The Ministry of Health and Welfare has drafted a bill to address the health dangers of betel nuts.
The draft betel nut hazard prevention act primarily focuses on protecting minors and pregnant women, creating zones where betel nuts are not sold and establishing inspection standards, Department of Oral Health Deputy Director-General Yen Chung-han (顏忠漢) said.
The ministry’s most recent report on cancer said that the third-most frequently diagnosed cancers among men in 2021 were those affecting the oral cavity, the oropharynx or the hypopharynx.
Photo: Taipei Times
The report said 7,387 people were newly diagnosed with such cancers in 2021, a rate of 40.4 people per 100,000.
The median age of the cancer patients was 58, while the standardized mortality rate was 16.5 people per 100,000, it said.
Smoking and betel nut chewing are officially recognized as factors that increase the risk of oral cancer, Yen said.
The government has the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act (菸害防制法) in place to regulate smoking, and the department has begun the process of drafting a similar act to regulate betel nut usage, Yen said.
The draft act would restrict betel nut vendors from providing minors and pregnant women with betel nuts. It would also take a page from the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act by banning betel nuts in locations used or frequented by children or young people, Yen said.
Such restrictions should limit minors’ exposure to the use of betel nuts and minimize the chances of them trying to chew betel nuts out of curiosity, he said.
While the Ministry of Agriculture regularly inspects betel nuts to ensure the products observe the nation’s standards on residual pesticides, he said there are no health regulations about the consumption of betel nuts.
The draft act intends to remedy this and set standards regarding how much residual pesticide, heavy metals and other chemicals might be hazardous to health, Yen said.
The department would work closely with experts on how to establish such regulations, which might come in the form of an ancillary law or an executive order, he said.
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