Despite directives by Saraf a month ago, health department has shown no inclination to curb this menace
Despite health minister Kalicharan Saraf’s assurance and directives passed to ban e-cigarette in Rajasthan, it seems that the state health department is not serious about banning the deadly poison that is fastly catching up in the youth. Health activists have shown concern that instead of doing serious efforts to ban e-cigarette, health department officials are delaying the process.
Health Minister Kalicharan Saraf, on April 5, had announced that e-cigarettes will be banned in the state and, to ban e-cigarettes in the state, he directed the Health Department officials to take necessary steps. But even after one month of his announcement has passed, the officers appears unwilling to ban e-cigarettes.
When talked about the action taken by the department on the line of health minister’s directions to ban e-cigarettes in the state, Dr SN Dholpuria, nodal officer at the State Tobacco Control Cell told that a letter has been written to the Central Tobacco Control Cell. “In the letter from the Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Veenu Gupta, it has been suggested to the central authority that e-cigarette should be included in the category of drugs so that it can be banned in Rajasthan state,” said Dr Dholpuria.
Dr Dhaulpuria also informed that the state Drug Controller has been instructed to collect the samples of e-cigarette available in the market and it should be tested in the lab to confirm that it contains harmful substances for health.
Health activists raise question over the intentions of STCC officials. Jayesh Joshi, secretary of Vadhdhara, an organization working for tobacco control in Rajasthan said that “when the World Health Organization has already said that there are toxic chemicals present in the e-cigarette, instead of doing a separate examination or taking sample from the market. e-cigarettes should be banned immediately to prevent this poison spread rapidly in the youth.”
Harmful
As per WHO, e-cigarettes do not burn tobacco leaves but instead vaporize a solution the user then inhales. The main constituents of are nicotine, propylene glycol: used as flavouring agents which are considerd as harmful.
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