Alarm over cigarettes flavoured to lure the young

Dr Vikul Visansesth,head of the Health Department's Dental Health Division was speaking at the seventh national conference on "Cigarettes and National Health", organised by the Thai Health Promotion Foundation.

Citing a study conducted by the Tobacco Control Information Centre in 2006 on 350 teenagers aged 13 to 15, Vikul said 10 per cent of the youngsters said they were smokers, of which 52.8 per cent admitted to smoking cigarettes that were either sweet or had artificial fruit flavouring. Most of these cigarettes are available on the Internet.

"Just do a Google search and you will find thousands of pages that include the contact numbers of people who sell these illegal cigarettes," she said. "This is a new tactic manufacturers have adopted to lure teenagers."

Most online vendors claim the cigarettes contain a low level of tar and nicotine. However, Vikul said that in fact it is the artificial fruit flavouring that is harmful.

In a bid to prevent young people from purchasing these cigarettes, Vikul said the Thai Health Promotion Institute's director, Dr Hathai Chittanont, had sent an official letter urging the ICT Ministry to shut down all websites selling illegal cigarettes.

Poonsak Suwanrat, director of the Excise Department's Prevention and Suppression Division, said the agency had tried to entice the owners of these websites to meet officials, but to no avail.

After extensive investigation, the agency was only able to discover that the addresses and contacts used in the websites are fake.

"This makes it very difficult for us to arrest them," he said.

He added that the Public Health Ministry had also sent an official letter to the Excise Department urging them to stop people from smuggling fruitflavoured cigarettes into the country.

"If you find anybody selling these illegally flavoured cigarettes, call our 1713 hotline. We will arrest them as quickly as possible," he added.