In an attempt to protect non-smokers and youth from initiating the use of electronic cigarettes, the union health ministry on Tuesday asked states and union territories to ban the use of Electronic Nicotine Delivery System (ENDS).
ENDS includes e-Cigarettes, Heat-not-burn devices, Vape, E-Sheesha, e-Nicotine flavoured Hookah and other devices that enable nicotine delivery.
The government has asked the states to “ensure” that these devices are not sold, manufactured, imported or advertised.
Such devices, the ministry said, “are a great health risk to public at large, especially to children, adolescents, pregnant women and women of reproductive age”. States and UTs have now been asked to ensure that ENDS are not sold, manufactured or advertised.
The move comes after the Delhi High Court recently criticised the Union government for not taking measures to stop e-cigarettes in India.
Last year, a Delhi resident had filed a PIL in Delhi High Court for introduction of regulation on these products.
In the advisory issued by the ministry calling for the ban, the government expressed concern over non-smokers that users of these products may later switch to cigarettes once they get addicted to nicotine.
Housing more than a 100 million adult smokers, India has strict laws against tobacco. Around a million people dies due to tobacco related diseases in India.
In recent years, the Indian government has intensified its tobacco-control efforts, raising cigarette taxes, ordering companies to print bigger health warnings on packs and introducing a quit-smoking helpline.
According to the Ministry, Punjab, Karnataka, Mizoram, Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have already prohibited the manufacture, distribution, import and sale of artificial nicotine products.
