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E-cigarettes, facing Hong Kong ban: a healthy way to quit tobacco or a risk in themselves?
- Some people say vaping helps smokers kick a tobacco habit
- But local doctors say the products are too new to properly understand their harms and benefits
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Vaping could soon be all but banned in Hong Kong.
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Under a change to the law set to face its first reading at the Legislative Council next Wednesday, anyone who imports, makes, sells or promotes new smoking products, including e-cigarettes, could be jailed for six months or fined HK$50,000 (US$6,370).
It will still be legal for the 5,700 Hongkongers who, according to a 2017 government survey, vape daily, to use the products, even if their supply will be completely outlawed.
That figure was a big change on 2015, when there was no significant number of daily e-cigarette users. And with a surge in the products’ popularity globally, more studies and reports have surfaced on their benefits, and harms.
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A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests e-cigarettes are almost twice as effective at getting people to quit smoking than nicotine replacements such as chewing gum or patches.
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