KUALA LUMPUR: The passing of regulations for nicotine-laced vape liquids must be sped up to avoid more serious public health risks, says Khairy Jamaluddin.

The former health minister said that it has been a few months since nicotine-laced vape liquids were removed from the Poisons Act list, and added that sales of the product are currently unregulated.

He said that with the delisting, there are no mechanisms to regulate liquid nicotine and vapes

“What should’ve been done was for the legislation to be passed first,” he told reporters after an event at UCSI University here on Saturday (July 1).

Khairy also said that during his tenure as the minister in charge, he refused to sign an order agreeing to delist nicotine-laced products from the list.

“I was asked to remove liquid nicotine so that we can impose tax on it. But I said we can do that if there is legislation that can regulate the products,” said Khairy.

“I refused to do so because it would pose a risk to public health. Now, we already had a couple of months that liquid nicotine was taken out (from the list) but no legislation to regulate it,” he added.

Recently, Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa had asked all parties to support efforts to ensure that the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Bill 2023 can be tabled in Parliament at its next sitting.

She said the issue needs to be taken seriously due to the smoking habit, and the increasing use of electronic cigarettes and vaping, contributing to the increase in diseases in the country.