{"id":32651,"date":"2026-10-21T12:35:25","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T16:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/?p=32651"},"modified":"2026-10-21T12:35:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T16:35:25","slug":"health-minister-backs-vape-import-restrictions-amid-alarming-student-usage-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/health-minister-backs-vape-import-restrictions-amid-alarming-student-usage-rates\/","title":{"rendered":"Health Minister backs vape import restrictions amid alarming student usage rates"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">-by Jordan Alkins<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony has strongly endorsed the government&#8217;s decision to restrict the importation of recreational vaping products, describing the move as timely and necessary to protect children from nicotine addiction and other serious health risks.<br>Speaking exclusively to NCN News, Dr. Anthony pointed to alarming findings from the Ministry of Health&#8217;s school screening programme, particularly in coastal regions where vaping among secondary school students remains a growing concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>The latest regional breakdown shows that 44% of 1,605 students screened in Region Six reported vaping, followed by 35% of 1,300 students in Region Four and 25% of 900 students in Region Three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>The figures were considerably lower in the hinterland, with Region Seven recording 16% and Region Eight just 1%. Dr. Anthony suggested that greater accessibility to vaping products along the coast may be contributing to the disparity.<br>The regional findings provide further insight into previously reported screening results, which showed that 32% of approximately 6,000 secondary school students had reported vaping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Dr. Anthony warned that vaping can expose children to highly addictive nicotine and potentially toxic substances, including chemicals linked to cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>President Dr. Irfaan Ali recently announced restrictions on the importation of recreational vaping products amid growing concerns from parents, teachers and religious leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Under the proposed measures, imports will be prohibited unless authorised by the Health Minister or the Tobacco Control Board.<br><\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-post-featured-image\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1200\" src=\"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-87.png\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" style=\"object-fit:cover;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-87.png 1800w, https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-87-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-87-1024x683.png 1024w, https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-87-768x512.png 768w, https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-87-1536x1024.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" \/><\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>-by Jordan Alkins Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony has strongly endorsed the government&#8217;s decision to restrict the importation of recreational vaping products, describing the move as timely and necessary to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32635,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[472,350],"tags":[488,448,412,405],"class_list":["post-32651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthcare","category-news","tag-488","tag-ncn","tag-ncn-guyana","tag-ncn-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32651"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32652,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32651\/revisions\/32652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}