Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok
Gehlot announced the banned on
the sale of e-cigarettes
in Rajasthan. Gehlot issued the order
on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day on May 31.
Ban:
The government had banned the online or offline sale, storage,
production, distribution, and advertisement of e-cigarettes in the state. The CM said that the ban follows his
party’s manifesto to discourage the youth from addiction.
Harmful effects of
E-cigarettes:
E-cigarettes are too new for researchers to have
found their adverse impact like cancer associated with tobacco. Researchers have found that initially many youngsters
start smoking e-cigarettes and gradually shift to tobacco cigarettes later in
life.
Thus the ban will be an important step to curb
e-cigarette addiction among youths and will prove effective to discourage them
from consumption.
Committee to analyze:
The State government has set up a committee of experts to look into the adverse impacts of e-cigarettes and it found that there were indeed many. The committee
will do a detailed study on the rising use of e-cigarettes.
Criticism on the ban:
But this is a surprise move in a state where the
sale of tobacco products and cigarettes is allowed. Questions are being raised
whether the ban has been done to safeguard interests of the tobacco lobby.
Smoking tobacco has been found to be more dangerous than an e-cigarette. While
public smoking of cigarettes is banned in the state, no steps to ban chewing of
tobacco have been taken.
