E-cigarettes more toxic than tobacco
Some states in India are wiping out the less harmful alternative for smokers while allowing tobacco cigarettes
Banning e-cigarettes may deprive Indian smokers of a substantially less harmful alternative, which can be against public health and can result in adverse consequences, experts have warned.
Some states in India, including Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Punjab, Maharashtra and Kerala, have prohibited sales of e-cigarettes, while tobacco cigarettes remain legal.According to media reports, the Union Health Ministry has recently ruled out acceptability of e-cigarettes in the light of research findings by experts who concluded that they have cancer-causing properties, are highly addictive, and do not offer a safer alternative to tobacco-based smoking products.
However, health experts argued that such decision creates a paradox. The government is allowing the sales of lethal nicotine-containing products – tobac cocigarettes – whilebanning a substantially less harmful alternative. “In my opinion, banning ecigarettes is against public health.”Banning is a hasty decision and can be counterproductive, because we are not aware of the extent of ecigarette use or its harm in India,” added R.N. Sharan, Professor at North-Eastern Hill University in Shillong, Meghalaya.
An e-cigarette is a batteryoperated device that uses a liquid “e-liquid” that may contain nicotine, as well as varying compositions of flavourings, propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, and other ingredients.In tobacco cigarette, there is combustion, a burning of an organic material, which generates temperature up to 900 degree Celsius, and thus produces all the harmful material. Whereas, in e-cigarettes there is neither combustion nor tobacco. There is only the burning of the liquid, made up of ingredients approved for food and contains minimal burning, which is 100-1000 times lower compared to tobacco cigarette.
Further, the experts contented that banning e-cigarettes is contrary to worldwide trends.Various studies conducted in the US, UK and other countries in the European Union, have shown that e-cigarettes have resulted in a significant decline in smoking rates.
Several countries like Switzerland, Belgium, New Zealand, Canada and the US, which were formerly advocating for bans, are now moving towards lifting the bans on e-cigarettes, Farsalinos said.
Importantly, e-cigarettes appear to be effective when used by smokers as an aid to quitting smoking.The hazard to health arising from longterm vapour inhalation from the e-cigarettes is unlikely to exceed five per cent of the harm from smoking tobacco, the experts said. However, it is best to quit smoking without use of any alternative.