Tobacco companies benefit from India’s policy against e-cigarettes

India’s ban on electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) such as e-cigarettes has robbed the country’s 120 million smokers of access to less harmful alternatives, a tobacco harm reduction advocate said at an online global forum on June 11. “This got me to wonder why a country which would benefit the most from risk reduction so hastily ban it? Why didn’t the government think that a million Indian lives lost every year to smoking were worth saving?” Association of Vapers India (AVI) director Samrat Chowdhery said during the virtual Global Forum on Nicotine (GFN).

GFN, traditionally held in Warsaw, Poland, is an annual conference organized by London-based Knowledge Action Change to discuss the merits of tobacco harm reduction. Nearly 600 individuals participated in this year’s forum held online on June 11 and 12 which delivered presentations from 30 experts on the theme “Nicotine: science, ethics, and human rights”.

Chowdhery talked about the challenges to tobacco harm reduction posed by policy, state control, and tobacco monopolies and slammed the decision of the government to ban ENDS, which he said could be blamed on various factors, including the influential tobacco industry in the country.

“Given the lucrativeness of the tobacco trade and the amount of tax revenue it generates, the state has always historically owned and operated this business. While the western nations ceded control over the last century, many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), especially in Latin America and Asia, continue to partially or wholly-own tobacco companies,” said Chowdhery.