Top Cop Asks MCC to Suspend Trade Licences of 3 Shops for Illegally Selling e-Cigarettes

Mangaluru: The Mangaluru Police Commissioner Kuldeep Kumar R. Jain has asked the Mangaluru City Corporation Commissioner (MCC) to suspend trade licenses of three shops in the city that were found illegally selling e-cigarettes and also foreign brand cigarettes. Jain has sought action against the “Amantrana” shop, “Unique World Mobile and Hukka” shop, and “Fantastic World”, all operating in Saibeen Complex, off Lalbagh Road in Mangaluru, right across from the MCC building.

Following a raid on 21 August 2023, the Barke police seized from ‘ Unique World Mobile’  and Hukka shop owned by Hassan Shareef, 50 e-cigarettes and 49 boxes of foreign branded cigarettes, which did not have statutory cigarette warning over 85% of the cigarette packet. From the ‘ Amantrana Shop’  owned by one Swathi, the police seized 15 e-cigarettes and 21 foreign-branded cigarettes. At the ‘Fantastic World’ shop owned by Rehamatullah, the police seized 131 foreign branded and Indian cigarettes that did not have statutory warnings.

Cases were registered against the shop owners under the Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes Act 2019 and Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act. Kuldeep Kumar Jain said these three shops were searched in March 2023 and police recovered e-0cigarettes and foreign cigarettes from these shops. And this is the second time that these three shops have once again violated the rules.

An electronic cigarette or vape is a device that simulates tobacco smoking. It consists of an atomizer, a power source such as a battery, and a container such as a cartridge or tank filled with liquid. Instead of smoking, the user inhales vapour. [As such, using an e-cigarette is often called “vaping”. The atomizer is a heating element that vaporizes a liquid solution called e-liquid which quickly cools into an aerosol of tiny droplets, vapor and air.

E-cigarettes are activated by taking a puff or pressing a button. Some look like traditional cigarettes, and most kinds are reusable. The vapour mainly comprises propylene glycol and/or glycerin, usually with nicotine and flavouring. Its exact composition varies and depends on several things including user behavior. Vaping is likely far less harmful than smoking, but still harmful. E-cigarette vapour contains fewer toxins than cigarette smoke. It contains traces of harmful substances not found in cigarette smoke.

For people trying to quit smoking, e-cigarette use alongside prescribed nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) leads to a higher quit rate. For those trying to quit smoking without medical help, it is not clear whether e-cigarettes raise quit rates because the evidence is of poor quality.