Should disposable e-cigarettes be banned? The new chairman of the conference of health ministers is in favor. That's what Saxony-Anhalt's department head says about the initiative.
Magdeburg (dpa/sa) - Saxony-Anhalt's Health Minister Petra Grimm-Benne (SPD) supports a ban on disposable e-cigarettes. These have a bad environmental record, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Health. The initiative by Baden-Württemberg's Health Minister Manne Lucha (Greens) is therefore to be welcomed.
Lucha is the new chairman of the conference of health ministers and wants to campaign for a ban on disposable e-cigarettes. "I'm all for these vapes getting off the market," he said. Bavaria is also in favor of a Europe-wide ban. The cabinet there recently decided on a Federal Council initiative to call on the federal government to campaign for a ban on the sale of disposable products at EU level. Electronic waste, plastic waste and old batteries accumulated after only one use of the e-cigarettes.
In general, according to the Federal Center for Health Education, e-cigarettes can have an attractive taste for adolescents and young adults due to sweet flavors. "An aggressive promotion of e-products as a chic, cool and supposedly less harmful variant of smoking can also contribute to the increase in consumption," said a spokeswoman. According to the information, 13.1 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds and 35.2 percent of 18- to 25-year-olds have already used e-cigarettes.
Grimm-Benne considers a general ban on e-cigarettes and e-shishas to be "disproportionate". But an e-cigarette is not a harmless variant of a conventional cigarette, she said. "Electronic cigarettes and electronic hookahs, in which a nicotine solution is inhaled, are associated with significant health risks because of the narcotic and neurotoxin nicotine they contain." Dependence and complications could develop. "They are also unsuitable for smoking cessation."
