Human fear of the unknown is far greater than the unknown itself. Among all things in the world, electronic cigarettes are naturally included. People feel "fear" of electronic cigarettes because of the unknown harm of electronic cigarettes. People have studied the production and composition of e-cigarettes thoroughly, but they do not seem to believe that the harm of e-cigarettes is 95% lower than that of traditional cigarettes. Because of the unknown long-term harm, people prefer to use cigarettes with known harm rather than try electronic cigarettes with unknown harm.
Similarly, because of the "unknown", policymakers tend to issue a "ban" on e-cigarettes, regardless of whether it is beneficial or harmful. A paper ban will reduce a lot of trouble, but in fact, the ban will often lead to a series of other problems.
India faces imprisonment and fines for violating the e-cigarette ban
India is one of the countries that have issued a ban on e-cigarettes. The Drug Advisory Committee of India identified e-cigarettes as "drugs". The government banned the sale, production, import and distribution of drugs for various purposes in accordance with articles 26a and 10a of the drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1940., The first violator will be sentenced to up to one year's imprisonment and a fine of 100000 rupees, and the person who persists in repeated correction will be sentenced to up to three years' imprisonment and a fine of 500000 rupees.
The move is ironic because the proven safer alternative to e-cigarettes is being banned, while the truly toxic product, cigarettes, is not banned, but can be bought everywhere in the country.
According to the latest report of the World Health Organization, the number of smokers aged 15 or over in India is second only to China, accounting for 106 million of the 1.1 billion smokers in the world. In, 267 million Indians continue to smoke and use variants of smokeless tobacco, such as chewing tobacco products. About 900000 people die each year due to smoking addiction. The World Health Organization lists India as the top four countries with high smoking mortality, and predicts that the annual economic burden of tobacco related diseases in India is 1.045 trillion rupees.
E-cigarettes can save the lives of millions of Indians
More than 3000 e-cigarette users recently wrote to the prime minister urging him to legalize e e-cigarettes and pointed out that the shift from smoking to using e-cigarettes has improved their health. In 2016, two scientists, R.N. Sharan of the Department of biochemistry of northeast mountain University (Nehu) and m. siddiqi, President of the Indian cancer foundation, wrote to J.P. nadda, EU Minister of health and family welfare, urging him to consider policies to promote smoking cessation by providing safe and regulated tobacco substitutes to smokers.
"Electronic nicotine delivery system (ends), also known as electronic cigarette, provides a safer and more effective way to meet the physiological needs of smokers for nicotine, so as to help quit smoking or significantly reduce smoking." in countries such as the UK, these products are fully recognized as smoking cessation tools, resulting in a significant decline in smoking rate. Unfortunately, such requests seem to go unheeded.
A study investigating tobacco and e-cigarette use patterns in India
A cross-sectional survey of 3000 e-cigarette users in 8 cities in India found that the vast majority of them were former smokers who successfully quit smoking or reduced smoking through the use of e-cigarettes.
Last summer, the Federal Ministry of health of India formulated the 2019 ban on e-cigarettes Ordinance, and passed a bill to replace the Ordinance in Lok Sabha in January 2020, formally prohibiting the production, trade, transportation, storage and promotion of e-cigarettes in all parts of India.
At the same time, consistent with the views put forward countless times by anti-smoking experts and public health experts around the world, local doctors pointed out that the government should conduct more research before banning the use of these products. Dr Bharat gopal, senior pulmonary doctor and director of the National Chest center in New Delhi, said: "the UK has data on e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation device, so India's research should be valued by the government and who."
Analyze the behavior of electronic cigarette
The study, entitled "patterns of tobacco and e-cigarette use status in India: a cross-sectional survey of 3000 vapers in eight Indian cities", aims to obtain the characteristics and smoking behavior profile data of e-cigarette users in India.
An interview based survey was conducted in 8 largest cities in India, and 3000 subjects were recruited. The standard of participants is e-cigarette users over the age of 18, and the total number of samples in each target city should reach at least 375.
"The vast majority (71.3%) of smokers said that with the help of e-cigarettes, they successfully quit smoking (30.0%) or reduced their demand for tobacco (41.3%)
A total of 3000 smokers (81.4% male and 18.6% female, mean age 29 years) participated in the study. Most people (80%) were initially exposed to nicotine by smoking or using smokeless tobacco (SLT).
In the cognitive survey of e-cigarette, most subjects (79%) thought that e-cigarette was less harmful than smoking. The vast majority of smokers (71.3%) said that with the help of e-cigarettes, they successfully quit smoking (30.0%) or reduced their demand for tobacco (41.3%). Similar changes were observed among smokeless tobacco (SLT) users. "After starting to use e-cigarettes, participants reported little side effects and some health benefits of quitting smoking through e-cigarettes," the researchers reported
Most e-cigarette users participating in this study were smokers and smokeless tobacco (SLT) users before switching to e-cigarettes, and most of them subsequently quit smoking or reduced tobacco use. After starting to use e-cigarettes, it can effectively alleviate the side effects of quitting smoking and obtain more relative health benefits.
E-cigarettes that are effective for quitting smoking but are forced into the black market by the ban
Meanwhile, a recent report from India shows that although the ban on e-cigarettes has been introduced, people can still buy e-cigarettes from any local tobacco store or online. The only difference is that regular official products and high-quality brands can no longer be found, so young smokers can only look for cheap and low-quality products.
Many public health experts insist that the lack of supply of any product in the market will lead people to rush to the black market. Samrat chowdhery of the Indian e-cigarette Association said that at present, India, like the places where e-cigarettes are banned in the world, the black market has flourished in all countries that prohibit e-cigarettes, including Mexico, Brazil and Thailand.
He said: "nicotine in other forms is difficult to formulate and implement relevant regulations. Regular manufacturers producing e-cigarettes are withdrawing from the Indian e-cigarette market. Once the black market industry has the upper hand, e-cigarette products will not be regulated and controlled, and the Indian government has missed the best opportunity to regulate e-cigarettes."
Indian stores must obtain a license to sell tobacco products
E-cigarettes have been banned, while the tobacco industry is still booming. In order to regulate sales channels, the government of Karnataka, India, has proposed a legal amendment requiring retailers selling cigarettes and other tobacco products to obtain licenses.
The permit can be handled through the municipal company of the District, and the application for the permit shall be submitted to the Commissioner or chief executive officer of the municipal company of the district in the prescribed form, and a fee of Rs. 500 shall be charged. A licence granted under these by laws must be renewed for a subsequent period of five years and an application for renewal must be made one month before the expiry of the licence.
This requirement should apply to all distribution channels of tobacco products, including bruhat Bengaluru mahanagara palike. The Ministry of urban development issued a notice on the draft rules last December.
The license must be displayed in the store
These licenses will become official requirements three months after the date of final publication in the Official Gazette and must be displayed in a visible position in all retail stores selling products. Any person who is adversely affected by these by laws may appeal to the Assistant Commissioner of police within 15 days after receiving the order, but any violation of these by laws is liable to a fine.
India is actually a microcosm, which not only represents the attitude of many countries and regions towards e-cigarettes, but also reflects the consequences of the ban on e-cigarettes.
Worldwide, many investigations and studies have shown that e-cigarettes can effectively help smokers get rid of the harm of tobacco and reduce the smoking rate, but in fact, decision makers often ignore the role of e-cigarettes in this regard. Perhaps compared with the benefits brought by tobacco, e-cigarettes are insignificant in numbers.
Just like in the UK, the use of e-cigarettes is a good medicine to reduce harm. In India, banning e-cigarettes not only can not limit e-cigarettes, but will make transactions enter illegal channels such as the black market, which is more difficult to control and cause greater potential risks to users.
