Bengaluru: There’s now a popcorn lung disease. Thanks to e-cigarettes its one more health worry that has cropped up to the dismay of doctors, who strongly support the state government’s decision to ban them.
“There are so many new diseases that have cropped up because of these e-cigarettes. Banning them was crucial,” says Dr Vishal Rao, head and neck oncologist at HCG, adding that the liquid they contain causes more harm than good despite the companies claiming they are healthy alternatives to regular cigarettes.
With e-cigs advertised as looking like cigarettes, tasting like cigarettes but not really being cigarettes, many children and adolescents were lured to try them, doctors point out. "This is all the creation of the tobaccco industry ,which has always required regulations and strict laws. Thankfully Karnataka has now become the first state in the country to have taken the step to notify and ban e-cigarettes,” they say.
Calling Nicotine Replacement Therapy a misnomer, Dr Suresh Shottam, coordinator and certified deaddiction therapist of Allan Carr Bangalore, explains that nicotine is not being replaced, only being maintained. “And there’s nothing therapeutic about that. It should be called Nicotine Maintenance Treatment. So the ban with immediate effect is a good move," he adds.
While e-cigarettes have nicotine (upto 36 mg/ML) among other chemicals (usually propylene glycol or glycerol), many of those seized post the ban did not even have labels on them, according to sources.
