Maputo, 22 Jan (AIM) – Mozambique’s National Inspectorate of Economic Activities (INAE) has destroyed an unspecified number of various types of electronic cigarettes (colloquially known as Vipes) that were circulating in the market without complying with Mozambican legislation.
“We have no specific figures about the Vipes that we destroyed. But all over the country, we seized and destroyed various types of tobacco products because they do not comply with the national legislation. These cigarettes jeopardize the health of young people”, said Rita Freitas, INAE general inspector, cited in Monday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Notícias.”
According to Freitas, Mozambique has been receiving a huge number of electronic cigarettes, as well as other types of tobacco, which do not carry the obligatory warning: “Smoking harms your health.”
As a result of non-compliance with the law, she said, INAE started to seize and destroy all kinds of tobacco entering the country.
“INAE intends to intensify, in the near future, the inspection of places responsible for the consumption and sale of these substances”, said Gabriel Chongo, another INAE inspector.
For his part, the head of Health Services in Maputo City, Carla Monjane, claimed that electronic cigarettes are as harmful as the normal ones.
“This has to do with combustion and the substances that may get stuck in the lungs, injuring the lung cells”, Monjane said.
(AIM)
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