The Ministry of Health is facing heat following its ban on vaping, even as many countries are reversing such bans and arguing forcefully for the product.
Hong Kong, not far from India, is soon going to reverse its ban on the re-export of e-cigarettes and other heated tobacco products by land and sea transport by the end of this year as part of efforts to ignite growth.
“Senior officials are mulling over the relaxation of the trans-shipment ban on re-exporting the alternative smoking products from Hong Kong, given the significant values of the re-export,” a senior government official was quoted. The original intention of the amendment was to prevent the re-exported products from slipping back to Hong Kong through other means.
The new move would roll back the tobacco control regime. Similar changes are happening across Asia, and also Europe. A report last December from the China Electronics Chamber of Commerce found that 95% of the world’s vaping products were produced on the mainland, with more than 90% exported at a value of about $19.23 billion.
And such changes are happening even as the World Health Organization (WHO) continues to wage a war on vaping and other safer nicotine alternatives through campaigns and such initiatives. Vaping is banned in India, it has been three years since the ban came into force following directives issued by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.
Vaping involves using a device that vapourises a nicotine-containing liquid the user inhales. Now, it is not without risk, the evidence for vaping does not say that. It merely says cigarette smokers who switch would suffer from far fewer negative effects and live relatively longer, healthier lives.
But research and studies on vaping across the world, mostly in developed nations, are making the governments—India included—sit up and take notice. The mandarins in India’s Health Ministry’s corridors of power should, by now, realise the ban is useless, and its reversal is a necessity, say experts. It can and should never be considered an indulgence. India, in fact, must consider humane, risk-proportionate regulations while incorporating safeguards to prevent uptake, experts say. But it has not happened for the last three years despite the world taking the right kind of steps. India, sadly, has not changed, not budged.
Shantanu Guha Ray – Sunday Guardian – 2022-11-19.
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