobacco harm reduction products?
Danny Wang: Electronic cigarettes are banned in accordance with Taiwan’s Tobacco Hazard Prevention and Control Law, the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law, and the Drug Control Regulations. [Large fines can apply to those who manufacture or import banned products.] The government’s position on heat-not-burn products is unknown and, as far as I can tell, there is no clear regulatory management method.
Some legal loopholes allow the industry to exist here, however. For example, there’s the practice of selling nicotine-free products openly, while selling nicotine products under-the-table. And while Taiwan’s Tobacco Hazards Act specifically prohibits cylinder-shaped devices, it’s less clear when it comes to other shapes.
Many products are smuggled into Taiwan. Some people here also manufacture vaping devices and e-liquids for export, using other names for their products, or claiming their e-liquids are nicotine-free. I’ve heard of vaping devices being exported as “heating devices.”
What is your background, Danny, and how did you become involved in tobacco harm reduction?
I worked in health promotion in the past, mainly in the field of physical fitness. I was engaged by an international exhibition company from 2014 to about 2017. At that time, I became the first international vaping exhibition agent in Taiwan, selling overseas exhibition booths to vaping business owners here. That’s how I started contacting participants in Taiwan’s growing and dynamic vaping industry.
I was personally able to switch from cigarettes to e-cigarettes. I then started participating in tobacco harm reduction advocacy.
What’s the current smoking rate in Taiwan? How embedded is smoking in Taiwanese culture, and which demographics smoke the most?
According to our government’s data, the smoking rate in Taiwan in 2018 was 13 percent. It is much higher among men than among women. Data from the Ministry of Health and Welfare depicts smoking among men aged 36 to 40 years as high as 35.4 percent. You see smoking culture as a feature of business sales settings, for example.
Data indicate that the rate of smoking among men with junior high educational levels is at 39.6 percent. But the real disparities in smoking in Taiwan occur among men without income. Their rate is 65.3 percent.
Michael McGrady – Filter – 2021-04-01.
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