Fernando Camacho
La Jornada Newspaper
Sunday, November 23, 2025, p. 6
The Health Commission of the Chamber of Deputies plans to completely prohibit the sale of electronic cigarettes or vaping devices, devices that, despite being advertised as a less harmful and even harmless option for tobacco consumers, “contain a complex mixture of chemical substances, including heavy metals with great potential to harm health, which is why their ban is necessary.
The draft opinion on the initiative sent by President Claudia Sheinbaum, which has already been shared with the members of the commission, warns that despite the existing laws to regulate its commercialization, its “illegal sale and smuggling continue to expand.”
The 829-page text, which will be voted on in the commission next Tuesday, highlights the risk that electronic cigarettes pose to health, particularly for younger consumers, who “have been the subject of aggressive and deceptive commercial strategies by the vaping industry to promote addiction from an early age.”
The document supports Sheinbaum’s proposal on the “regulatory challenge” of vaping devices, since their marketing and advertising has expanded rapidly appealing to the false idea that they are “safe alternatives” or “less harmful” than traditional cigarettes, which has generated confusion among adolescents.
The project establishes that by completely outlawing “the manufacture, import, export, sale and use of vapes and other electronic devices for the delivery of nicotine or inhalable substances, the aim is to address a health risk in the country. According to research by experts included in the project, “although these products can release lower levels of tar, the aerosols generated contain a complex mixture of chemical substances, including heavy metals such as nickel, lead and cadmium, and volatile organic compounds that can generate chronic inflammation, increased oxidative stress and pulmonary dysfunction.
The initiative proposes confirming the President’s request to define sanctions of between one and eight years in prison, and a fine equivalent to 100 to 2 thousand times the daily value of the Measurement and Update Unit (that is, between 11 thousand 314 and 226 thousand 280 pesos) for those who violate the provisions. The text also regulates other health issues, such as the powers of the Ministry of Health to carry out consolidated contracts for high-tech medical equipment and medicines, including the prohibition of trafficking in chemical precursors to manufacture fentanyl.
