Cambodia has banned e cigarettes and shisha pipes, saying the increasingly popular products contain damaging levels of nicotine and are leading young people to take up smoking.

The National Authority for Combating Drugs (NACD) ordered authorities to immediately cease the import, use and sale of shisha tobacco and pipes and e cigarettes across the country.

The NACD said that while neither is classified as a drug, they contain high levels of nicotine that “affect the health more seriously than cigarettes”.

Cigarettes are widespread in Cambodia, but over recent years wealthy, young Cambodian smokers are also turning to shisha lounges especially in the tourist hubs of Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.

Shisha, also known as ‘hookah’ or ‘hubbly bubbly’, is a Middle Eastern tradition of smoking flavoured tobacco through pipes and a water bowl.

E cigarettes battery powered devices that simulate smoking by heating and vaporising a liquid solution containing nicotine have also won a small but growing customer base in the kingdom.

The NACD’s directive ordered authorities to confiscate shisha tobacco, pipes and e cigarette paraphernalia, saying young people are being distracted from their studies by socialising over a shisha.

The move prompted dismay from businesses serving shisha.

Lem Oudom, manager of The Sands shisha lounge in the capital, said the ban was “unfair” because the fruit flavoured tobacco does not contain illicit drugs.

However, he said he would follow the order and cease selling shisha.

According to a 2005 study by the World Health Organisation (WHO), water pipe smoke contains high concentrations of toxic compounds, including carbon monoxide, heavy metals, cancer causing chemicals and potentially addictive levels of nicotine.

Smokers also inhale quantities of smoke many times larger and thicker than generated by normal cigarettes.

Research on e cigarettes is less conclusive, and supporters claim they are a harmless and valuable tool in helping smokers to quit and could save millions of lives.

But the World Health Organisation has advised against them, saying their potential health risk “remains undetermined”.

Sales of electronic cigarettes have surged globally, with tobacco manufacturers jumping on the trend.

Governments have struggled with how to regulate the product since its emergence.

In October, European lawmakers rejected a bid to classify e cigarettes as medicinal products, which would have restricted their sale to pharmacies.

AFP

Topics smoking, drugs and substance abuse, cambodia, asia

Walgreen to ‘ to evaluate’ selling cigarettes – chicago tribune

Italy bans sale of e-cigarettes to under 18s – european lung foundation[uk]

Retail pharmacies like CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreen are seeking to play a larger role in the U.S. health system by becoming more comprehensive health care providers with in store clinics, vaccination administration and other services.

They re collectively trying to capture a surge of newly insured Americans who are gaining coverage through the health care overhaul law, which is expected to expand insurance to 11 million to 13 million by the end of 2014.

The CVS initiative, the first major pharmacy to undertake such a ban, puts the bullseye on the back of Walgreen, the nation s largest pharmacy chain that has faced withering attacks from health and advocacy groups for years surrounding its policy of selling tobacco products.

Despite its more recent transformation into a more health care focused company, Walgreen has remained steadfast in its tobacco policy, arguing last year that it must continue to sell those products to stay competitive with other drug store chains, convenience stores and grocery stores.

Michael Polzin, a Walgreen spokesman, said Wednesday the company has been evaluating its tobacco line for “some time,” and said it “will continue to evaluate the choice of products our customers want, while also helping to educate them and providing smoking cessation products and alternatives that help reduce the demand for tobacco products.”

Walgreen on Wednesday also announced a partnership with GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare to launch a free, Internet based smoking cessation program called Sponsorship to Quit.

The program will provide smokers with customized tools to track their progress in quitting smoking.

While Walgreen does not break out tobacco sales, the company last year cited the introduction of cigarette sales in dollar stores as a key contributor to a decline in its store traffic for its third quarter.

The $2 billion in annual sales CVS said it is giving up accounted for about 1.6 percent of the company s total revenue in 2012, the last year for which full year statistics are available.

The move drew praise from President Barack Obama, a former smoker, who said CVS “sets a powerful example that will have a profoundly positive impact on the health of our country.”

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