On December 2, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration issued the Administrative Measures for Electronic Cigarettes (Draft for Solicitation of Comments). The draft for comment proposes that the use of vending machines to sell e-cigarette products is prohibited. Market entities engaged in the production, wholesale and retail business of electronic cigarettes must obtain the license issued by the competent administrative department for tobacco monopoly accordingly. E-cigarette advertisements are subject to the relevant provisions of tobacco advertisements. The tax collection of e-cigarettes shall be carried out in accordance with national tax laws and regulations.
It is worth noting that Article 28 of the Draft for Comments stipulates that "the sale of seasoned e-cigarettes that are easy to induce minors to smoke, such as marijuana, and e-cigarettes that can be added to the smoke liquid by themselves are prohibited." ”
"It's definitely right to ban the addition of cannabis because marijuana itself is a drug." Zheng Pingfeng, a professor at the Tobacco Control Research Center of the Institute of Health Communication of Fudan University, told Nandu reporters that if marijuana is really added, the public security department will also intervene in law enforcement. In fact, the most likely to induce minors is not necessarily marijuana, but a variety of fruits and other flavors of flavors.
In October this year, the Tobacco Control Research Center of the Institute of Health Communication of Fudan University released the "Research Report on E-cigarette Marketing and the Impact on Adolescent Health". The study found that 94.3% of teenagers had heard of e-cigarettes. 4.5% of teenagers reported trying to use e-cigarettes, and the most attractive to teenagers was fruit-flavored e-cigarettes (89.5%), followed by food flavors (36.8%) and beverage flavors (34.2%).
"The expression of this article (Article 28 of the Draft for Comments) is specious." Wu Yiqun, a tobacco control expert and former vice president of the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, said that all spices may "easily induce minors to smoke e-cigarettes" and that all flavored e-cigarettes should be banned. "This expression in the draft regulatory measures makes people feel that there are still some flavored e-cigarettes that will not induce minors to smoke?"
Under multiple bans, e-cigarette merchants are still "hunting" teenagers! At an e-cigarette experience store in The Guanshanhu District of Guiyang City, a consumer is selecting e-cigarettes of various flavors. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Xu
It is worth noting that a few days ago, on November 30, the National Standard for Electronic Cigarettes (Draft for Comment) was also published on the website of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration. The national standard for comment also mentions that "products should not be made to present characteristic flavors that are inducing to minors." ”
However, the draft for comments of the national standard intends to allow 122 kinds of chemical substances to be added to the atomite, including rose alcohol, eugenol, malic acid, raspberry ketones, rum ether, plum extract, lavender oil, Peruvian balm oil and so on...
Zheng frequently worries that the many flavors that these additives may mix have a strong appeal to teenagers, which will lure teenagers and more non-smokers to try to smoke e-cigarettes.
If the national standard eventually allows these substances to be added to the atomization of e-cigarettes, it means that the production of flavored e-cigarettes will meet the standards. The draft for comments on the regulatory measures also proposes that "the sale of seasoned electronic cigarettes such as added marijuana that is easy to induce minors to smoke should be prohibited." Wu Yiqun believes that there is a contradiction between the two approaches.
"The tobacco and e-cigarette industries know that the addition of fruit flavors is mainly to attract young people." Jiang Yuan, deputy director of the Xintan Health Development Research Center, admitted that the provisions of the draft for comments did not actually consider banning the production and sale of flavored e-cigarettes.
"To do it is to do it thoroughly." Wu Yiqun told nandu reporters that the production of flavored e-cigarettes should be completely banned from the source of production. The regulatory attitude of the United States and other countries to e-cigarettes is to prohibit the production and sale of e-cigarettes such as fruits, and only allow the sale of tobacco-flavored and mint-flavored e-cigarettes to eliminate the marketing of e-cigarettes to teenagers. Previously, there were media reports that Canada was preparing to ban the sale of flavored and fragrant e-cigarettes.
Nandu reporter Wu Bin sent from Beijing