Last gasp for Panama’s electronic puffers

A law  banning the use and commercialization of electronic nicotine administration systems, electronic cigarettes, vaporizers, tobacco heaters or other r devices with or without nicotine, is awaiting the signature of President Cortizo.

If the proposal is sanctioned, the purchase or promotion of the devices online would be prohibited in the country. and  violators   would face sanctions

According to the initiative the l Customs Authority would inspect, stop, confiscate and suspend the sale, commercialization, use and import of the systems, and the Panama Tourism Authority would get the message out to visitors.

“Since 2009, Panama has maintained a consistent policy to prohibit the use and marketing of electronic cigarettes and the like, based on studies that establish that these types of devices are harmful to human health and the position of the State, through the Ministry of Health, was to develop legal norms that extended the prohibition of use and commercialization of other series of devices,” says the report that supports bill 178.

The World Health Organization (WHO) concluded “that vaporizers and electronic cigarettes are by no means safe”, which is why it urges legislation on these devices to “interrupt their promotion and acceptance and prohibit the making of false or not statements proven about them. “

It has asked governments to prohibit their use in closed public places and workplaces, “given the health risks that they also represent for non-users” and recommends that they are taxed similarly to tobacco products while rejecting that they can be considered a system that helps to quit smoking, because “there is insufficient evidence to support the use of these products to quit smoking.”