Vaping is the name given to the practice of inhaling a vapor produced by an electronic device through a resistance that heats a liquid so that the vapor is released. The marketing of these products has been prohibited since 2009 and that has not changed.
But these are not the only electronic devices for smoking, other heated tobacco products were authorized by decree in 2021 under the same regulation that covers any tobacco product.
The Association of Vapers of Uruguay (Asovape) was created shortly after, in mid-2022, with the endorsement of the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC). Less than a year after its official operation —and three years after it began operating without a regulatory framework— the organization demands that the use of liquid vaporizers be legalized.
The president of this association, Washington Miraballes, assures that he is concerned about having verified the increase in the use of disposable devices that “are treated as fashion” and that became very popular in Uruguay during the summer.
But vaporizers are not a fad or a novelty. “Electronic devices that heat liquid were prohibited by a precautionary principle in 2009,” they say from the Ministry of Public Health (MSP). At that time, they were devices that had appeared on the world market and their risks were unknown, so the State decided that it was preferable that they not enter the country. “Since there are none here, it is better that they not enter because we do not know the damage,” they asserted from the portfolio to El Observador.
According to Miraballes, in practice, the lack of control leads to the unknown origin of the supply of vaporizers: in which state they arrive in the country, who manufactures them or if minors agree to purchase the product.
“Today you go to the fair and you find products that can be exposed to the sun at 50° and that does not give any guarantee, it can alter the liquid, alter the battery, it is an electronic device and you have to be careful,” says Miraballes and claims: “The State has to take measures because an illicit market has been formed that is not good for anyone.”
However, from the Ministry of Public Health they emphasize that “it is in the folder that its commercialization remains prohibited” under the same criteria that has governed until now, although there is more knowledge of the product and its risks. “They continue to be prohibited because they are products that are known to cause harm and if they are not enabled, why enable them? The question is the other way around: What would be the reason for enabling a product that we know causes harm,” they stated from the MSP and stressed: “yesIt has been evaluated that the best thing for the population is that they continue to be prohibited because there is no evidence to show that one device is less harmful than another”.
In Asovape’s view, vaping is beginning to be seen as a trend, even among minors, “so it would be good if the government could regulate it and campaign for responsible consumption as well as it does against tobacco”, highlights the president Asovape However, for the MSP there are no doubts: it is best that the product does not enter the country.
A market outside the norm
In practice there is a wide variety of vaporizers. The most frequent are the disposable ones that include a capsule with liquid inside. Its price varies depending on the number of puffs—the equivalent of cigarette puffs—”the more puffs or shots you have means there is more liquid or a larger battery,” explains Miraballes. On the other hand, there are others that are not disposable that can last for years, the latter are worth from $2,000 (there are up to $7,000) and require maintenance, for example, buying resistors and the liquid to recharge them.
“Those who are selling it are breaking the law”, they recall from the Ministry and assure that audits are currently being carried out in which businesses that are discovered are fined, since marketing is usually done underhandedly and anonymously because it is a product illegal.
The consequences of vaping
From the Association of Vapers of Uruguay they bet that the users of the vaporizers are only smokers who stop smoking cigarettes and replace it with the vaporizer in a way that they consider less harmful to health. “We don’t want a person who doesn’t smoke to start vaping or someone to do both,” says Miraballes, adding that his intention is for the user to stop smoking by using the electronic cigarette or vaporizer.
“Nicotine is optional in vaporizers. The advantage it has is that you can adjust it,” says Miraballes. The goal, he says, is to gradually reduce it until you stop vaping. “We see it as a tool to quit smoking, it is 95% less harmful than smoking,” argues the Asovape referent.
The Coordinator of the Smoking Unit of the Hospital de Clínicas, member of the MSP Tobacco Control Advisory Commission and also a Grade 5 Professor of Internal Medicine, Laura Llambi considers that vaporizers are a controversial issue in the medical community. In her vision, as evidence is obtained, it has been proven that they are not innocuous. “They damage health and as their use becomes more massive, the damage is more known,” the expert asserts. Are vaporizers less risky than smoking? In dialogue with The Observer, Llambi confirms that the figure quoted by Miraballes circulates that they are 95% less risky than cigarettes, however Llambi emphasizes that this number comes from a scientific article of very poor methodological quality and “from a survey of professionals who are linked to the electronic cigarette industry.
Along the same lines from the MSP, the risks are still being studied, but electronic cigarettes are considered to cause serious illnesses.
“(Cigarette) is a consumption that kills half of its consumers and after it is on the market it must be regulated as much as possible, but if a new product appears, for precautionary reasons you do not allow them to enter,” they stated from the regulatory body and noted: “In the case of cigarettes, the damage began to be seen many decades after the beginning of its consumption; the electronic cigarette has been on the market for 10 or 15 years.” In this period, according to the MSP, respiratory damage has already been demonstrated, even with diseases caused specifically by electronic cigarettes, such as acute lung injury from vaporizers, as well as cardiovascular damage and association with some cancers.
According to Llambi, some studies show that they could be useful for quitting traditional cigarettes, but in the end they show that those who consume electronic cigarettes do not abandon their addiction to nicotine, but substitute one for another. “In real life, in countries where its sale is liberalized, these studies are not reflected, it is even seen the opposite that they relapse due to continuing their addiction to nicotine and over time they relapse back to the traditional cigarette,” he acknowledges.
Finally, Llambi focuses on those young people who do not smoke and for whom these products may be attractive. “Today smoking is not attractive for young people (largely due to the strict regulation imposed on tobacco), and yet they will be attracted by a new gateway to nicotine”, he points out and concludes: “We must take into account all the generations that were not going to smoke and that may be faced with a product that leads them to this addiction.”
