Mexico Congress approves ban on e-cigarettes

Mexico's Congress on Wednesday approved a constitutional reform banning the production, distribution and sale of e-cigarettes, joining a widening clampdown on a device promoted as less harmful than smoking.

The Senate overwhelmingly backed a bill promoted by the government, which was approved last week by the lower house of parliament.

The constitutional reform must now be approved by the congresses of all of Mexico's 32 states before taking effect.

The bill bans e-cigarettes, including disposable vapes, and also bans the illicit use of fentanyl, a powerful painkiller driving an opioid epidemic in the United States.

E-cigarette vendors warned the bill would drive the vaping market underground.

"There are close to two million consumers of these products and by banning their commercialization... they are handing this market over to the black market," Cuauhtemoc Rivera, president of the National Alliance of Small Merchants, told the Milenio TV network.

In 2020, the government of then-president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador banned the sale of e-cigarettes in Mexico by decree.

But the Supreme Court ruled the following year that the ban was unconstitutional.

Several countries have taken measures to curb vaping, arguing that the nicotine contained in e-cigarettes is highly addictive and that the long-term effects on public health are unknown.

India and Singapore have banned e-cigarettes and Hong Kong this year also announced plans for a blanket ban on the device.

Britain and France meanwhile have set their sights on banning disposable vapes.