<ul><li>Indian Finance Minister, <keyword id="129243" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nirmala-Sitharaman">Nirmala Sitharaman</keyword>, has announced a ban on e-cigarettes in India. </li><li>She said e-cigarettes are being used as a 'style statement' rather than a tool to quit smoking.</li><li>The ban is subject to approval from the Indian parliament.</li></ul> Indian Finance Minister and cabinet member, Nirmala Sitharam, announced a total ban on every aspect of e-cigarettes in the country. "Production, manufacturing, import, export, transport, sale, distribution, storage and advertisements related to e-cigarettes are all banned in India. It is banned in all these nine forms," stated Sitharam during the cabinet briefing. She said that the decision is being taken in lieu of the seven deaths, which occurred in the US over the past week, directly linked to the use of e-cigarettes. <div type="twitter" handle="PIB_India" handlename="PIB India" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/974552536408444928/TVZG_9jP_normal.jpg" favoritecount="104" retweetcount="38" status="#UnionCabinet approves the promulgation of the prohibition of E-Cigarettes Ordinance, 2019. The decision to prohib… https://t.co/DF4OUMqGGa" createdat="1568800703000" id="1174261375339827201"></div>

 "The cabinet, rightly, thought it's time to immediately take a decision so that the health of our youth and citizens is not risked," said Sitharam. E-cigarettes are a 'style statement' A large number of e-cigarette models are available in the market today. However, none of them are produced in India. The government believes that are currently over 400 brands of e-cigarettes in the country available in over 150 flavours. The varieties on offer tend to make people try them due to the 'cool' factor, rather than the devices being used for their original purpose, which is to help people quit smoking. "In India, ground reports say that e-cigs are being used as a 'style statement'," said Sitharaman. "Reports say many people are not using it to quit smoking but actually smoking cigarettes as well as e-cigarettes, if they're already smokers. Some are getting into the habit because it seems cool," she explained. Passive smoking E-cigarettes were banned as they are not only harmful to the user and those around them. The fact that're odourless makes even more dangerous, according to Sitharaman. "The smoke exhaled by a user of e-cigarettes, contains a high level of residual nicotine, which for people around standing as passive smokers — it will affect them too," she said. While the cabinet approved the ban, it is subject to approval from the government. The ordinance advises the government to analyse the impact of e-cigarettes on people and their health. The cabinet will take the matter forward during the next session of parliament.

Cabinet bans e-cigarettes which are 'harmful' and a 'style statement'

<ul><li><keyword id="506858" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Shamika-Ravi">Shamika Ravi</keyword>, a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Council, said the decision didn’t have health or fiscal grounds. </li><li>Finance Minister <keyword id="129243" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nirmala-Sitharaman">Nirmala Sitharaman</keyword> had announced the total ban on e-cigarettes in India. </li><li>However, India is not alone, globally flavoured e-cigarettes have been facing a ban.</li></ul>The Indian government’s decision to ban e-cigarettes has brought out a very obvious question from others, “why not ban or tax cigarettes?” But the surprise came when one of the members from the Prime Minister’s Economic Council Shamika Ravi too questioned the move. She took to Twitter to ask why was there a ban placed on e-cigarettes when the government could have taxed it heavily. 
	<div type="twitter" handle="ShamikaRavi" handlename="Shamika Ravi" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/466900364520747008/SgCWyFu9_normal.jpeg" favoritecount="1295" retweetcount="444" status="Why ban when you can tax (heavily)? Banning #ecigarettes while keeping tobacco products is bizarre. Neither health… https://t.co/rCC1CTJjQ5" createdat="1568814225000" id="1174318093402640384"></div>



 She even asked for new evidence on vaping versus smoking in a follow up tweet. She’s not alone, scores of Twitter users were perplexed about why there was a ban on e-cigarettes when the tobacco products are the real problem. 
	<div type="twitter" handle="DeoKalikesh" handlename="Kalikesh Singh Deo" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/725936544318550017/B3To4QaV_normal.jpg" favoritecount="45" retweetcount="7" status="Still trying to understand how #ecigarettes are more harmful than tobacco cigarettes, bidis, guthka. If one is bann… https://t.co/duBXGBeGIE" createdat="1568834885000" id="1174404745194164224"></div>



 Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the ban during a cabinet briefing. "Production, manufacturing, import, export, transport, sale,distribution, storage and advertisements related to e-cigarettes are all banned in India. It is banned in all these nine forms,” she said. A large number of e-cigarette models are available in the market today, even though none of them are produced in India. However, the ban on e-cigarettes is actually a global phenomenon. The United States of America, which is also home to one of the biggest e-cigarette companies <keyword id="7020799" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Juul">Juul</keyword>, has also been advocating ban on flavoured e-cigarettes as it is encouraging the youth to smoke. <a href="https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2019/09/17/hearing-flavored-e-cigarettes-vaping-new-york/">New York</a> became one of the first states in the US to ban flavoured e-cigarettes and was followed by Michigan.

Indian economist questions the government’s decision to ban e-cigarettes

During recent years, the use of e-cigarettes has swelled exponentially. Today e-cigarettes have become the most sought after tobacco products by the youth. In terms of their volume sales, e-cigarettes have surpassed the cigars and conventional cigarettes. Given this background, now it is more appropriate and necessary than ever to understand how harmful e-cigarettes are. The government reports Recently, two government reports have cast more light on the effects of e-cigarettes on human health. Especially a lung specialist at Hendry Ford Hospital Geneva Tatem, M.D., has given more information on e-cigarettes and how they impact human health in order to help the patients make a better choice with regard to their smoking habits and health. Dr Tatem remarked, “We need to balance the current science and evidence we have with the advocacy, to figure out the right way we should proceed in counselling our patients.” E-cigarettes could be lesser harmful In 2018, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) published the findings of what was called a highly comprehensive analysis of the present studies in the field of e-cigarettes. The report said, “E-cigarettes are not without health risks, they are likely to be far less harmful than conventional cigarettes.” The study also observed that the use of e-cigarettes could eventually move users to smoke conventional cigarettes. The available knowledge on e-cigarettes is inadequate In the year 2016, the U.S. Surgeon General observed, “The use of e-cigarette is a “public health concern that warrants immediate and coordinated action. Many questions remain about e-cigarettes and their long-term impact, even as evidence on patterns of use and risks to health continue to emerge.” Overview of e-cigarettes and how they harm human health An e-cigarette can be understood as an electronic apparatus that works by heating a liquid. The heated liquid becomes vapour and is then inhaled by the person using it. The e-liquid used for vaping burns at a lower temperature than the conventional cigarette. Unlike the traditional cigarette, an e-cigarette does not contain tar. However, it does produce a list of other chemicals. Commenting on the harmful releases they make, Dr Tatem says, “What we do know is that e-cigarettes contain some products that are harmful, particularly hard or heavy metals. Things like cadmium and other metals.” Doctors advise not to get fooled The most common name of e-cigarettes is vape pens. E-cigarettes make use of vaping liquids or e-liquids that come in different flavors. There are a large number of flavors we come across in the world of e-liquids. This fact must not fool the user encouraging the notion that their health is not at risk. Dr Tatem says, “The products that are produced by an e-cigarette are much different than the products produced by a traditional tobacco cigarette. So, using it may still be harmful to the lungs. We don’t have enough research yet that tells us how much less harmful it is using an e-cigarette versus a traditional tobacco cigarette.” Concluding remarks Though e-cigarettes are in no way safe for human use, they only mark a technological shift in the way people consume tobacco and other drugs. In the NASEM report published sometime back, three potential effects of e-cigarettes have been highlighted. <ul><li>e-cigarettes are lesser harmful than the conventional cigarettes.</li><li>e-cigarettes contain lesser amounts of harmful substances than the conventional cigarettes.</li><li>e-cigarettes might help people aspiring to quit smoking to gradually escape their addiction. </li></ul>Commenting that e-cigarettes are not tob e resorted without any discretion, Dr Tatem says, “As a pulmonologist, I see lots of patients who have developed the disease as a result of tobacco and smoking products. Anything you can use to reduce the amount of tobacco you smoke is potentially a good thing. More research is needed to help us clarify the difference between e-cigarettes and vape pens, and how much less harmful they can be relative to tobacco cigarettes.”

How harmful are E-Cigarettes - Risks, Legalities, ingredients and case studies

Also called as vaping, the use of e-cigarettes is on a sharp rise. A lot of people consider e-cigarettes as a safer alternative to smoking the conventional cigarettes. Here we discuss the differences between e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes to understand what they are and how they can impact human health. How do conventional cigarettes and e-cigarettes compare with each other? As far as we talk of their commonness, cigarettes and e-cigarettes hardly have anything in common between them excepting their names carrying the word ‘cigarette’. Both cigarettes and e-cigarettes are habit forming and addictive in the first place. Both of them carry the risk of making people dependent on them. In a study undertaken by the Northwestern University, the head of the study Matthew Olonoff remarked, "Before we start making policy changes, such as controlling nicotine or flavor options in e-cigarettes, we need to better understand what role these unique characteristics have." The studies that compare conventional cigarettes and e-cigarettes view e-cigarettes as a unique kind of sophisticated nicotine delivery system. However, looking deeply, there are a number of key differences we can note between cigarettes and e-cigarettes. How do Cigarettes and e-cigarettes differ from each other? Nicotine intake The amount of nicotine contained in e-cigarettes vary significantly from product to product. We cannot expect any consistency in the devices used for vaping (e-cigarette). The amount of nicotine intake during vaping depends on the device used and the vaper’s behavior. Whereas, the nicotine contained in a conventional cigarette is already known and well-defined. How nicotine is taken in? While smoking, the smoker consumes the smoke containing nicotine. The user of an e-cigarette inhales (vapes) nicotine by taking in the e-liquid through the device used for vaping. Control over the usage E-Cigarettes allow more control over how they are used. It is possible to stop them and restart with them. This gives room for more variability in terms of the intermittent use and consequently how much nicotine is consumed by the vaper. The nicotine intake is completely predictable in case of conventional cigarettes. Legalities of using them Cigarettes are widely banned in a number of regions across the world. In some places where the conventional cigarettes are banned, e-cigarettes are permitted. Risk factor Teens are at a greater risk for becoming addicts to e-cigarettes more than the conventional cigarettes as e-cigarettes travel forward on the most alluring technological innovations to be able to attract the youth in a better way. Policy matters e-cigarettes found their debut in mid-2000s. Since those times, they are commercially available to the people. Since their advent, the vaping technology is continuously advancing in a rapid phase. Hence it becomes very difficult to set any up-to-date policy initiatives. They have very less things in common as per studies Commenting on the differences between the conventional cigarettes and e-cigarettes, Olonoff said, "From a research perspective, when we call it a 'cigarette,' we know how many puffs are typically in a cigarette, how people use it, the amount of nicotine in it. Even though it has the word 'cigarette' in it, e-cigarettes are not the same thing."

Difference between E-Cigarettes and Conventional Cigarettes

<ul><li>Eight months since, despite the ban, people are able to buy e-cigarettes from any paan shop. If not, they can always go on the internet and buy them. </li><li>However, since formal players like Juul or Vape are kicked out of the country, what these young vapers find are products imported from other countries like China — making it cheaper. </li><li>Such products don’t have quality standards. </li></ul>Rahul (name changed), a 15 year old boy wanted to try smoking but he was afraid it would damage his lungs. So he thought of giving e-cigarettes and vaping a try. But there was a slight problem — India had just banned the sale of e-cigarettes to protect the health of thousands of others like him. He called his best friend Sonu (name changed), also 15, who assured him getting e-cigarettes or any vaping devices is no “big a deal” and the ban “doesn’t matter”.He gave at least three suggestions of places where Rahul can find e-cigarettes easily. <div type="image" title="Capture XXX" msid="76093639" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;One of the most commonly used vaping devices in India. &amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Teenagers like Rahul and Sonu were the reasons why India imposed a ban on e-cigarettes in September last year. Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s finance minister who announced the ban, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/18/health/india-e-cigarette-ban-intl/index.html">said</a> “we immediately took a decision so that the health of our citizens, of our young, is not thrown to a risk.” Eight months since, despite the ban, people are able to buy e-cigarettes from any paan shop. If not, they can always go on the internet and buy them. However, since formal players like Juul or Vape are kicked out of the country, what these young vapers find are products imported from other countries like China — making it cheaper. Such products don’t have quality standards. Usually, anybody can buy an e-cigarettes between ₹50 and ₹700. Whereas, a vaping device is slightly costlier and can foot a bill of ₹600 and can go as high as ₹6,000. A 23-year old seller, who spoke to Business Insider on the condition of anonymity, says he buys his stock from Mumbai and sells it on Instagram. He usually uses the standard Indian postal services to courier the order to his customers. <div type="image" title="Capture XX" msid="76093540" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;A screenshot of an Instagram page selling vaping device. &amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>“I have been in the business for three years now. The only thing that the ban has changed is branded products are out of the market. I can still sell chinese products which I usually buy from a black market in Mumbai.” Several countries which banned e-cigarettes including Mexico, Brazil and Thailand saw a booming black market — making it difficult for the government to regulate the sale of these products, according to Samrat Chowdhery, Association of Vapers India. “It is difficult to enforce regulations as Nicotine is available in all other forms. Formal players making e cigarettes are exiting the market. Once black market industry gains a footover, it will be impossible to get control over it. The government missed a golden opportunity to regulate these products,” he told Business Insider. <div type="image" title="As part of nationwidw protest many volunteers under the aegis of Association of Vapers India (AVI) gathered at Freedom park in Bengaluru to protest the ban on E-Cigarettes on Saturday 28th September 2019." msid="76093787" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;As part of nationwidw protest many volunteers under the aegis of Association of Vapers India (AVI) gathered at Freedom park in Bengaluru to protest the ban on E-Cigarettes on Saturday 28th September 2019.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Chowdhery has been pressing to develop a formal market for e-cigarettes ever since it was banned. He believes a formal market can build protection for kids and can monitor sales at certain age levels. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/in-meerut-india-monkeys-snatch-coronavirus-tests-locals-fear-transmission/articleshow/76090064.cms">Watch the bizarre video of monkeys who snatched blood samples of COVID-19 patients in India — locals fear transmission</a>

India's e-cigarettes ban hasn't stopped vaping⁠ — it only drove out Juul and Vape

<ul><li>India has the second largest population of smokers in the world, despite which the Indian health ministry is calling for a ban on all Electronic <keyword id="54964" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="nicotine">Nicotine</keyword> Delivery Systems (ENDS).</li><li>Jharkhand, a state in eastern India, has become the first state to actually implement the ban. </li><li>The rationale behind the ban is that <keyword id="141209" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="e-cigarettes">e-cigarettes</keyword> do more harm than good by getting more people addicted to nicotine. </li><li>The ban will apply across the board on the sale, import, manufacture and advertising of e-cigarettes. </li></ul>The Indian government called for a ban on all Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) in August last year, but since it was only an advisory notice — individual states in the country didn’t necessarily have to abide by it. But the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand finally took the plunge and announced that it is banning the sale and usage of e-cigarettes. 
 
 <div type="ExtQuote" text="&quot;E-cigarettes are the new method of nicotine use. It affects the embryos in pregnant woman. It also causes mental problem. The sale, distribution, advertisement, import and usage of e-cigarettes have been banned with immediate effect.&quot;" auname="Notification issued by the Jharkhand's health department"></div>





 That being said, prior to the government's advisory notice, bans were already in place across various Indian states including Karnataka, Jammu &amp; Kashmir, Punjab, Maharashtra, Mizoram, and Kerala. While some states have taken the route of banning ENDS under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, others have placed it in the Poisons Act of 1919. While the generally accepted notion is that electronic cigarettes are less harmful than normal cigarettes, the Indian government has taken a stand that these devices could potentially spark a new generation of smokers. Their take is that children and non-smokers are using these devices and could switch to smoking actual cigarettes once they’re addicted to nicotine. On that basis, the <keyword id="191419" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ministry-of-Health-and-Family-Welfare">Ministry of Health and Family Welfare</keyword> (MoHFW) has called for a ban on the sale and import of electronic cigarettes and heat-not-burn (HNB) tobacco devices altogether. That means no local manufacturing, no retail sales, no imports and no advertising of any Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS). E-cigarettes: Good or bad? India has one of the highest populations of smokers in the world. According to the World Health Organisation, there are nearly 106 million adult smokers in the country which makes India second only to China. While the non cancer-causing tobacco smoke is cut from the equation with e-cigarettes, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine <a href="http://nationalacademies.org/hmd/Reports/2018/public-health-consequences-of-e-cigarettes.aspx">claim</a>, that’s about all they’re good for. The incidence of smoking may have dropped but vaping has increased and the crux of the issue lies in the many unknowns associated with the phenomenon. When cigarettes first made an appearance, their adverse effects, which are rather obvious now, took a few years to come into the light. And even though e-cigarettes don’t burn tobacco, they still <a href="https://www.nap.edu/read/24952/chapter/2">contain and emit</a> potentially toxic substances. On the other hand, experts argue that while nicotine in itself is undoubtedly addictive, its actual effects could be as harmless as <keyword id="23086" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Caffeine">caffeine</keyword>. Mike Russel, a British psychiatrist, very aptly said, ‘Smoke for the nicotine but die from the tar.’ India’s rules and regulations are already so lax that underage individuals have no problems obtaining normal cigarettes, making access to e-cigarettes even easier. The US is already engaged in its own battle against the Juul, an e-cigarette that looks like a USB drive and contains nicotine equivalent to one pack of cigarettes. With its soaring popularity and easy access to underage kids, the brand is used a verb as ‘juuling’ instead of ‘vaping’. The announcement comes at a time when <keyword id="152138" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Philip-Morris-International">Philip Morris International</keyword>, known for their Marlboro cigarettes, was going to launch their iQOS smoking devices in the country. The iQOS devices produce a nicotine-containing vapour rather than actually burning tobacco, pegging them as a ‘reduced risk’ product.

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Cabinet bans e-cigarettes which are 'harmful' and a 'style statement'

Prabhjote Gill

Indian economist questions the government’s decision to ban e-cigarettes

Sanchita Dash

How harmful are E-Cigarettes - Risks, Legalities, ingredients and case studies

BI India Bureau

Difference between E-Cigarettes and Conventional Cigarettes

BI India Bureau

India's e-cigarettes ban hasn't stopped vaping⁠ — it only drove out Juul and Vape

Preeti Soni

Jharkhand becomes the first state to implement ban on e-cigarettes after government advisory notice in India

Prabhjote Gill