Guyana to restrict vape imports

Guyana will re­strict the im­por­ta­tion of vapes and va­p­ing prod­ucts un­less they are ap­proved by the rel­e­vant health au­thor­i­ties, Pres­i­dent Dr Mo­hamed Ir­faan Ali has an­nounced.

In a video ad­dress post­ed to so­cial me­dia on Sat­ur­day, Ali said Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dr Ash­ni Singh would soon sign an or­der un­der the Cus­toms Act, Chap­ter 82:01, to im­pose the re­stric­tions.

The move comes amid grow­ing con­cerns about va­p­ing among chil­dren and teenagers, par­tic­u­lar­ly in schools.

Ali said the de­ci­sion fol­lowed dis­cus­sions with par­ents, teach­ers, re­li­gious lead­ers and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers about the wide­spread avail­abil­i­ty and use of va­p­ing prod­ucts.

Al­though vapes are of­ten mar­ket­ed as al­ter­na­tives to con­ven­tion­al cig­a­rettes, he warned that they can ex­pose users to tox­ic sub­stances and pose po­ten­tial health risks, in­clud­ing nico­tine ad­dic­tion and ef­fects on brain de­vel­op­ment in chil­dren and ado­les­cents.

“The ab­sence of com­plete knowl­edge about those long-term ef­fects must not be mis­tak­en for ev­i­dence of safe­ty,” Ali said.

The re­stric­tions will pri­mar­i­ly tar­get prod­ucts in­tend­ed for recre­ation­al use, while al­low­ing for med­i­c­i­nal, ther­a­peu­tic and oth­er ap­proved ap­pli­ca­tions.

Such prod­ucts will re­quire ap­proval from the Min­is­ter of Health, the Na­tion­al To­bac­co Con­trol Coun­cil or the To­bac­co Con­trol Board.

Ali urged par­ents, teach­ers and re­li­gious lead­ers to ed­u­cate young peo­ple about the po­ten­tial dan­gers of va­p­ing, par­tic­u­lar­ly prod­ucts con­tain­ing ad­di­tives.

“We have to pro­tect our chil­dren. We have to pro­tect our schools. We have to pro­tect our so­ci­ety,” he said.