Pipe it Down: Delhi Government to Burn Down E-Cigarettes Sale Completely

It was perhaps said to be an effective antidote to the gruelling habit of smoking. It was also expected to have lasted much longer than it what was originally thought and conceived. But e-cigarettes do not seem to be making a lot of sense in the National Capital Territory region. Or so is being felt.

And, as on date, the news is that e-cigarettes may no longer be seen in the caskets or shops, eateries or elsewhere anywhere in the part of the Delhi NCR region. The Delhi government has taken a final decision to ban the e-cigarettes. But that said, let’s understand quickly that the fate of the e-cigarettes in the rest of the world is still unharmed or untouched where the government bodies are involved.

Particularly in some regions of the west that are no stranger to the abominable evil of smoking, countries like the United States, France, Russia haven’t yet taken any strong steps to counter the growing trend of e-cigarettes. It was, of course, introduced as an idea to combat the excessive ills caused by inhaling tobacco directly from conventional cigarettes, believably more threatening to the organs.

And the usage of e-cigarettes was- and this can be debated endlessly- always to aid in cutting down smoking eventually. This could be achieved by consuming less the harms caused as a result of inhaling more amounts of toxic smoke, found in usual or conventional cigarettes. So, then why is the e-cigarette being banned for good- maybe a bit perplexing, to be honest?

Smoking through a vaping, rechargeable pipe is usually a growing trend in the rest of the world. But here in India’s capital, the government seems to have made up its mind in regards to usage of the e-smoking pipe.

Slated to have hazardous effects, the e-cigarette has been banned already in six states across India. Delhi, in this direction, is, therefore, only adapting the common practice or a prevalent norm. Perhaps, that is why, in this light, an international-expo on the sale of e-cigarettes was turned down by the Delhi administration a few weeks ago in 2018.

The electronic nicotine device and Delhi no longer have the common space for one another. In the words of the Shri SK Arora, director of Delhi State Tobacco Control Cell, ” The E-cigarette is an addictive device and toxic in nature. Though e-cigarette ban in Delhi is still under process, however, in the absence of legal provisions, we were able to close one of the Chinese stalls selling e-cigarettes at India International Trade Fair.”

It is also being told that among the first steps to ban the sale and thus, the usage of e-cigarettes in Delhi was to have put on a hold and later, a closure on the entry of the same through the international airport. Huge consignments of e-cigarettes that entered the capital through Delhi International Airport have been cancelled with immediate effect.

And truth be told, it could be said that such a move was always going to be initiated. After all, for the longest time, there was a growing concern about the duality of e-cigarettes. Whether it was any good in cutting down the ever-addictive habit of smoking or was only another addiction in the “pipeline” was never thoroughly debated, neither reached in full agreement.

What this does, is that it puts on a permanent hold, any chance of youngsters and others who might have been taken in by the ‘rotten habit’ of smoking. And if it could be said, the same being a constant worry in different strata of the society- so even as those who thought of e-cigarettes as a rather aristocratic way of smoking, may have to deal with none of it now!