From US to India, It's end of road for e-cigarettes

US President Donald Trump's administration announced Wednesday it would soon ban flavoured e-cigarette products to stem a rising tide of youth users, following a spike in vaping-linked deaths.

The move could later be extended to an outright prohibition of vaping if adolescents migrate to tobacco flavours, seen as more legitimate products that help smokers quit their habit.

New Yorkers who vape do not seem to mind if President Donald Trump pushes through a proposed ban on flavoured e-cigarettes, admitting that widespread youth addiction needed to be controlled and expressing hope that it might help them quit.

"He would be doing me a favour," said Antoinette Quiles, a 31-year-old carpenter, as she inhaled from her Juul outside a New York subway stop. "Hopefully, if it’s not available, I won’t buy it. I’ve tried to stop and put it away, but it’s available."

India proposed a ban on e-cigarettes as more than 900,000 people die each year in the country due to tobacco-related illnesses.

Health officials are proposing jail terms of up to three years, with a penalty of up to 500,000 rupees for repeat offenders against the new rules, according to a draft of the executive order.

According to government data, more than 460 e-cigarette brands are available in India, with various configurations of nicotine delivery and in over 7,700 flavours.

However, under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, the government cannot ban these products but only regulate their sale. This put the government in a dilemma over the legal provisions it would have to invoke to ban e-cigarettes.
 

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in a release that non-tobacco flavours were being targeted for their youth appeal, with preliminary data for 2019 showing that more than a quarter of high school students had used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days.

The overwhelming majority reported using fruit, menthol or mint flavors.

While tobacco flavours will initially be exempt, manufacturers will still need to apply for FDA approval by May 2020 to continue to sell their products.

It comes amid growing concern over how more than 450 people who reported recent use of e-cigarettes have fallen ill, with initial symptoms including breathing difficulty and chest pain before some were hospitalized and placed on ventilators.

Several teens across the country have been placed in medically-induced comas, including one whose doctors said he may require a lung transplant if he recovers.

US e-cigarettes maker Juul Labs Inc, which faces a widening crackdown on vaping at home, has entered China, with online storefronts on e-commerce sites owned by Alibaba Group and JD.com to tap the world’s largest market of smokers.

Juul, in which tobacco giant Altria Group owns a 35% stake, has been launching its products in international markets such as South Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines. It recently raised over $750 million in an expanded funding round.