E-cigarette promoters' body counters Health Ministry's arguments

Ahe of first meeting of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare on Friday, an umbrella body of trers promoting electronic cigarettes and similar devices, shared with it a counter to health ministry's key arguments to ban alternative smoking devices.

Tre Representatives of ENDS (TRENDS) sent a representation along with relevant documents to Ram Gopal Yav, chairman of parliamentary panel, and 30 or members. committee is expected to discuss government's recent decision to bring in an ordinance to ban e-cigarettes in ir meeting tomorrow, sources said.TRENDS has urged committee members to consider all evidence and ground realities, which, it claimed, will "sooner or later" make it difficult for government to defend ban.

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Misinterpretation of Indian and global data

Praveen Rikhy, conver of TRENDS, said, "We are deeply concerned with a multitude of erroneous statements, misrepresentation, and misinterpretation of Indian and global data, especially that from US, from our health minister to justify ban of e-cigarettes in India.

"It is unprecedented that US sales and user data are being quoted to enforce a ban on a category with negligible presence in country, a category that is universally ackwledged to be less harmful than all or tobacco products with an extremely high user base in India, through scaremongering."
 

On September 18, government issued an ordinance making manufacturing, production, import, export, distribution, transport, sale, stor or vertisements of such alternative smoking devices a cognizable offence, attracting jail term and fine.

First-time violators will face a jail term of up to one year and a fine of Rs 1 lakh. For subsequent offences, a jail term of up to three years or a fine of Rs 5 lakh, or both according to ordinance.

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