The "marketing" and "circulation" of e-cigarettes have been banned by decree of the President of the Republic Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador signed Tuesday, World No Tobacco Day, the executive said.

"It is a lie to say that the new products, the vapers, are an alternative to cigarettes", decreed the president in front of the press, considering that they were "also bad for health".

Mexico already banned the import and export of electronic cigarettes and their vaping liquid refills in October.

However, traders continued to sell their stock, acknowledged Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell.

The new ban covers "the circulation and marketing of these new products", he added.

E-cigarettes heat a cartridge of liquid usually containing nicotine.

The user inhales the resulting vapour, mimicking traditional cigarettes.

Proponents of vaping claim that it is an alternative to quitting smoking because unlike cigarettes there is no inhalation of tar or carbon monoxide, the two main elements at the origin of countless cancers and cardiovascular diseases. related to smoking.

But, most often, they are loaded with nicotine, the substance at the origin of tobacco addiction.

And their vapor contains fine particles whose long-term effects are unknown.

The World Health Organization considers e-cigarettes dangerous to health and has called for strict regulations to prevent young people in particular from using them.

“To date, 32 countries have banned the sale of electronic nicotine delivery devices,” the WHO said in a July 2021 statement, adding that 79 other countries had taken restrictive measures.

On this World No Tobacco Day, the government of Mexico City has promised that its famous "Zocalo" (central square) and the surroundings of the cathedral will be smoke-free zones in order to raise awareness of health risks.

For ten years in Mexico it is forbidden to smoke in closed spaces, shops, bars and restaurants, with exceptions for certain places of entertainment, offenders exposing themselves to a fine of 45 to 85 dollars.

The WHO warned in a report on Tuesday that the tobacco industry is one of the world's biggest polluters and is responsible for the loss of some 600 million trees each year, the use of 200,000 hectares of land and 22 billion tons of water per year while emitting around 84 million tons of CO2.

© 2022 AFP