E-cigarettes banned: Nirmala Sitharaman says decision to help youth

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a ban on e-cigarettes following a Cabinet meeting on September 18. She said an ordinance will be passed on the same considering the seriousness of the impact of e-cigarettes on the health of people.

The ban prohibits production, manufacturing, import, export, transport, sale or distribution, storage and advertisement of e-cigarettes in India, she said.

“The decision has been taken keeping in mind the impact that e-cigarettes are having on the youth of today,” Sitharaman said.

She quoted the data on which this is based is largely derived from the US’ experience. The data from the US on the same highlights that there has been a 77.8 percent increase in the use of e-cigarettes among school students. The Finance Minister added that surprisingly, use of such products by middle school students has also seen a rise of 48.5 percent.

She added that several journals have stated that nearly 3 million people in the US are regular e-cigarette users, with a 900 percent growth in use of such ENDS products between 2011 and 2016 in the country.

The impact of e-cigarettes has been a cause of concern in the US and several other countries in the West, with seven deaths directly linked to e-cigarettes reported in the US on September 17, Sitharaman added.

On September 17, New York became the first state in the US to ban the sale of flavoured e-cigarettes following a surge of breathing illnesses linked to vaping nationally, according to news reports.