Macao bans manufacturing, sales of e-cigarettes

MACAO, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) will ban the manufacturing and sales of electronic cigarettes in an effort to reduce accessibility to young people, the Health Bureau of the Macao SAR government said on Thursday.

The ban, which will be effective from Monday next week, was approved by the Legislative Assembly in an amended law in August given the fact that 4 percent of middle school students aged between 13 and 15 in Macao used e-cigarettes in 2021, a rise of 1.4 percentage points from 2015, the bureau said.

Individual offenders of the law will be fined 4,000 patacas (about 500 U.S. dollars) while private entities or the tobacco industry will face a fine of 20,000 patacas (2,498 dollars) to 200,000 (24,980 dollars) for offences.

The bureau said it would step up legislation and law enforcement as well as campaigns and education on the harm of e-cigarettes and cigarettes to teenagers.