E-CIGARETTES (Syllabus: GS Paper 2 – Health)

Context: Recently, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced that France plans to ban disposable electronic cigarettes. 

E-cigarettes

• It is a battery-operated vaporizer designed to emulate the act of tobacco smoking. Its mechanism involves heating a nicotine-infused liquid known as "juice."
• E-cigarettes encompass potentially hazardous elements, including heavy metals such as lead, volatile organic compounds, and carcinogenic agents.
• E-cigarettes contain nicotine but not tobacco, they do not fall under the purview of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003 (COTPA). 
• Composition of an e-cigarette: Nicotine, propylene glycol, glycerine, flavorings, and various other chemicals.

Steps of Indian Government

• Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes Bill, 2019: It prohibits production, manufacture, import, export, transport, sale, distribution, storage and advertisement of e-cigarettes.
• National Health Policy 2017: It sets an ambitious target of reducing tobacco use by 30 per cent by 2025, which has been devised keeping in view the targets for control of NCDs.
• Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) 2003: The extensive tobacco control legislation seeks to establish smoke-free public areas while simultaneously imposing limitations on tobacco advertising and promotion.