Young Thai smokers are spending an estimated 26,000 baht per year each on cigarettes and e-cigarettes and the number is steadily increasing, with a survey by the Thai Health Promotion Foundation showing a 17% increase in young Thai smokers in 2022 over the preceding year.
Wichet Pichairat, a senior member of the foundation, said that the smoking problem must be tackled at its origin, which is the online sale of e-cigarettes, or vapes, which are readily accessible, adding that it is the responsibility of officials to address this problem.
The foundation cited the case of a young Thai smoker who started vaping at the age of 13, after seeing his peers using them. He continued using vapes until he was 15, when he began to suffer from a sore throat, fatigue and difficulty breathing. His parents took him to see a doctor and he was diagnosed with suffering from lung inflammation.
Wichet said that, instead of using pocket money to buy snacks, the boy spent most of it on smoking, adding that this case should serve as a lesson for other young people to avoid smoking or vaping.
