According to a report from Hong Kong Sing Tao Daily on the 29th, the country’s University study showed that the proportion of young people aged 25 or below are using new tobacco products such as e-cigarettes and heated tobacco that reached to it higher record. As well, from 2019 to 2020, it was higher of 85.9 from the previous year. The situation is also worrying. It is the third consecutive year that it has climbed up to 10%.

In addition to that, a survey conducted by the “Hong Kong University Youth Smoking Cessation Hotline”, 51.3% of the interviewed teenagers said that the main reason for using new tobacco products (heatstick china) is curiosity while (37.3%) is followed by peer influence. However, they hope to use new tobacco products to quit or reduce smoking. Lastly, smoking cigarette rose to (21.6%). On top of that, respondents generally believe that new tobacco products are “healthier” than traditional tobacco products and mistakenly believe that they can help quit smoking

Furthermore, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan have a very strict control on traditional paper tobacco. But e-cigarettes, as a “new thing” that has emerged in recent years have been in a fuzzy area. In October 2018, when Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor read the second policy address during his tenure, he announced that Hong Kong would completely ban e-cigarettes. The government then formally submitted a draft to the Legislative Council proposing to ban the import, manufacture, sale, distribution, and promotion of e-cigarettes or heated tobacco and other products. Once convicted, they will be fined 50,000 Hong Kong dollars and will be imprisoned for half a year. The medical profession believes that e-cigarettes and traditional cigarettes also contain potentially harmful compounds such as nicotine, various heavy metals, and formaldehyde which seriously endanger health. However, the e-cigarette ban has been opposed and resisted by many Hong Kong lawmakers, HNB manufacturer in China and some groups. They believe that the research data cited in the legislation is inaccurate and the research object is the “simulated cigarette” e-cigarette device that has long been eliminated, rather than the current market. After a protracted struggle, the Smoking Bills Committee of the Hong Kong Legislative Council announced in June last year that it would stop discussing the ban and temporarily abandon its plan to ban new tobacco and vaping products.

Therefore, Professor Lin Daqing a Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong said that the latest findings warned of the need for immediate action and urged the Legislative Council to pass the government as soon as possible to submit a draft for a comprehensive ban on new tobacco products, including e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products.