E-cigarettes

New Zealand said on Wednesday it will ban disposable e-cigarettes, or vapes, and raise financial penalties for those who sell such products to minors. The move comes less than a month after the government repealed a unique law enacted by the previous left-leaning government to phase out tobacco smoking by imposing a lifetime ban on young people buying cigarettes. New Zealand's Associate Health Minister Casey Costello said on Wednesday that e-cigarettes remain a key smoking cessation device and the new regulations will help prevent minors from taking up the habit. While vaping has contributed to a significant fall in our smoking rates, the rapid rise in youth vaping has been a real concern for parents, teachers and health professionals, Costello said. Under the new laws, retailers that sell vapes to children under 18 years of age will face fines of up 100,000 New Zealand dollars (USD 60,000), while individuals will be fined 1,000 New Zealand dollars (USD 600). Other regulations ...

Expressing concern over rising use of e-cigarettes among youths, health experts on Wednesday warned that practising such vaping methods may lead to addiction to drugs like cocaine and nicotine. 'Mothers Against Vaping' (MAV), a platform of concerned mothers combatting vaping among youths, cited several studies and said these devices harbour around 900-2,000 chemicals and can penetrate deep into the lungs, causing extensive and detrimental respiratory damage. "There exists a looming threat of an entire generation becoming addicted to these new-age tobacco devices, posing a significant risk to their health and well-being," Gauhati Medical College and Hospital Superintendent Dr Abhijit Sarma told PTI. It is imperative to take urgent comprehensive action to prevent the emergence of a new generation of e-cigarette smokers, he added. "Alongside this concerning trend, another issue is that these devices become gateway devices to more serious addictions like using cocaine and nicotine," Dr

Possession of e-cigarettes and similar devices in any form, quantity or manner is in violation of the Prohibition of Electronic Cigarette Act (PECA) 2019, the Union Health Ministry said in a clarification. The clarification was sent to the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MCA) last month, official sources said, adding it will strengthen the enforcement of the ban. he ministry said that though there is no explicit mention of prohibition of individual use of e-cigarette in PECA, the law has been enacted to prohibit the production, manufacture, import, export, transport, sale, distribution, storage and advertisement of e- cigarettes. "Therefore, possession of e-cigarette within the country in any quantity is not possible without contravening the provisions of PECA, 2019, said Dr Pulkesh Kumar, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Health. The ban includes a prohibition on all forms of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems, Heat Not Burn Products, e-Hookah and similar devices. The law was enacted i

A campaign has been launched to curtail the practice of vaping among adolescents and to recommend effective solutions, with experts seeking impactful communication to highlight its adverse effect. Experts from various fields such as sports, bureaucracy, armed forces and child welfare have joined the campaign 'Freedom For Our Future' by think-tank Think Change Forum. The experts have urged the government to initiate awareness campaigns against vaping through various public media platforms, mirroring the impactful anti-smoking advertisements. Sanjoy Roy, Managing Director of Teamwork Arts, Founder Trustee Salam Balak Trust said, Just as graphic anti-smoking advertisements are shown in movie halls, we need similar impactful communication against vaping." "These advertisements should depict the potential harm to a person's lungs and overall health, and strive to make vaping uncool. The need of the moment is for government to launch an anti-vaping advertising campaign," Roy said. Deepa

According to a survey conducted by the Think Change Forum (TCF), 96% of the children surveyed were not aware that vaping and similar electronic devices are banned in India

The Union Health Ministry has sent notices to 15 websites selling e-cigarettes, which is banned in India, directing them to stop advertisement and sale of the products, official sources said. Six more websites are on the radar, they said, adding the ministry is also closely monitoring the advertisement and sale of e-cigarettes on social media and might issue notices to them soon. Of the 15 websites which have been issued the "takedown notice", four have stopped operations while the rest have not responded yet, an official source told PTI. "If they don't respond and comply with the law, the health ministry will write to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology for taking down these websites. Legal action will also be taken against these websites accordingly," the source said. The Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes (Production, Manufacture, Import, Export, Transport, Sale, Distribution, Storage and Advertisement) Act came into force in 2019. The health ministry's not

With e-cigarettes easily available online and at tobacco shops despite a ban, the Union Health Ministry has issued a public notice for stricter implementation of the Act which prohibits manufacture, sale and advertisements of electronic cigarettes. The Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes (Production, Manufacture, Import, Export, Transport, Sale, Distribution, Storage and Advertisement) Act came into force in 2019. The ministry has directed all producers, manufacturers, importers, exporters, distributors, advertisers, transporters including couriers, social media websites, online shopping websites, shopkeepers/retailers etc. not to directly or indirectly produce or manufacture or import or export or transport or sell or distribute or store e-cigarettes, whether as a complete product or any part thereof. In the notice issued recently it has also asked them not to advertise electronic cigarettes or take part in an advertisement that directly or indirectly promotes the use of electroni

The Centre has cautioned media houses against promoting electronic cigarettes at events hosted by them. The communication to media houses, digital publishers and OTT platforms came after the health ministry flagged an instance where electronic cigarettes were apparently promoted at a business summit held in the city recently. "Such an action was in violation of Section 4 of the Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes (Production, Manufacture, Import, Export, Transport, Sale, Distribution, Storage and Advertisement) Act, 2019 which prohibits advertisements that directly or indirectly promote the use of electronic cigarettes," said the communication from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. "The Print, Electronic and Digital Media entities are accordingly advised to ensure that the aforementioned statute is not contravened either by way of advertisement or any promotion or other campaigns," it said.

Banned e-cigarettes worth Rs 6.44 lakh were seized from a shop in Kharghar in Navi Mumbai, a police official said on Thursday. The raid was carried out by the police's Anti Narcotics Cell on May 3 and an offence has been registered under the Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes (Production, Manufacture, Import, Export, Transport, Sale, Distribution, Storage and Advertisement) Act, 2019, the Kharghar police station official said. No arrest has been made so far and a probe into the e-cigarette sourcing and supply network was underway, he added. Electronic-cigarettes are battery-operated devices that produce aerosol by heating a solution containing nicotine, which incidentally is the addictive substance in combustible cigarettes. As per the law, the production, manufacturing, import, export, transport, sale of e-cigarettes is a cognisable offence punishable with imprisonment of up to one year and/or fine of Rs 1 lakh for first offence. Storage of e-cigarettes is punishable with a jai

Scientists have found that vapers and smokers have similar levels of DNA damage, which is more than twice the amount found in non-users, according to a new study. According to the study, DNA damage was higher among those who vaped or smoked more frequently. It was also higher in vapers who used vape pods and mods, as well as sweet-, fruit- or mint-flavoured vapes, it said. A group of researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California (USC), US, analysed epithelial cells taken from the mouths of vapers, smokers, and people who had never vaped or smoked, the study said. E-cigarettes, used regularly by more than 10 per cent of US teens and more than 3 per cent of adults, were once pitched as a healthy alternative to tobacco cigarettes. But research increasingly links the use of e-cigarettes, or vaping, to many of the same life-threatening diseases that plague smokers, the study published in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research said. "For the first ..

E-cigarettes and marijuana may have harmful effects on the heart similar to those caused by tobacco cigarettes, opening the door to abnormal heart rhythms, according to a study conducted in mice. E-cigarettes and heated tobacco products have become popular because the public perceives them as being less harmful than smoking, the researchers said. Similarly, legal recreational marijuana has become more common in recent years, and is also frequently viewed by the public as being safer than smoking tobacco, they said. "We found that cigarettes, e-cigarettes, and marijuana greatly interfere with the electrical activity, structure, and neural regulation of the heart," said study lead author Huiliang Qiu, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in the US. "Often, any single change can lead to arrhythmia disease. Unfortunately, these adverse effects on the heart are quite comprehensive," Qiu said. The study, published in the journal Heart Rhythm, expo

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence said that it has seized e-cigarettes estimated to be worth Rs 48 crore from the Mundra Port in Gujarat as part of its operation to combat smuggling

Mexican President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador signed a decree Tuesday outlawing the sale of e-cigarettes, continuing the government's anti-vaping policy

In a huge step towards boosting the availability of human resources for the health sector, the ministry in 2019 initiated the process of converting 75 district hospitals into medical colleges by 2021-

The Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes Bill, 2019, was passed in Rajya Sabha with voice vote. The bill was passed in Lok Sabha earlier this month

The Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes (Production, Manufacture, Import, Export, Transport, Sale, Distribution, Storage and Advertisement) Bill, 2019, seeks to replace an ordinance issued on Sept 38

He also said there are several misconceptions being spread about use of e cigarettes, including the one which says that it is not harmful for health

The move comes a week after a teenager in central Philippines who had been vaping for six months and also smoking cigarettes was diagnosed with a lung injury

The government had cited health risk to people, especially youth and issued an ordinance to ban such products

His comments come days after Philippine health authorities reported the nation's first vaping-related lung injury