India is banning the sale of all e-cigarettes countrywide to prevent the potential health risks – especially for its youth – that the devices pose.

India's cabinet members announced Wednesday an executive order that will ban e-cigarette manufacturing, production, import, export, transport, sale, distribution, storage and advertisement. The order includes banning the sale of all forms of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), heat-not-burn products and e-hookah devices. Beyond reducing use among young people, the ban aims to "advance tobacco control efforts, leading to better public health outcomes," and to reduce tobacco use and its associated economic and disease burden, according to a news release.

"Unfortunately, e-cigarettes got promoted initially as a way in which people can get out of the habit of smoking cigarettes. It was to be a weaning process from using cigarettes," Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Wednesday after a Cabinet meeting, according to CNN. "The Cabinet rightly thought it is time and we immediately took a decision so that the health of our citizens, of our young, is not thrown to a risk."

The decision may be the biggest move to date against vaping globally and comes amid growing health concerns as well as the news of seven deaths and about 380 confirmed and probable cases of severe lung disease in the U.S. connected to vaping and e-cigarettes. The government announced noted that both the Indian Council of Medical Research and the Worldwide Health Organization recently recommended actions against the electronic devices, including a complete ban on e-cigarettes based on current research.

India's 16 states had already banned e-cigarettes, following a health ministry directive issued last year to curb vaping, but the countrywide ban will stymie online retailers that have been circumventing state laws. Notably, the ban does not apply to users of the devices, Reuters reports, and the executive order – used as an emergency measure when Parliament is out of session – will have to be reauthorized by lawmakers when they reconvene, likely in November.