JAKARTA, NNC - Electric cigarettes (e-cigarettes) or commonly called vape is said to be used as alternative products to shift consumption of conventional cigarette products, said researcher and lecturer of International Relations at Faculty of Social and Political Sciences of Universitas Padjajaran Satriya Wibawa Suhardjo.

"Since two years ago when vape began to become a social phenomenon in many areas, especially in Bandung, I began to actively make further observations. Apparently the growth of vape is still progressive and even is used as a switch to reduce the number of smokers," said Satriya in written statement Saturday (7/14/2018).

From a research that has been running for two years, Satriya admitted there were a lot of new things that he found around vape users and how people think of the products.

"From the results of the research I studied during the last two years of observation and the exposure of the experts in this forum, I see that the misperception of vape is increasingly broadly generalized to become more and more negative, and this is happening in our society," Satriya said.

Satriya whose research was selected to be presented at the Global Forum on Nicotine event in Warsaw, Poland on June 14-16, 2018 said the researchers who attended from 50 countries during his presentation agreed that the reduction of hazards in alternative tobacco products can be used as a solution to solve the problems of cigarette.

However, the health risks contained in alternative tobacco products, such as vape and tobacco products which are heated not burned, are still being questioned by some as they are not unlike conventional cigarettes.

Satriya revealed that this happened because of misperception. "Whereas from the results of international research which were also discussed in this forum, the scientific facts show that vape has a health risk potential which is much lower than cigarettes, even nearly 95 percent," he said.

Satriya also said that one of the reasons alternative tobacco products such as vape can develop quickly because there are many smokers successfully quit smoking by switching to vape. In addition, these products are also considered more easily adopted by smokers.

"Although until now the price is still expensive, but can help smokers to swith then finally this is selected," said Satriya.

Reported by Antara, data from the Directorate General of Customs of the Ministry of Finance shows that vape users in 2017 has reached about 950 thousand people with 650 thousand of whom are active users.