E-cigarette banned in Rajasthan on world no-tobacco day

Jaipur: The Rajasthan government has banned production, storage, distribution and retail sale of e-cigarettes on the world no tobacco day on Friday. Chief minister Ashok Gehlot said that the ban on e-cigarettes was taken considering its il-effects on the health of the smoker.

“We have a taken a landmark decision towards encouraging youths to quit tobacco on the world no-tobacco day,” said Gehlot after the decision to ban e-cigarettes was taken in a meeting held at the chief minister’s office in the state secreteriate.

“We had promised before the assembly elections that we would take concrete steps to help youths quit addictions. This is one of the significant decisions in this direction,” Gehlot said.

Rajasthan health minister Raghu Sharma said that youths who want to quit smoking are being misled by advertisements that e-cigarettes help quit the addiction.

“We have decided to ban any type of advertisement promoting e-cigarettes,” said Raghu Sharma.

The minister added that keeping in view the growing use of e-cigarettes among youths, the state government had set up a committee of doctors to look into the ill-effects.

“The committee studies the findings made with regard to the use of e-cigarettes and their effect on the health. It was found that e-cigarettes are actually very harmful. So we decided to ban it,” said Sharma.

e-cigarettes are advertised as an alternative tobacco products; however it contains harmful chemicals and toxins that have health risks. The chemicals and toxins may cause serious health problems, including cancer.