A survey released recently hints at the lack of awareness among students and children about the use of vapes and e-cigarettes. The study revealed that most of those surveyed ( 89 percent of children in the age group of 14 to 17 years) were not aware of the harmful effects of vaping, while 52 percent perceived vaping as "completely harmless" and viewed it as a cool and fashionable activity.
It showed that 96 percent of the participants in the age group of 14-17 years did not even not know that vapes and similar electronic devices (e-cigarettes) are banned in India.
The study titled "Ideas for an Addiction-Free India" was conducted by the Think Change Forum (TCF). The survey covered 1,007 students in public schools in Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru, news agency PTI reported.
The survey findings came over a week after the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare sent notices to 15 websites selling e-cigarettes, directing them to stop advertisement and sale of the products. An official told PTI four of the 15 websites stopped operations, while the rest are not yet to respond.
As the survey hints at the worrying situation among the youth, here's your guide on e-cigarettes and the laws regarding them in India:
When did India ban e-cigarettes?
E-cigarettes were banned in India under the Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes Act, which came into force in 2019. The ban was imposed on production, manufacture, import, export, transport, sale, distribution, storage and advertisement) of e-cigarettes.
What's the punishment for violation?
Those accused of producing/manufacturing/importing/exporting/ transporting/selling/distributing/advertising/promoting e-cigarettes will be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year or with a fine which may extend to Rs 1 lakh, or with both. This is for first-time offenders.
A repeat violation attracts a jail term of up to three years and a penalty of up to Rs 5 lakh.
Under the law, those found storing e-cigarettes will be punished with imprisonment up to 6 months or a fine up to Rs 50,000 or both.
What are e-cigarettes?
The Act describes an "electronic cigarette" as an electronic device that heats a substance, with or without nicotine and flavours, to create an aerosol for inhalation. It's a battery-operated device. Unlike traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes do not contain tobacco.
E-cigarettes can look like ordinary smokes but are metal and plastic battery-powered gadgets that heat flavoured liquids into a cloud which users suck in, then exhale as dense white plumes.
It "includes all forms of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS or non-combustible tobacco products), Heat-Not-Burn Products, e-Hookah... but does not include any product licensed under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940".
Why did India ban e-cigarettes?
In 2019, when India banned e-cigarettes, India had 106 million adult smokers, second only to China in the world, Reuters had reported. This made India a lucrative market for companies making vaping products such as US-based Juul and Philip Morris, which manufactures a heat-not-burn tobacco device.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) termed India's move to ban e-cigarettes "a strong and definitive step to protect its citizens, especially the youth and children, from the increasing risk of nicotine addiction".
The health dilemma
Some experts argued that e-cigarettes are less harmful than traditional cigarettes and could aid existing smokers to quit, while both the WHO and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) have highlighted the negative health impact of using e-cigarettes, saying that they could result in cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.
SIDE 1: Harmful effects
Many tobacco-control activists are opposed to the devices, saying they could lead to nicotine addiction and push people towards consuming tobacco.
In an interview with The Hindu in 2019, Professor Balram Bhargava, former ICMR director general, said some adverse effects of e-cigarettes on humans include:
> DNA damage
> Carcinogenesis
> Cellular, molecular and immunological toxicity
> Respiratory, cardiovascular and neurological disorders
> Adverse impact on foetal development and pregnancy
Besides, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) highlights that "it is difficult for consumers to know what e-cigarette products contain. For example, some e-cigarettes marketed as containing zero percent nicotine have been found to contain nicotine".
The US health regulatory body further says "there is some evidence that young people who use e-cigarettes may be more likely to smoke cigarettes in the future". It cited a 2018 National Academy of Medicine report as showing that there was some evidence that e-cigarette use increases the frequency and amount of cigarette smoking in the future.
"...e-cigarette use among young people is still unsafe, even if they do not progress to future cigarette smoking," the CDC adds, saying that "e-cigarettes expose users to fewer harmful chemicals than burned cigarettes".
Earlier this year, Ranjit Singh, an advocate practising at the Supreme Court, said: "E-cigarettes and like products with attractive flavouring have been proven to hook the younger generation to nicotine addiction."
SIDE 2: Are E-cigarettes a safer choice?
Advocates for e-cigarettes say vaping, which usually involves inhaling a vapour formed from heating up a liquid containing nicotine, is far less harmful than smoking tobacco.
According to Reuters, the Association of Vapers India, an organisation that represents e-cigarette users across the country, had attacked the Indian government’s decision to ban, saying it would deprive millions of smokers of a safer solution to cut back on smoking.
Amid these claims, Dr. J. Taylor Hays, director of the Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center, said while some people might think they are safe to vape, the harmful chemicals in that vapor are similar to tobacco smoke but at much lower levels. "It's safer, but it's not safe," he added, saying, "What we don't know are what long-term effects will these lower-level toxicants have."
Rampant use of E-cigarettes has been observed among the youth, including school children. "E-cigarette marketers have illicitly managed to achieve a foothold in the market that has not been completely redressed by the ban," Binoy Mathew, Manager, the Voluntary Health Association of India, had said earlier.
India's health ministry had issued a public notice this year to strengthen the enforcement of the Act which prohibits the manufacture, sale and advertisements of electronic cigarettes.
With e-cigarettes still being easily accessible online and at tobacco shops despite the ban, the ministry had directed all stakeholders, including producers, manufacturers, importers, distributors, advertisers, and retailers, to strictly comply with the Act's provisions.
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