Almost a decade after vaping products were introduced in India, a ban is likely to be imposed in the state of Maharashtra.
PROHIBITING THE DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRONIC CIGARETTES
A ban on electronic cigarettes may well be imposed on the state of Maharashtra. The state health department has ordered the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to stop their distribution and use. Vijay Satbir SinghMaharashtra's Assistant Secretary General (Health) recently asked FDA Commissioner Harshdeep Kamble to draft a government resolution banning e-cigarettes, he says: " We recently spoke with the state health department to ban the distribution of e-cigarettes and believe that is something positive"
Already in 2015, the FDA in Maharashtra wrote a letter to the Comptroller General of Drugs of India (DGCI) to demand regulation of nicotine e-liquids used in electronic cigarettes. After the ban is implemented, the state will become the second to ban the sale and consumption of electronic cigarettes after the Punjab.
As a reminder, the government of Punjab had previously obtained the guilt of a Mohali trader to three years imprisonment under the 1940 law on drugs and cosmetics for the sale of electronic cigarettes.
According to Dr. PC Gupta, director of the Healis Sekhsaria Institute of Public Health, lab tests on e-cigarettes confirm they release toxic chemicals. " A large-scale study is still needed to prove the carcinogenic effects of e-cigarettes, but until that happens we are pushing the government to regulate the product." , did he declare.
Le Dr. Sadhna Tayade, joint director of the Directorate of Health Services (DHS), added that the electronic cigarettes contained nicotine, which is not a registered drug. This is also the reason for the proposal made for its ban.
Indian Express finally reports that even if nicotine in the form of chewing gum is registered, the nicotine e-liquid which is the main fuel for e-cigarettes has still not been registered as a drug in the country.
Source : Financialexpress.com
