After a blanket ban on e-cigarettes State Health department and State police will jointly take steps to stop its use. Union Health Ministry officials have given important instructions to all State officials through video conferencing on Monday.

Health Secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni, who was representing the State in video conferencing, suggested that the online delivery system of e-cigarettes should be stopped, and said that through this, cigarettes are reaching the customers directly.

This leaves no check point between the product and the consumer. Therefore, a ban on the delivery point itself would be effective.  

The Union Health Ministry relied on the suggestion to ban the online delivery system of e-cigarettes. It is known that e-cigarette has been banned in the whole country through an ordinance on 18 September this year. The State government banned it in the entire State in March in the light of the Central Advisory.

After the ban on e-cigarette, the Union Health Ministry laid emphasis on continuous monitoring with special focus on schools and colleges. In this entire process, teachers were also instructed to keep a close watch on the students of classes from class 10 to 12. Apart from this, emphasis was also placed on monitoring and continuous checking of Pan-gutkha shops.

Kulkarni said that to make the ban on e-cigarettes effective, the Health Department will make people aware of it through wide publicity through various means. He said that the effort will be to start the ban from family. For this, parents will also be told through advertisements that they should monitor children and prevent e-cigarette addiction.

He said that two days ago, during a surprise inspection at a school in Delhi, e-cigarettes were seized from more than 150 children.

This is a worrying situation. He said that e-cigarettes are being made in the shape of such products including pens, pencils, on which there is less scope for doubt. This is the reason that the department is going to keep its focus area from school-college to household.

The State police will also take strong steps towards e-cigarette prevention. DG Headquarters PRK Naidu said that they will soon discuss the matter through video conferencing with all the SPs of the State. Through them all the police stations will also be instructed to monitor the sale, storage, consumption etc. of e-cigarettes in their respective areas.

Notably, the use of e-cigarettes in USA increased by 77 per cent within a year According to an estimate, large cities of India are constantly getting caught and its spread is gradually increasing towards medium and small cities as well.

These cigarettes look different from traditional cigarettes and are odourless, increasing the number of youth smoking and children consuming them secretly. The alarming thing is that the easier it is to consume, the more it is also harmful.