BPOM Regulates Vape Supervision, Violating Products Immediately Withdraw

Head of BPOM Taruna Ikrar (BPOM)

The Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) has officially determined the expansion of supervision of addictive substances, including vaping or e-cigarettes through the issuance of BPOM Regulation (PerBPOM) Number 19 of 2025.

This rule is an amendment to BPOM Regulation Number 9 of 2024 concerning Guidelines for Follow-up to the Results of Drug Supervision, Narcotics, Psychotropics, Precursors, and Addictive Substances, and was promulgated by the Ministry of Law on July 3, 2025.

This change was motivated by various regulations that emphasized the importance of health aspects and the need for tighter supervision of substances that have addictive potential.

One of the main regulations on which this revision is the Government Regulation (PP) Number 28 of 2024 which is the implementation regulation of Law Number 17 of 2023 concerning Health. In the PP, BPOM is given a wider mandate in terms of supervision of addictive substances.

The Head of BPOM Taruna Ikrar emphasized that through this latest regulation, BPOM now has a more comprehensive supervisory authority.

"Based on PerBPOM Number 19 of 2025, the authority to supervise BPOM on addictive substances is expanded, not only for conventional cigarettes, but also for e-cigarettes," he said, quoted from the official BPOM website.

As part of the implementation of the mandate of the regulation, BPOM is now also authorized to provide recommendations to relevant agencies if tobacco or electronic cigarette products are found that contain prohibited additional ingredients.

In this context, recommendations will be submitted to the Ministry of Trade as the authority authorized to follow up on these findings. Electronic cigarettes are now explicitly included in the definition of addictive substances as stated in PerBPOM Number 19 of 2025.

In this regulation, addictive substances are defined as products that contain or do not contain tobacco, in the form of cigarettes or other forms, which are addictive and can cause harm to users and the public. These products can be in the form of solid, liquid, or gas.

This new regulation is also part of the implementation of Article 22 of PerBPOM Number 18 of 2025 concerning Supervision of Tobacco Products and Electronic Cigarettes. Thus, violations related to addictive substances, including conventional and electronic cigarettes, are now subject to administrative sanctions in accordance with applicable regulations in PerBPOM Number 19 of 2025.

Other adjustments contained in this regulation include changing the title Attachment VI to the Follow-up Guidelines for Supervision of Tobacco and Electronic Products. In addition, there is an update in the findings category to three levels, namely critical (heavy), major (medium), and minor (light).

Meanwhile, provisions regarding advertising and promotion of tobacco products that were previously under the authority of BPOM have been removed, in line with changes to the supervisory authority as stipulated in the implementation of the latest Health Law.

The Head of BPOM also emphasized the importance of supervising addictive substances in order to protect the public from potential health risks. Supervision is carried out to ensure nicotine and tar levels are in accordance with the provisions, ensure that health warnings are properly listed, and prevent misappropriation of information on product labels, lists of ingredients, and use of prohibited additional ingredients.

"We are committed to continuing to protect the public from the health risk to the use of addictive substances." concluded Taruna Ikrar.