The organizations Salud Justa Mx and Polithink in Mexico expressed this Monday the importance of including heated tobacco products and nicotine pouches in the General Health Law (LGS), which also seeks to regulate the prohibition, distribution and sale of electronic cigarettes, vapers and similar devices throughout the country.
The reforms to the LGS will be put to a vote this Tuesday in the Chamber of Deputies, so Salud Justa Mx, specialized in public health issues, called on congressmen not to be “intimidated or influenced” by the tobacco industry and to prioritize prevention of tobacco addiction.
“The LGS must include heated tobacco products and nicotine pouches. If access to these new products is allowed, we are creating a generation of young people addicted to nicotine who in the future will be a generation of sick adults,” said Dr. Guadalupe Ponciano of the Interinstitutional Committee to Fight Tobacco Control.
Likewise, Ponciano pointed out that “all tobacco and nicotine products are harmful”, since they carry “the risk of addiction and multiple health damages that can even lead to death”, as well as the triggering of non-communicable diseases: cardiovascular, diabetes, cancer, cerebrovascular and chronic respiratory diseases.
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Regarding this, he pointed out that the consumption of tobacco cigarettes has caused the death of more than 63,000 people in the country each year, that is, 173 deaths daily, a problem that also generates an annual expense of 187.490 million pesos.
The representative of the Polithink consultancy, Adriana Rocha Camarena, expressed her concern about the possibility of “derailing” the effort that has been made to advance the ban on electronic cigarettes and vapers, an initiative previously sent by President Claudia Sheinbaum.
“Those who make up the LXVI Legislature have the great opportunity to strengthen the initiative sent by President Sheinbaum referring to the provisions of the LGS on the prohibition of electronics, vapers and other analogous systems or devices,” said the coalition coordinator of Salud Justa Mx, Juan Núñez.
In that sense, he described it as “inadmissible” that even “in secondary and higher education centers the consumption of nicotine pouches and heated tobacco products is observed, supposedly because they are ‘less harmful’.”
The Health Commission of the Chamber of Deputies plans to vote on Tuesday on a series of reforms to the LGS, an initiative presented by Sheinbaum for the prohibition of the use and marketing of vapers and electronic cigarettes in the country after the seriousness of their harmful substances, according to studies carried out by the Federal Commission for the Protection against Health Risks (Cofepris).
With information from EFE
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