Electronic cigarettes: Thai Ministry aims to control sale of shisha sticks

[webfact]

ELECTRONIC CIGARETTES
Ministry aims to control sale of sticks
PONGPHON SARNSAMAK
THE NATION



Vendors 'targeting youngsters outside schools, department stores'

BANGKOK: -- The Public Health Ministry is seeking legal action to control the illegal import of liquid nicotine in the form of shisha sticks, known locally as "baraku", which seem to be very popular among celebrities.

It is believed the fancy cigarettes have several addictive substances.

Dr Nopporn Cheanklin, deputy chief of the Disease Control Department (DCD), said his agency had asked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to list liquid nicotine as a controlled product under the Psychotropic Substances Act, which requires importers to first register it with the FDA before selling in the market.

"This way we will know the number of importers and the amount of imported liquid nicotine that will be sold in the market," he said.

He was speaking at the national academic conference entitled "Tricky Marketing and Promotion of Tobacco Companies" hosted by the Tobacco Control Research and Knowledge Management Centre.

Since the electronic shisha sticks are also widely sold online, the DCD will also ask the Information and Communications Technology Ministry to monitor and take legal action against the online vendors.

A study by Mahidol University's Public Health Faculty reported that up to 630 vendors were selling this product via websites and social-networking sites like Facebook.

Another study conducted by the Tobacco Control Research and Knowledge Management Centre showed that more than 50 per cent of the 492 surveyed online vendors had created an online community to lure customers to buy their products. The centre also found that some of these vendors had created smart-phone applications to promote their products directly to customers.

They also use sales representatives, known as cigarette girls, as a key marketing approach, Naresuan University Pharmaceutical Sciences lecturer Piyarak Nimpitakpong said.

Nat-anong Anantawong, an official from Bangkok's Disease Control Division 1, said she had learned that these fancy cigarettes were becoming popular among teenagers and were being sold outside schools and department stores. She said some of these vendors also hired people to pretend to be students and walk around schools to lure other youngsters into buying these fancy cigarettes. "Warn your kids against buying these cigarettes. They are very dangerous as they contain more than 20 addictive substances," she said.


-- The Nation 2013-07-05

[Bluespunk]

"Warn your kids against buying these cigarettes. They are very dangerous as they contain more than 20 addictive substances," she said."

Really 20? Isn't nicotine poison enough?

[greg71]

What about the 4000 chemicals per analog cigarette?And these are not real Ecigarettes per se , Ecigarette contain propylene glycol ,vegetable gylcerine .and food flavouring .All found in the foods we eat mostly everyday . And like caffeine nicotine is a stimulant in small doses.These ppl should do there research based off facts not hear say .Anyway time to vape

[SlideRiceFC]

20 addictive substances? where are they getting their info from? Aside from that nicotine is not necessarily a given ingredient. Many come without I assume for the very reason of avoiding regulation. I know when I got my e-cig it came with a normal cigarette flavor sans-nicotine. I had to order new e-liquid to get my fix.

[culicine]

Would like to see the same rigour when controlling chemicals sprayed onto stored rice, crops, aquaculture farms etc.

[worgeordie]

While I don't approve of smoking in any form ,its a nasty habit,

I do feel that Thailand is slowly turning into a nanny state just

like those in the West ,where they try to control everything.

regards Worgeordie

[Thai at Heart]

While I don't approve of smoking in any form ,its a nasty habit,

I do feel that Thailand is slowly turning into a nanny state just

like those in the West ,where they try to control everything.

regards Worgeordie

When we moan about pollution, or traffic jams, or useless electricity, it is precisely because the country lacks enough nannying. Companies and individuals are not paying the true cost of what they cost society.

Who is going to make companies pay their externalities? The state. Smoking causes a social cost that is high. We can't have it both ways. If you want clean water companies have to pay for water treatment. Regulation is the only way unfortunately and it leads to a nanny state.

Edited July 5, 2013 by Thai at Heart

[ezzra]

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the TTM, Thailand tobacco monopoly, keeps churning billions of baht in revenue selling poison to their own people, and here they are making headlines out a insignificant issue such as the items in the above article,

[sausageandmash]

"Warn your kids against buying these cigarettes. They are very dangerous as they contain more than 20 addictive substances," she said."

Really 20? Isn't nicotine poison enough?

No, Nicotine is harmless. It's the tar and other chemicals in cigarettes that are poisonous.

[retell]

While I don't approve of smoking in any form ,its a nasty habit,

I do feel that Thailand is slowly turning into a nanny state just

like those in the West ,where they try to control everything.

regards Worgeordie

think the problem is the fact that the products are not made in thailand only sold so the tobacco industry loses money it is the same as the devices and empty filter tubes for roll em your self cigarettes you can buy em but not allowed to have em (and making cigarettes is a profession not allowed for foreigners)

[jcisco]

"Warn your kids against buying these cigarettes. They are very dangerous as they contain more than 20 addictive substances," she said."

Really 20? Isn't nicotine poison enough?

I am wondering if they have confused Addictive and Additives as the tone around those words in the article is odd, or could just be the change in tense. But whatever... For anyone else interested this http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2040350/ report is quite good in covering the ADDitive side of the tobaccoo industry. It has been attributed and contains references so... yeh review if ya want.

[drdoom6996]

What about the 4000 chemicals per analog cigarette?And these are not real Ecigarettes per se , Ecigarette contain propylene glycol ,vegetable gylcerine .and food flavouring .All found in the foods we eat mostly everyday . And like caffeine nicotine is a stimulant in small doses.These ppl should do there research based off facts not hear say .Anyway time to vape

+1

[LALes]

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the TTM, Thailand tobacco monopoly, keeps churning billions

of baht in revenue selling poison to their own people, and here they are making headlines

out a insignificant issue such as the items in the above article,

True enough, the TTM is a blight on its own people but don't sell the competition short.

These alternatives are no prize, either.

[jcisco]

While I don't approve of smoking in any form ,its a nasty habit,

I do feel that Thailand is slowly turning into a nanny state just

like those in the West ,where they try to control everything.

regards Worgeordie

When we moan about pollution, or traffic jams, or useless electricity, it is precisely because the country lacks enough nannying. Companies and individuals are not paying the true cost of what they cost society.

Who is going to make companies pay their externalities? The state. Smoking causes a social cost that is high. We can't have it both ways. If you want clean water companies have to pay for water treatment. Regulation is the only way unfortunately and it leads to a nanny state.

I think that is a gross over simplification of how a society becomes a nanny state, but having lived in the worlds most developed Nanny State for eight years. I can say, life there aint all that bad, though one does get sick of the complaining to which the populace has taken as a national sport of sorts. But really in any logic, companies will only do what they are legislated to do, other than that, screw that, they will do anything they want and can get away with.

Regulation does not lead to nanny, what I would say gets you from regulation to ignorance is people in the government, executive and servants enjoy telling people what is best for them, and most people dont care about most things and are generally happy to be lazy and spoon fed whatever. Unfortunately we as species always take things too far and suck all the joy out of life.. just to save a few lives or add a minute percentage of quality into ones life, theoretically.

Lastly, this article is Advising Parents to Warn kids against buying, what an interesting conversation to have with a kid. Baffles the mind

[Thai at Heart]

While I don't approve of smoking in any form ,its a nasty habit,

I do feel that Thailand is slowly turning into a nanny state just

like those in the West ,where they try to control everything.

regards Worgeordie

When we moan about pollution, or traffic jams, or useless electricity, it is precisely because the country lacks enough nannying. Companies and individuals are not paying the true cost of what they cost society.

Who is going to make companies pay their externalities? The state. Smoking causes a social cost that is high. We can't have it both ways. If you want clean water companies have to pay for water treatment. Regulation is the only way unfortunately and it leads to a nanny state.

I think that is a gross over simplification of how a society becomes a nanny state, but having lived in the worlds most developed Nanny State for eight years. I can say, life there aint all that bad, though one does get sick of the complaining to which the populace has taken as a national sport of sorts. But really in any logic, companies will only do what they are legislated to do, other than that, screw that, they will do anything they want and can get away with.

Regulation does not lead to nanny, what I would say gets you from regulation to ignorance is people in the government, executive and servants enjoy telling people what is best for them, and most people dont care about most things and are generally happy to be lazy and spoon fed whatever. Unfortunately we as species always take things too far and suck all the joy out of life.. just to save a few lives or add a minute percentage of quality into ones life, theoretically.

Lastly, this article is Advising Parents to Warn kids against buying, what an interesting conversation to have with a kid. Baffles the mind

Well the issue is, is Thailand a nanny state? Not even close. Just look at the discussion about the pollution from shrimps, or the eias for the flood defences. I am all for freedom from government, but a society has to function fairly.

Thailand will inevitably become more regulated because companies will not be allowed to overrun people and society they way they have before. That is progress in my opinion.

[Halion]

While I don't approve of smoking in any form ,its a nasty habit,

I do feel that Thailand is slowly turning into a nanny state just

like those in the West ,where they try to control everything.

regards Worgeordie

When we moan about pollution, or traffic jams, or useless electricity, it is precisely because the country lacks enough nannying. Companies and individuals are not paying the true cost of what they cost society.

Who is going to make companies pay their externalities? The state. Smoking causes a social cost that is high. We can't have it both ways. If you want clean water companies have to pay for water treatment. Regulation is the only way unfortunately and it leads to a nanny state.

Sorry but I feel that your post is rather misguided and avoids the real issue. This countries woes as as a result of the massive corruption practised by the majority of those in public office coupled with the total lack of ability of the selected officials to perform within their portfolio.. There is little done here that is not in some way of financial benifit to individuals involved with absolutely no regard to actual performance and consequence..

I totally agree that regulation is the precursor, however, it needs planning, control, implementation,and supervision to have any hope of sucess. This country has a most abysmal record with regard to any of these traits. Smoking may well be detrimental,however, it is so far down the,list of actions that need to be taken that you would require a telescope to view it.

[Thai at Heart]

While I don't approve of smoking in any form ,its a nasty habit,

I do feel that Thailand is slowly turning into a nanny state just

like those in the West ,where they try to control everything.

regards Worgeordie

When we moan about pollution, or traffic jams, or useless electricity, it is precisely because the country lacks enough nannying. Companies and individuals are not paying the true cost of what they cost society.

Who is going to make companies pay their externalities? The state. Smoking causes a social cost that is high. We can't have it both ways. If you want clean water companies have to pay for water treatment. Regulation is the only way unfortunately and it leads to a nanny state.

Sorry but I feel that your post is rather misguided and avoids the real issue. This countries woes as as a result of the massive corruption practised by the majority of those in public office coupled with the total lack of ability of the selected officials to perform within their portfolio.. There is little done here that is not in some way of financial benifit to individuals involved with absolutely no regard to actual performance and consequence..

I totally agree that regulation is the precursor, however, it needs planning, control, implementation,and supervision to have any hope of sucess. This country has a most abysmal record with regard to any of these traits. Smoking may well be detrimental,however, it is so far down the,list of actions that need to be taken that you would requi

re a telescope to view it.

Doesn't make the country a nanny state though. Not even close.

[garyk]

Nicotine and caffeine in the bottle form and pill form are killers iMO. I worked with a young man that abused caffeine pills daily. Died of a brain tumor at 35 years old. I personally do not like the Caffeine drinks or the Nicotine. I smoked for about 15 years. It was the worst addiction you can imagine. Alcohol is another extremely dangerous drug that kills daily.

[Always18]

"Warn your kids against buying these cigarettes. They are very dangerous as they contain more than 20 addictive substances," she said."

Really 20? Isn't nicotine poison enough?

No, Nicotine is harmless. It's the tar and other chemicals in cigarettes that are poisonous.

Lethal dose of Nicotine:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine_poisoning

When I was a kid, my old grandad used liquid nicotine as a pesticide/fungicide spray on our garden flowers...............

Edited July 5, 2013 by Always18

[genecat]

The control issue means Thais simply want to insure both more tax revenue from this product and, as is typical, a "legitimate" excuse to extort bribes and payoffs from unregulated distributors.

[noitom]

And yet the newspaper publishes this "promotional" type photo to head the story helping the branding along.

[OzMick]

Is health the big concern, or that these are cigarette replacements and cigarettes are heavily taxed?

[hellodolly]

While I don't approve of smoking in any form ,its a nasty habit,

I do feel that Thailand is slowly turning into a nanny state just

like those in the West ,where they try to control everything.

regards Worgeordie

When we moan about pollution, or traffic jams, or useless electricity, it is precisely because the country lacks enough nannying. Companies and individuals are not paying the true cost of what they cost society.

Who is going to make companies pay their externalities? The state. Smoking causes a social cost that is high. We can't have it both ways. If you want clean water companies have to pay for water treatment. Regulation is the only way unfortunately and it leads to a nanny state.

I think that is a gross over simplification of how a society becomes a nanny state, but having lived in the worlds most developed Nanny State for eight years. I can say, life there aint all that bad, though one does get sick of the complaining to which the populace has taken as a national sport of sorts. But really in any logic, companies will only do what they are legislated to do, other than that, screw that, they will do anything they want and can get away with.

Regulation does not lead to nanny, what I would say gets you from regulation to ignorance is people in the government, executive and servants enjoy telling people what is best for them, and most people dont care about most things and are generally happy to be lazy and spoon fed whatever. Unfortunately we as species always take things too far and suck all the joy out of life.. just to save a few lives or add a minute percentage of quality into ones life, theoretically.

Lastly, this article is Advising Parents to Warn kids against buying, what an interesting conversation to have with a kid. Baffles the mind

Well the issue is, is Thailand a nanny state? Not even close. Just look at the discussion about the pollution from shrimps, or the eias for the flood defences. I am all for freedom from government, but a society has to function fairly.

Thailand will inevitably become more regulated because companies will not be allowed to overrun people and society they way they have before. That is progress in my opinion.

So you are saying nannying is progress.

Edited July 5, 2013 by hellodolly

[Neilly]

Is health the big concern, or that these are cigarette replacements and cigarettes are heavily taxed?

It’s been mentioned that the tobacco companies would like to shut the e-cig business down because it’s cutting into their profits (and governments because of the loss in tax revenue...although they can’t come out and say it LOL)...so I doubt it’s got anything to do with health issues

[jcisco]

Is health the big concern, or that these are cigarette replacements and cigarettes are heavily taxed?

I think we could all just give the article a pass and take it on face value or in other words on good faith. On good faith that the source of the article is a concern over Kids or people otherwise too young being exposed to or already desiring products that could be harmful to their health.

I am really surprised that something as toxic as nicotine is permitted to be imported without it being declared as a the poison let alone the narcotic that it is. I can understand that it probably does not need the sale of it restricted to a pharmacy since that would be pointless when you can obtain in from 7-11 in a different form.

However with the E-Cigarette movement gaining a lot of acceptance and popularity I would hate to see a move to tax or heavily limit this products accessibility. Logic for increased taxation does not stand up, since the health issues from tobacco is not present in the new product bar the nicotine. Though on a quick inspection around the stores selling the juice and the e-cigarettes there seems to be mostly a copy of the well know Chinese made originals. Ahhh you just should not cannot trust a product that has no brand name on it. Anyways my point is, I do hope the Chemicals in the electronic products are safe and not the usual anyones guess.

OT:

**** Off topic and inflammatory comments removed ****

Edited July 5, 2013 by metisdead

[Baerboxer]

While I don't approve of smoking in any form ,its a nasty habit,

I do feel that Thailand is slowly turning into a nanny state just

like those in the West ,where they try to control everything.

regards Worgeordie

When we moan about pollution, or traffic jams, or useless electricity, it is precisely because the country lacks enough nannying. Companies and individuals are not paying the true cost of what they cost society.

Who is going to make companies pay their externalities? The state. Smoking causes a social cost that is high. We can't have it both ways. If you want clean water companies have to pay for water treatment. Regulation is the only way unfortunately and it leads to a nanny state.

I think that is a gross over simplification of how a society becomes a nanny state, but having lived in the worlds most developed Nanny State for eight years. I can say, life there aint all that bad, though one does get sick of the complaining to which the populace has taken as a national sport of sorts. But really in any logic, companies will only do what they are legislated to do, other than that, screw that, they will do anything they want and can get away with.

Regulation does not lead to nanny, what I would say gets you from regulation to ignorance is people in the government, executive and servants enjoy telling people what is best for them, and most people dont care about most things and are generally happy to be lazy and spoon fed whatever. Unfortunately we as species always take things too far and suck all the joy out of life.. just to save a few lives or add a minute percentage of quality into ones life, theoretically.

Lastly, this article is Advising Parents to Warn kids against buying, what an interesting conversation to have with a kid. Baffles the mind

'but having lived in the worlds most developed Nanny State for eight years' - which part of Australia was that?

[Robby nz]

Shisha sticks?

Shouldn't there be a T in there somewhere?.

Or does that only apply to the real thing?

[hellodolly]

"Warn your kids against buying these cigarettes. They are very dangerous as they contain more than 20 addictive substances," she said."

Really 20? Isn't nicotine poison enough?

No, Nicotine is harmless. It's the tar and other chemicals in cigarettes that are poisonous.

Lethal dose of Nicotine:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine_poisoning

When I was a kid, my old grandad used liquid nicotine as a pesticide/fungicide spray on our garden flowers...............

exert from wikipedia

Mods not sure if this is allowed but I did copy it and feel free to delete it as I am not sure on the rule fort this.

"

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Nicotine poisoning Classification and external resources

Nicotine ICD-10 F17.0, T65.2 DiseasesDB 30389 MedlinePlus 002510

Nicotine poisoning describes the symptoms of the toxic effects of consuming nicotine, which can potentially be deadly.^[1] Historically, most cases of nicotine poisoning have been the result of use of nicotine as an insecticide.^[2][3] Whereas more recently poisoning typically appears to be due to accidental ingestion of tobacco or tobacco products or ingestion of nicotine containing plants.^[4][5][6]

The probable lethal dose of nicotine has been reported as between 40 and 60 milligrams (the total amount in about 2 cigarettes if all of the nicotine was absorbed) in adults and about 1 mg/kg in children (less than 1 cigarette) .^[7][8][9] Children may become ill following ingestion of one cigarette,^[10] ingestion of more than this may cause a child to become severly ill.^[11][5] In some cases children have become poisoned by topical medicinal creams which contain nicotine.^[12]

People who harvest or cultivate tobacco may experience Green Tobacco Sickness (GTS), a type of nicotine poisoning caused by dermal exposure to wet tobacco leaves. This occurs most commonly in young, inexperienced tobacco harvesters who do not smoke tobacco.^[4][13]"

In my Opinion it is not as bad as the tar in the real McCoy s. That will coat your lungs and cause permanent loss of breathing capacity if inhaled over a long period. 30 years of heavy smoking for me and I have 71% use of my lungs. When I quit 28 years ago I had 70% use of them. My smoking years were for the most part in relatively smog free areas.

[Thai at Heart]

While I don't approve of smoking in any form ,its a nasty habit,

I do feel that Thailand is slowly turning into a nanny state just

like those in the West ,where they try to control everything.

regards Worgeordie

When we moan about pollution, or traffic jams, or useless electricity, it is precisely because the country lacks enough nannying. Companies and individuals are not paying the true cost of what they cost society.

Who is going to make companies pay their externalities? The state. Smoking causes a social cost that is high. We can't have it both ways. If you want clean water companies have to pay for water treatment. Regulation is the only way unfortunately and it leads to a nanny state.

I think that is a gross over simplification of how a society becomes a nanny state, but having lived in the worlds most developed Nanny State for eight years. I can say, life there aint all that bad, though one does get sick of the complaining to which the populace has taken as a national sport of sorts. But really in any logic, companies will only do what they are legislated to do, other than that, screw that, they will do anything they want and can get away with.

Regulation does not lead to nanny, what I would say gets you from regulation to ignorance is people in the government, executive and servants enjoy telling people what is best for them, and most people dont care about most things and are generally happy to be lazy and spoon fed whatever. Unfortunately we as species always take things too far and suck all the joy out of life.. just to save a few lives or add a minute percentage of quality into ones life, theoretically.

Lastly, this article is Advising Parents to Warn kids against buying, what an interesting conversation to have with a kid. Baffles the mind

Well the issue is, is Thailand a nanny state? Not even close. Just look at the discussion about the pollution from shrimps, or the eias for the flood defences. I am all for freedom from government, but a society has to function fairly.

Thailand will inevitably become more regulated because companies will not be allowed to overrun people and society they way they have before. That is progress in my opinion.

So you are saying nannying is progress.

Regulating potentially dangerous things is progress. Yes.

But then there is a looooong way to go in Thailand. It all goes hand in hand. People say nanny state as a very big broad brush.

But we all moan about pollution, corruption, taxi Mafia, and a myriad of things. Shouldn't the state get involved to stop these things? If they get involved in regulating stuff to make sure it's safer and better for consumers, that would be progress.

[haybilly]

It seems that the Thai Government is jumping on the bandwagon along with EU where the European Parliament is currently debating regulation of Electronic cigarettes-this has little to do with concerns about our Health and lots to do with potential Taxation.

Those among us who have managed to quit 'standard'cigarettes with the help of E Cigs are going to be faced with more problems.

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