The member added, "E-cigarettes are being considered as hazardous as they contain toxic chemicals and poisonous substances, liquid nicotine being one of them."
Regulating the market of e-cigarettes has left the Central government mulling over how to ban them. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) is in a fix so as to ban e-cigarettes under Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA), Drugs and Cosmetics Act (DCA) or the Poisons Act.
Last week, MoHFW had convened a meeting of three committees that it has constituted for formulating laws to regulate e-cigarettes — legal, advocacy and health — for reviewing their findings. "The legal group submitted a report asking the ministry to ban e-cigarettes under COTPA, DCA or Poisons Act. However, only Ministry of Home Affairs has the powers to declare any substance as 'poison', so their opinion ought be taken," a member of the legal committee said.
The member added, "E-cigarettes are being considered as hazardous as they contain toxic chemicals and poisonous substances, liquid nicotine being one of them."
In the last three years, the committees have been convened not more than five times. On September 5. 2017, the committees had been convened to decide what the government's stance should be on e-cigarettes.
While these committees were finding ways to ban e-cigarettes, over hundred exhibitors from around the world were readying for an international expo of the same — Vape Expo which was set to be held in Greater Noida on September 9 and 10. However, the expo website put up a notice saying that they had to cancel the event owing to interventions.
Sources at MoHFW said that even after a letter was issued by the ministry asking that the expo is illegal and it should not be conducted over a month ago, the organizers went ahead with conducting it. It took two more letters from Director of Health Services in Uttar Pradesh and another letter from MoHFW to avert the event close to the dates.
Dna accessed the letter written by the UP Health Department to district officials in Gautambudh Nagar which states that if E-cigarettes will be promoted youth will be lured and there is a high probability that they will get addicted to smoking. In UP, a youngster starts using tobacco at the mean age of 17.6 years which is worrisome. In the light of this, the expo should not be conducted.
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