New Delhi: A drug consultative committee has concluded that e-cigarettes and similar devices would need to be classified as a “drug” in India under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and that they should be banned. Section 26A of the Act allows the government to ban drugs or cosmetics which are “likely to involve any risk to human beings or animals or that any drug does not have the therapeutic value claimed or purported to be claimed for it.”
Last month as well, the drug advisory board recommended the same for electronic nicotine products – that they should be classified as “drugs” and that the manufacture, sale and distribution of nicotine devices should be banned.
According to LiveMint, the health ministry is due to issue a government notification on this development very soon and it will be among the bookmarked policy moves as part of the “first 100 days agenda” of the second term of the Modi government.
Also read: Three Ministries Advance Regulations to Control E-Cigarettes
The bureaucratic move to ban e-cigarettes happens even as a case on this is pending in the Delhi high court. In March 2019, the Delhi high court stayed the government’s efforts to bring in a ban. India’s trade ministry had said earlier this year that at present, there was no legal basis to ban imports of the device. The government’s possible decision to classify it as an unapproved drug could become the necessary legal basis to do so.
Last month, the Indian Council of Medical Research put out a white paper cautioning against the likely adverse health effects from these devices and recommended its ban.
The health ministry also asked that anyone in government institutes doing research on e-cigarettes should discuss the same with it first.
Also read: Can the Health Ministry Curtail Research on E-Cigarettes?
Electronic nicotine products claim to help current smokers switch from cigarettes to nicotine products. While nicotine patches and gum have been approved by the government for its “therapeutic value” when given in very small dosages, the level of nicotine in e-cigarettes is much higher and the drug advisory board was not convinced of either its safety or efficacy.
Furthermore, companies have apparently not demonstrated to the regulators whether these devices actually help people cease smoking. Many companies like Philip Morris do not claim that their nicotine products actually help smokers completely cease smoking but that they offer an alternative to smoking.
The government estimates that more than 460 brands of e-cigarettes are available in India, with more than 7,700 flavours and different levels of nicotine.
Last August, the health ministry urged all states to ban electronic nicotine devices. Twelve states have done so.
State governments in Punjab and Haryana have been quicker on the matter than the Central government, already banning e-cigarettes because of their nature as unapproved drugs, and have been prosecuting sellers of these products. Haryana has also said that nicotine is a poison, which it is, according to the Poisons Act.