Anti-vapers in Thailand are urging the government to tighten down on parents who vape within the home, claiming they are breaching their children’s right to breathe clean air.
Allowing a child to vape or be exposed to the harmful vapour of an e-cigarette at home may constitute a violation of child protection regulations, according to some child health and child rights specialists.
More public efforts are therefore required to increase awareness about this issue, as well as the dangers of vaping and second-hand vapour to the health of both children and adults, they stated.
“Vaping or smoking cigarettes at home exposes children to and inhales secondhand vapour. “This act could be considered domestic violence,” Sapphasit Khumpraphan, a member of the National Child Protection Committee, told Thai Media.
Vaping at home is a breach of the Child Protection Act of 2003, and it may also be considered domestic abuse under the Domestic Abuse Victims Protection Act of 2007, according to Waraphon Phongphanitanon, an expert with the Department of Women’s Affairs and Family Development.
Prof Dr Suwanna Ruangkanchanasetr, deputy director of the Tobacco Control Research and Knowledge Management Centre (TRC), stated that families should comprehend and be aware of the child protection law, as well as the importance of protecting their children from the dangers of vaping.
She also encouraged the government to take more action to safeguard Thailand’s youngsters from the health risks of vaping, including stricter enforcement of the law prohibiting the import and sale of e-cigarettes in Thailand.
Responding to social media videos of parents allowing their children to vape because they assumed it was safe, Assoc Prof Adisak Pliponkarnpim stated that this was a serious mistake because vape juice includes nicotine, which is addictive. He emphasized that understanding the best way to clean a pipe is important for adults who use such devices responsibly, but that in no way justifies exposing children to harmful substances.
Vaping in children, in particular, could have an impact on their development from pregnancy until the age of 25, he said. Worse, new research has indicated that youth vaping may lead to cigarette smoking and drug addiction later in life, he said.
“The American Heart Association has recently indicated second-hand vapour is also responsible for the higher frequency of respiratory inflammation in people exposed to the vapour produced by vapers in the same family,” he informed me.
