RTI responses from government show there is little awareness or motivation

Concerned about the hard line the governments in India are taking on electronic cigarettes, many vapers sought replies under the Right to Information (RTI) Act from various government departments, research institutes and even Customs to learn more about the government thinking on ENDS. To our shock and dismay, we learnt through the replies listed below that despite electronic cigarettes now being the most widely used means to quit smoking worldwide, none of the state or central bodies had conducted any research on it.

These replies demonstrate that the central government is about to ban electronic cigarettes without any evidence or research into the subject. This, while substantial taxpayer funds are being sunk into evidently ineffective intervention measures such as sending SMSes to smokers reminding them to quit.

For the convenience of reading, we have arranged the replies according to questions asked. More RTI responses will be added to the database as they become available