India has just banned electronic cigarettes. A radical decision which follows other bans taken in the United States after the multiplication of cases of pneumonia which would be linked to vaping. In France, the Public Health France agency would consider setting up a system for monitoring pneumonia in connection with e-cigarettes.
The decision taken by the state of New York in the United States is schooling: Wednesday, September 18, Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Finance of the Indian Union, announced the ban on electronic cigarettes throughout the country after the recommendations from ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research).
During a press conference held in Delhi, Nirmala Sitharaman pointed out that the decision was made because of the impact of e-cigarettes on young people. She argued that India had banned the production, import or export, transportation, storage and sale of e-cigarettes.
Fines and prison sentences
The Indian government clarified on its Twitter account that this measure “will improve tobacco control policy, giving better results in terms of public health”. Any violation of this new regulation – which concerns the distribution and does not even mention the use of electronic cigarettes – is punishable by one year in prison and/or a fine of 100,000 rupees (about 1,300 euros), then up to three years and/or 500,000 rupees (6,500 euros) in the event of a repeat offence.
“While this poses an obvious problem for manufacturers and distributors, public health is more important than any other business,” says Delhi e-cigarette seller Abhishek Tiwana. An active user, Sindhiya, 27, from Panjab University, Chandigarh, on the other hand, replies: “Look, we are adults and this is our body, we know what is good or bad for us. I am not saying that ‘it’s good to smoke, but if it relaxes me, then why does the government ban it? “I want to quit smoking that’s why I switched to e-cigarettes, from now on the government has banned it, I have to find another way out of this addiction”, says another user of 47 years, Mukesh Kumar, businessman.
“Unquestionably harmful” for the WHO
Considered “undeniably harmful” in a recent report by the World Health Organization (WHO), e-cigarettes have recently been the subject of regulatory tightening around the world, particularly in the United States. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had strongly recommended a complete ban on e-cigarettes and other electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) stating that they “affect almost every system in the human body, from the womb to the grave”.
The medical research body also released a white paper on the Electronic Nicotine Delivery System (ENDS) on the eve of World No Tobacco Day. “Tobacco use is dangerous in one way or another. Right now, marketing a product like SPADN or e-cigarettes is like pushing young people to die”, added the ICMR, considering that e-cigarettes act as “an open door to a new addiction to tobacco”.
In France, towards a system for reporting pneumonia
In France, according to the daily Le Parisien, the Public Health France agency is preparing to set up a system for reporting cases of severe pneumonia that have occurred among users of vaping devices. Such a device could make it possible to describe the epidemiological, clinical and toxicological characteristics of possible cases of observed pneumonia and to identify their causes.
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