Anvisa maintains ban on the sale of electronic cigarettes

In an extraordinary meeting this Wednesday morning (6), the collegiate board of the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) maintained the ban on the sale of electronic cigarettes in Brazil.

According to the agency, the approved technical report indicates the need to maintain the ban on electronic devices for smoking, which includes all types of electronic cigarettes, and the adoption of additional measures to curb the irregular trade of these products, such as increasing inspection actions and educational campaigns.

Even banned, these devices are easily found in popular commerce or can be purchased over the internet, which was recalled at this Wednesday’s meeting at Anvisa.

According to the agency, the next steps in the process will be the preparation of a proposal for a normative text by the technical area. Then there should be the presentation of the proposed rule for the deliberation of the collegiate board and the decision on whether or not to open a public consultation.

The meeting was convened because on April 5, Anvisa published a notice calling for the receipt of contributions from society on the partial regulatory impact analysis report.

Officially called DEF (Electronic Devices for Smoking), electronic cigarettes have been banned in Brazil since 2009 by Anvisa’s Collegiate Board Resolution No. 46.

This Wednesday, during the vote on the partial report, Anvisa’s board presented some videos with experts or those involved in the topic.

In one of them, psychiatrist Carolina Costa, a member of the Brazilian Association for Studies on Alcohol and Other Drugs, stated that there is an association with depressive and anxious symptoms both in abstinence and in the continuous use of devices and nicotine dependence.

Director Cristiane Rose Jourdan, responsible for the report, stated in her reading that the agency consulted 40 countries, of which 17 responded. There are different forms of regulation and five of these nations do not authorize the marketing of the product: Ecuador, India, Norway, Mexico and Singapore. The list, among others, includes the United States, Canada, Spain, France and Italy.

In Latin America, a report by the Pan American Health Organization pointed out that of 18 countries, in nine the prevalence of electronic cigarettes exceeded that of traditional cigarettes, according to her.

In Canada, which allowed commercialization in 2018, Jourdan stated in his reading that there was an alarming increase in use by children a year after release. According to her, only the ban on sales to people under 18 was not enough to prohibit consumption by young people.

In a note, the Brazilian Medical Association celebrated the result of the vote. AMB recalled that last May, more than 40 entities launched a manifesto, vehemently positioning themselves against the release of commercialization, importation and advertising of any electronic devices for smoking.

​”This is a wise decision, as there is increasing scientific evidence that the use of Electronic Smoking Devices, the DEFs, is not harmless, does not support smoking cessation or is a form of harm reduction, but a product that causes dependence and can cause several diseases, especially cardiovascular, respiratory and cancer”, says pulmonologist Ricardo Meirelles, coordinator of the Commission to Combat Tobacco at AMB.

In the note from the medical association, he said that so far, about 80 substances have been identified in aerosols, many of them toxic and carcinogenic. “In addition, the vast majority of DEFs contain high concentrations of nicotine, a psychoactive drug that causes intense dependence in its users.”

According to the Brazilian Society of Cardiology, electronic cigarettes can cause heart attack and acute coronary syndrome.

Created in the early 2000s, the electronic cigarette aimed to reduce nicotine dependence.

Covitel Report (Telephone Survey of Risk Factors for Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases in Pandemic Times), carried out in January, February and March of this year by the Vital Strategies organization and the UFPel (Federal University of Pelotas), revealed that 19.7 % of Brazilians aged between 18 and 24 have already tried electronic cigarettes.

What do tobacco companies say?

In a statement, BAT Brasil (British American Tobacco, formerly Souza Cruz) said it will assess the regulatory impact analysis when it is published.

In the text, the company said “that Anvisa’s collegiate board expressed great concern about the illegal market for these products and attention to new evidence, something that is understood to be the subject of the agency’s attention in the next stages of the regulatory process that did not end today. [quarta]”.

“New rounds of debate with companies, experts, consumers, civil society and international organizations are essential for Anvisa’s final decision to be guided by the most current scientific evidence on vaporizers and heated tobacco products,” he said.

“Dozens of countries have already understood the importance of risk reduction as part of their tobacco control policies and, given this reality, have advanced in the regulation of these devices, including the United States, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, in addition to members of the United Kingdom and the European Union”, said excerpt from the note.

Japan Tobacco International (JTI) regretted Anvisa’s decision. “The use of electronic devices in the country is current and supplied exclusively by illicit trade. Legalized companies do not sell the product and the growth in consumption that affects the population comes from the illegal acquisition of devices”, he said, also recalling countries that have regulated it.

Philip Morris Brasil said that it will continue to maintain the dialogue on the regulation of heated tobacco, “this product is different from the so-called electronic cigarettes”.