China Prohibition Of Sales Of Electrical Cigarette Liquids, Is The Republic Of Indonesia A Follow-up?

JAKARTA - The Chinese government has banned the sale of liquid e-cigarettes or vape flavors of fruits.

This step is taken to reduce e-cigarette users to minors.

Before this rule was enacted, China had also banned online sales of e-cigarettes.

In this regard, the Director of the Beverage, Tobacco Products and Steering Materials Industry (Mitegare) of the Ministry of Industry, Edy Sutopo, spoke up.

Edi admitted that the Chinese government's move to save children from e-cigarettes was a good input for the Indonesian government.

He will convey it to relevant stakeholders. Regarding regulations, said Edi, it will also be studied as input for Indonesia.

"This is a good input for us. Later we will convey it to stakeholders, because this is the Ministry of Health, there is the Ministry of the Economy, the Ministry of PMK which determines the policy direction of the Tobacco Products Industry (IHT)," he said in a discussion entitled 'Electric Cigarette Product Quality Order for Commission Security', at the Ministry of Industry Building, Jakarta, Thursday, November 3.

"So I think we will study, study the regulations of other countries as input on regulating in Indonesia," he continued.

Edy admitted that he could not confirm whether this rule would be implemented or not because it was still being discussed further with other related institutions. However, Edy emphasized that the government is very concerned about smokers for minors.

"This (electric) clash for 18 years and over. It is necessary together with the government that business actors involve the media, participate in supervising. We are very concerned about child smokers, we do not want our young generation to be affected," he said.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Organizational Vape Consumer (KONVO), Hokkop TI Situngkir confirmed that the fruit flavor variant is indeed attractive to children.

Therefore, according to him, the policies taken by the Chinese government need to be considered by the Indonesian government, including by producers.

"If it feels like a lot of stimulated the use of minors. We even saw the liquid several times, the liquid was only tasted by the children," said Hokkop.