A call for an urgent ban on E-cigarettes in India—a race against time

Abstract

Being the second largest consumer of tobacco in the world and with more than 65% of its population below the age of 35, India would face electronic cigarettes (ECs) as an enormous public health challenge in future. In the absence of established facilities for tobacco cessation in the country, ECs may provide an additional opportunity for the industry to project itself as a harm-reduction crusader. Regulating ECs as tobacco products or as drugs is not a prudent option in the Indian context. Banning ECs seems to be the most plausible approach at present. However, in the long run, India should be open to new research. More significantly, policy makers in India should be wary of the lead time before a ban is implemented—a shorter intervening period could ensure that a well-established, better politically connected and more defiant EC industry, aggressively promoting ECs to Indian youth, never becomes a reality.