PARLIAMENT In his plea to the Health Ministry to stop banning outlets selling vapes, PKR’s Alor Setar MP Gooi Hsiao Leung told the Dewan Rakyat that the e-cigarette helped him give up smoking cigarettes.

"I was a smoker for more than 20 years. I tried many ways to stop smoking, but to no avail… until I tried vaping three weeks ago. In three weeks' time, I quit both smoking and vaping," Gooi said.

"Based on research and from my own experience, I believe vaping can help smokers cope with their nicotine withdrawal syndrome," he said during the debate on the Budget 2016 yesterday.

On this, Health Minister Dr S Subramaniam said while he agreed that vaping should be regulated if it is able to help a smoker to quit, he feared this would attract more new vapers, who would ultimately be addicted to nicotine.

The argument of Gooi ( photo ) that vaping can lead to giving up cigarettes was used when there was a hot debate in the early stage of vaping becoming widespread in the United Kingdom, Subramaniam said.

It would take a long time to wait for the reseach into the health impacts of vaping to be concluded, he said when winding the debate on the Health Ministry.

At this stage, nobody can guarantee that vaping is hazard-free, Subramaniam said.

Vaping has became popular among smokers and has boomed into a multi-million-ringgit industry.

The Health Ministry’s initial plan to ban vapes caused uproar and the cabinet later made a decision to regulate vaping, rather than to ban it.

Earlier this month, Health Ministry enforcement officers conducted a series of raids on vape outlets, using the current law that restricts liquid nicotine, which is contained in the vape fluid, to be sold only by a registered pharmacy.

Supporters of the industry

The vape liquid comes under the purview of the Health Ministry while vape devices or hardware are controlled by the Domestic Trade, Coorperatives and Consumerism Ministry.

Political figures representing the Malay community, including Umno Youth, Perkasa and even minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob as well as the children of the prime minister and the deputy prime minister, have come forward to speak for the vaping industry.

Gooi was among the lawmakers who criticised the Health Ministry for defying the cabinet's instruction. The ministry would need to take action against the vape shops that violate the Poisons Act unless the Act is amended or a new law on nicotine comes into force, Subramaniam said.

"As a health minister, my only responsibility is the heath issue of the public," he said, adding that his ministry has, however, ceased raids on vape shops.