Until April 15, India had never formally defined its stance on e-cigarettes. This changed when a shopkeeper in Mohali was sentenced to 3 years of jail, for selling e-cigarettes, Tribune India reported. Additional Sessions Judge Saru Mehta Kaushik prosecuted 25-year-old Parvesh Kumar under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, and also imposed a Rs. 1 lakh fine on him. According to a 2013 circular by the State Drugs Controller, e-cigarettes are an “unapproved drug”. E-cigarettes use battery-powered cartridges to produce a vapour which replaces the smoke from cigarettes - there is still unverified research about how safe it is. Nicotine, present in many of the cartridges of e-cigarettes, is one of the most addictive substances known to man.

The e-cigarettes, as well as accessories are available on major online retailers, including Amazon India, Snapdeal and Flipkart.

Our lungs are not meant to inhale smoke

This year, a team of US researchers has found that e-cigarettes are toxic and can directly attack lung cells, weakening the immune system and boosting bacterial virulence. The study shows that e-cigarette vapour is not benign -- at high doses it can directly kill lung cells which is frightening," said senior author Laura E. Crotty Alexander, staff physician at the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System and assistant clinical professor at University of California's (UC) San Diego School of Medicine.

"We already knew that inhaling heated chemicals, including the e-liquid ingredients nicotine and propylene glycol, could not possibly be good for you. This work confirms that inhalation of e-cigarette vapour daily leads to changes in the inflammatory milieu inside the airways," Alexander added in a paper published in the Journal of Molecular Medicine.