Taiwan has not approved any electronic-cigarette products, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said, adding that users of heated tobacco products and vapes are subject to fines.
The agency’s latest warning came after the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus early this month published security footage allegedly showing Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄) using a heated tobacco product in the legislature’s corridors.
Novel tobacco and nicotine products cannot be used or distributed without government approval, HPA Director-General Wu Chao-chun (吳昭軍) said, citing the latest amendments to the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act (菸害防制法).
Photo: Lin Ching-lun, Taipei Times
The manufacture, import, sale, supply, display or advertisement of unauthorized novel tobacco products is punishable by a maximum fine of NT$5 million (US$152,263), while users may be fined NT$10,000, the act says.
The agency has received applications for authorization to use heated tobacco products from 12 commercial entities since the amendments went into effect in March last year, Wu said.
It has rejected the applications of eight companies, while two of the remaining four have been asked thrice to furnish additional information to complete the evaluation, he said.
The agency has tasked a panel of toxicology, public health and addiction experts to assess requests for authorized use of specific heated tobacco products, HPA Tobacco Control Division head Lo Su-ying (羅素英) said.
FAIR EVALUATION
The panel has so far convened 30 meetings and all applicants can expect a fair assessment if they provide all the requisite information, she said.
The evaluation process is unavoidably time-consuming as the agency’s main responsibility is to protect the health of children and the public and it has to enforce rigorous standards before accepting manufacturers’ claims, she said.
As a result, some companies were asked to provide additional data, which usually takes one to three months, she said.
Restrictions on the marketing and sales of novel tobacco products, tobacco tax collection and other regulatory matters would be duly considered after the evaluation of all applications is complete, Lo said.
Regional health authorities have been ordered to look into incidents of alleged heated tobacco use by politicians and celebrities as they arise, she said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and