E-cigarettes are the ostensibly innocuous siblings of regular cigarettes. Although touted as many things—a “safer” alternative, a weaning tool or handy at places where cigarette smoking is not allowed—e-cigarettes contain nicotine, which is not only addictive but is also a highly toxic chemical that can adversely affect any organ of the body.
In mid-February, the Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) of the Mumbai police, in a two-day drive, raided four paan shops in the city and registered cases against 12 people. Among them was Shivkumar Tiwari, better known as Mucchad Paanwala, whose paans have been the talk of the town and patronised by the glitterati for decades. The raids, however, had nothing to do with paan—the shop-owners were arrested for selling electronic cigarettes or e-cigarettes.
E-cigarettes are the ostensibly innocuous siblings of regular cigarettes. Although touted as many things—a “safer” alternative, a weaning tool or handy at places where cigarette smoking is not allowed—e-cigarettes contain nicotine, which is not only addictive but is also a highly toxic chemical that can adversely affect any organ of the body. Pertinently, the final verdict of whether or not these cigarettes are harmful is far from over.
During the raid on Tiwari’s shop in Khetwadi, 79 e-cigarettes worth ₹1.25 lakh were recovered. “On questioning him, we learnt about the supplier and raided a godown in Dana Bander area in South Mumbai from where we have seized around 800 e-cigarettes,” said an ANC official. A hookah material godown in South Mumbai was also raided, and 699 hookah packets worth ₹4.5 lakh were recovered.
Despite a ban in September 2019 on the manufacture, import, transport, sale, advertising and distribution of e-cigarettes, the latter, and more recently e-hookahs, are easily available to adolescents and youth via paan shops, over the counter, and through online stores. Dr Prakash C Gupta, director of the Healis Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health, said that manufacturers targeted adolescents via the internet. “A study we did showed that adolescents were much more aware of e-cigarettes than adults, and were also consuming them more,” he said. “Many shops too stock them, especially those near schools and colleges. It’s a dangerous trend.”
School counsellors are seeing more and more cases of e-cigarette addiction. A counsellor at a South Mumbai school recounted the case of a Class 8 student, who first saw her brother and his friends “vape”, and stole the e-cigarette from his bag to try it out.
