Representative Jeon Jin-sook Proposes Amendments to Health Promotion Act… Government Also “Actively Supports”
(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Seo Han-gi: There is significant interest in a plan to include warning phrases or images about smoking risks on vaping devices.
According to the National Assembly and the Ministry of Health and Welfare on the 25th, Representative Jeon Jin-sook (Democratic Party of Korea) from the Health and Welfare Committee has recently proposed amendments to the National Health Promotion Act highlighting these changes.
Currently, novel tobacco products like e-cigarettes are virtually left in a regulatory blind spot. Under existing laws, there is only an obligation to attach warning phrases and images on cigarette packaging.
To address this unreasonable situation, the amended bill stipulates that not only tobacco products determined by presidential decree, such as e-cigarettes, but also devices exclusively used to smoke tobacco must include warning images and phrases, which will also be determined by presidential decree.
The amendment also aims to include smoking devices as subject to tobacco advertising restrictions.
It prohibits the use of images of animals, characters, and figures from comics or movies in tobacco advertising that could spark interest in smoking among youth.
The health authorities have expressed their intention to actively cooperate in these legislative efforts, making progress likely.
In a written response to a National Assembly audit, the Ministry of Health and Welfare stated, “In terms of raising awareness about the harm of smoking, it is necessary to include health warnings on the exclusive devices for e-cigarettes. We will support pursuing the related legal amendments.”
While e-cigarette usage is on the rise, legal regulations are admittedly insufficient.
E-cigarettes are categorized into liquid and heat-not-burn types. Liquid e-cigarettes function by vaporizing a solution mixed with nicotine liquid, diluents (such as PG, VG), and additives for inhalation.
Relevant tobacco-related laws include the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s “National Health Promotion Act” and the Ministry of Economy and Finance’s “Tobacco Business Act.” The National Health Promotion Act regulates tobacco from a public health perspective regarding human harm, while the Tobacco Business Act aims for the development of the tobacco industry.
In these laws, tobacco is defined by Article 2 of the Tobacco Business Act as “manufactured using all or part of the leaves of tobacco for smoking, sucking, inhaling as vapor, chewing, or smelling.”
This exclusion results in liquid e-cigarettes made from tobacco stems, roots, or synthetic/similar nicotine not being classified as tobacco.
Thus, legally, they are not considered tobacco, allowing their sale both online and offline, even to minors, without legal repercussions.
Moreover, there is no requirement to attach warning phrases and images, nor are they regulated to appear unlike tobacco.
Various burdens such as tobacco consumption tax are not imposed either.
As a result, liquid smoking products containing synthetic nicotine have a very low barrier for youth to access, significantly contributing to increased smoking rates among teenagers.
In fact, according to the “2023 Student Health Examination Sample Statistics and Youth Health Behavior Survey” released by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency last March, the usage rate of e-cigarettes among youth (grades 1-12) increased from 2.7% in 2018 to 3.1% in 2023.
The “Youth Health Panel Tracking Survey results” released last July showed that over 60% of students who initially started smoking with liquid e-cigarettes are now using conventional cigarettes, indicating that liquid e-cigarettes serve as a gateway to smoking.