Guyana will ban imports of vaping products, tightening restrictions on electronic cigarettes as concern rises about their growing use and health risks, President Irfaan Ali said Saturday.

Finance Minister Ashni Singh will issue an order blocking imports unless special approval is granted by the health minister or the country’s tobacco-control authorities, Ali said in a nationwide webcast address.

“Recognizing the need for greater regulation in the interest of public health, the restrictions that I have authorized are consistent with this broader international effort and indeed in listening to parents, teachers, community leaders, children and society as a whole,” the president said.

The planned measures add oil-rich Guyana, a small English-speaking nation on South America’s northern coast with a population of less than a million, to a broader push across the Americas to tighten controls on e-cigarettes, particularly for young people. About 2 million adolescents aged 13 to 15 in the Americas vape, according to the Pan American Health Organization, which has called for stronger regulations to curb youth nicotine use.

Health Minister Frank Anthony told Bloomberg News that more than 100,000 children had been screened and that most vape users identified were high school students.

“This is what you call a gateway product. They see this as a stepping stone to other harmful products,” Anthony said. “We have to ban them and get them out of the stores,” he added.

Guyana already regulates electronic nicotine delivery systems under its 2017 Tobacco Control Act, which restricts their sale and use in certain places and bans sales to minors. Ali said the import restrictions are intended to curb the “widespread and unregulated” sale and use of vaping products in Guyana.

He also cautioned that “the absence of complete knowledge about those long-term effects must not be mistaken for evidence of safety,” citing concerns about the health effects of vaping, particularly among children and young people.