Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'To ban or not to ban?' that was published in Newsband

To ban or not to ban?

The Delhi government said it was planning to ban e-cigarettes. Karnataka and Maharashtra has already banned. The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has taken a stand against e-cigarettes. But is a ban the right approach to regulate this technology?

It is a new and rapidly evolving technology; e-cigarettes are safer than combustible cigarettes. They do not produce toxic tars. E-cigarettes produce carcinogens such as formaldehyde. They also increase the odds of lung disease and myocardial infarction, but to a lesser extent than normal cigarettes do. E-cigarettes must be viewed from a “harm minimisation” perspective. Combustible cigarettes are more noxious than electronic ones.

E-cigarettes are a young technology. It will take time to uncover their ill-effects. Recent surveys also show that e-cigarettes can act as a gateway drug for young people. Completely banning the technology, while selling normal cigarettes, could take away a promising smoking-cessation aid. Instead regulate e-cigarettes tightly.

There is a lot of fear mongering on e-cigs. The country is reeling under a tobacco epidemic – a million deaths and over Rs 1 lakh crore lost every year on mitigating tobacco harm. It is thus imperative we give space to preventive measures, and tobacco harm reduction can play a significant role. To outright ban safer alternatives out of some moral opposition is irresponsible and playing with 27 crore human lives.

Trying to curtail the usage of e-cigarettes without even imposing any restrictions on the usage of regular tobacco ones is a huge leap by the policy makers. Better pragmatic approaches will be appreciated keeping all the pros and cons in mind.

But many are of the opinion that whether it is a normal cigarette or an e-cigarette it does not matter; any kind of cigarette is bad for health. E-cigarette has become a trend among adolescents.

It is not that harmful but it may affect their health later. It is also possible that after using e-cigarette they start using normal cigarette. E-cigarette mostly have disadvantages as it can be a gateway drug for young people. Earlier also government made decision to ban tobacco, guthka, cigarette etc but they were not successful. People will use these cigarette, tobacco as they have become addicted to it. Nowadays we can see that mostly adolescents are addicted to these drugs. We are responsible for our health. If we are demolishing our health nobody will take responsibility for that. It is the duty of government to take care of citizens’ health. Government should ban these drugs and should make strict rules for people using these. Young people should understand not to take these drugs and deteriorate their health.

Regular or E cigarettes are harmful as per common knowledge or from research works on e-cigarette. Addiction is addiction. It harms health. It is better to keep away from addiction. Everything which damages our health must be banned.