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E-cigarettes

banned

The Bill makes the
manufacturing, production,
import, export, distribution,
transport, sale, storage or
advertisements of alternative
smoking devices a cognisable
offence, attracting a jail term and
a fine, reports tehelka bureau

he Lok Sabha has passed the Vardhan. cuss issues concerning both conven-
Bill banning e-cigarettes. Moving a statutory resolution ob- tional cigarettes and e-cigarettes.
Cutting across party lines, jecting to promulgation of the ordi- Participating in the discussion,
members of the Lower nance, Congress member Adhir Ranjan Varun Gandhi (BJP) defended the or-
T House of the Parliament on Chowdhury said he has no fundamen- dinance saying “prevention is always
November 26 supported the Bill to ban tal objection to the contents of the bill better than cure”. He also dismissed the
the production, import and sale of elec- but was against the adoption of ordi- reports which suggest that e-cigarettes
tronic cigarettes though the Congress nance route by the government for a were less harmful than conventional
questioned the government’s decision subject which was not of urgent impor- cigarettes saying nicotine is harmful for
to adopt the ordinance route for the tance. “The ordinance-addicted gov- health and any suggestion to the con-
legislation. ernment,” he said, “cannot convey any trary, as pointed out by some research
The Prohibition of Electronic Ciga- strong message to the people.” reports, was unacceptable.
rettes (Production, Manufacture, Im- He asked what the urgency was to Gandhi further said that intro-
port, Export, Transport, Sale, Distribu- come out with an ordinance at a time duction of e-cigarettes in the US has
tion, Storage and Advertisement) Bill, when 16 states have already banned brought down the average smoking
2019, was aimed at replacing an ordi- e-cigarettes. Observing that one mil- age to 17 years from 30 years which was
nance issued on September 18. The Bill lion people die because of consuming alarming.
was moved for consideration and pas- tobacco products, Chowdhury said the The Bill makes the manufacturing,
sage by Union Health Minister Harsh government needs to thoroughly dis- production, import, export, distribution,

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