E-cigarette ban courageous & timely legislation for nation’s future

New Delhi: The Indian government recently took a momentous decision for the health and well-being of its citizens, especially its youth when it issued a sweeping and comprehensive ban on the production, import and sale of electronic cigarettes or e-cigarettes.

Today, more than 40 nations worldwide have such a ban in place for various forms and kinds of E-cigarettes/Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems

(ENDS). These dangerously invidious and addictive products, also called vaping devices, are blatant gateway goods which lure people, especially the youth, to their use and to eventually, their severe heath and even death.

In the US, to date, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has reported 2,290 cases and 47 deaths from the illness associated with use of e-cigarettes. The e-cigarette epidemic in the US and Europe is

resulting in a huge generation of nicotine-addicted people who are being endangered by encouragement to switch from traditional cigarettes to e-cigarettes.

There were seven million vapers in 2011 and almost 41 million in 2018, with Euromonitor estimating this figure to touch 55 million by 2021. Claims made by the manufacturers of E-cigarettes that they are “reduced harm alternatives” are not proven by any independent scientific studies.

In fact, Eurasia Review and others have reported that a food additive and potential carcinogen, pulegone, a flavouring agent, has a high presence in electronic cigarette liquids and smokeless tobacco products.

Recently, in a breakthrough discovery, vitamin E acetate, a severe potential toxin found in cannabis, was identified in the lung fluids of many people sickened in the outbreak of dangerous vaping-related lung injuries.

The Indian Government must be congratulated and supported widely for coming up with a draft ordinance within 100 days of PM Modi assuming his office and seeking to ban all electronic cigarettes. It is indeed laudable and reassuring that the Government is genuinely concerned about

heath of youth of the country.

This ban is a landmark intervention with long-term positive effect in reducing the burden of respiratory disease in this country. For too long, a false narrative has been spread that somehow e-cigarettes were ‘safer’ alternatives and would wean people away from cigarettes and tobacco.

This is completely wrong and baseless. On the contrary, by falsely spreading the idea that E-cigarettes / ENDS are safe or reduced harm alternatives, a situation is being created in the minds of gullible youth across the world to swing them from being non-smokers to smokers.

With this step of a nation-wide ban, a significant victory has been stuck for the proponents of good health and healthier, better living in the country. E-cigarettes (EC) or vape pens/vaping devices are battery powered devices used to smoke or ‘vape’, a flavoured solution containing varying concentrations of nicotine, an addictive chemical found in cigarettes.

It is estimated that there are more than 400 different brand names available. E-liquids are now available in more than 7,000 unique flavours, including kid-friendly flavours like cherry, bubblegum, and chocolate. E- Vapor has been shown to contain lead, cadmium, nickel, formaldehyde, and hydrocarbons, among other chemicals. (IANS)

Also Read: Quit Tobacco Addiction; E-Cigarettes Equally Bad: Narendra Modi

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