According to a report by Brazilian media Odia on November 23, Brazil’s National Health Supervision Agency (Anvisa) will hold a public meeting next Friday (December 1) to discuss the future development of e-cigarettes in the country.
E-cigarettes have been banned in Brazil since 2009 due to an Anvisa decree. However, the regulator's resolution is currently under review.
In Brazil, the ban has never stopped the use of e-cigarettes; on the contrary, the number of consumers has been growing. According to a survey conducted by Ipec in 2022, there are approximately 2.2 million regular users of e-cigarettes in Brazil, and they are all in an illegal market where the source of raw materials and risks cannot be determined.
Alexandro Lucian, president of the Directorate for Information on Smoking Harm Reduction (Direta), said that only through regulation can consumer safety be guaranteed.
A study commissioned by the UK government and published by King's College London in 2022 reviewed more than 400 scientific papers and found that e-cigarettes are 95% less harmful than traditional cigarettes. In Brazil, research on e-cigarettes is banned.
On the day of Anvisa's meeting, a consumer demonstration is planned to put pressure on the authorities for proper and safe regulation of e-cigarettes.
“The presence of consumers in this democratic dialogue environment is very important,” Lucian said.
