Page 129 - TAIWAN TOBACCO CONTROL ANNUAL REPORT 2019

1. Border seizure and inspection: (a) The Food and Drug Administration provides the Customs Administration of the Ministry of Finance with lists of e-cigarette product names with verified nicotine contents to strengthen controls of e-cigarette products. The Customs Administration detected a total of 91 cases of illegally imported e-cigarettes in 2018(27,422 e-cigarettes, 10,978 e-liquid refill packs, and 380 accessories). The Coast Guard Administration of the Executive Yuan investigates and seizes smuggled e-cigarettes in areas within its jurisdiction including ocean and coastal areas, estuaries, and non-commercial ports pursuant to the regulations set forth in Article 4 of the Coast Guard Act, detected a total of 3 cases e-cigarettes. (b) To prohibit the importation of illegal electronic cigarettes, the Ministry will continue to cooperate with the Customs Administration of Ministry of Finance and Coast Guard Administration of Ocean Affairs Council in order to prevent the importation of electronic cigarette through illegal channels into the nation and to enhance the border management together. 2. Source tracking and channel inspection: (a) Since March 17, 2014, the Food and Drug Administration issued letters to request the health bureaus of local governments to enhance the inspection on electronic cigarettes. (b) Since 2011, the Food and Drug Administration has started to accept the inspection of electronic smoke products. Since 2014, seizure on electronic cigarettes has been enforced vigorously, and in 2015, through the cross-department cooperation system, the inspection quantity submitted by all units increased dramatically. According to the statistics, the number of inspection cases reached 2,134 cases in 2015, in which 1,428 cases were found to contain nicotine, and the nicotine inspection rate was 66.9%. In 2016, the number of inspected cases reached 3,062 (77.4% of these cases were found to contain nicotine), the number of inspected cases reached 1,478 in 2017(77.8% of these cases were found to contain nicotine), and the number of inspected cases reached 1,102 in 2018 (80.8% of these cases were found to contain nicotine). (c) In the event where the shape of the electronic cigarette resembles the form of an actual tobacco, then it is in violation of the regulation prescribed in Article 14 of the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act specifying that no person shall manufacture, import or sell candies, snacks, toys or any other objects in form of tobacco products. For any violators, manufacturers or importers, a y fine of an amount above NT$10,000 dollars and below NT$50,000 dollars shall be penalized, and the seller of such products shall be penalized for a fine above NT$ 1,000 dollars and below NT$ 3,000 dollars. For the month of December during the years of 2018, the health bureaus of all counties and cities performed a total of 292,312 inspections, in which 146 cases were penalized with a total amount of fine of NT$ 760,500 dollars. Among the cases of violation, 80 cases of electronic cigarette products with a total amount of fine of NT$ 445,000 dollars. ◎ Physical store inspections for e-cigarettes by Taichung City Health Bureau 127 Research, Monitoring, and International Exchange