On July 11, the mainland officially "entered the ambush". In mainland traditional folklore, people will start to apply "three-volt stickers" on the day of "entering the ambush" to treat and prevent diseases such as rhinitis, tracheitis, pharyngitis, asthma and other diseases that attack in winter.
At the Guanganmen Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, early in the morning it was crowded with people who came to put up "three-volt stickers", and the pillars of the hospital lobby were also pasted with guidelines for different departments. At the same time, there are also various "three-volt stickers" on various e-commerce platforms for sale, with a price difference of up to 16,000 times per product.
According to the Beijing Business Daily reporter, the relevant departments of the state have strict classification of food and drug products to standardize production and use, but what kind of "three-volt sticker" sold on the market belongs to is somewhat confusing - some are labeled as medical device products, and some are labeled as daily necessities and health products. All this makes consumers very confused: "Is the 'three-volt sticker' I bought safe?" ”
Bulk "three noes" are labeled on e-commerce
On the e-commerce platform, "three-volt sticker" is packaged by some merchants as a "universal sticker" that cures all diseases, claiming that it can treat digestive, respiratory, and immune system diseases, and has effects on gynecological postpartum, rheumatism, and reducing "three highs". Many merchants label "ancestral formula", "hospital same" and "factory direct sales", selling a variety of product styles, diverse brands, and the monthly sales volume displayed is often tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of pieces.
The ingredients of the products are also varied. For example, the raw materials of "Guangyao Baiyunshan Sanfu Sticker" are wormwood, fine spices, white mustard seeds, dried ginger and peppercorns, and the raw materials of "Jingwang Yuai Sanfu Sticker" are Yuanhu, ginger, gansui, musk, fine spices and cinnamon, and there are more than 20 kinds of individual product ingredients. In addition, some bulk "three-volt stickers" are directly "three-nil products" without any logo.
It is worth noting that the price of "three-volt stickers" sold on e-commerce platforms is also very different. Beijing Business Daily reporter in an e-commerce platform after searching for "three-volt sticker" sorted by price, the highest price is "Beijing genuine three-volt sticker three-nine acupuncture point paste (purple)" in the flagship store of Jianhe Pharmacy, the product is 16996.6 yuan 21 sticker, the packaging box says "Beijing Tongrentang". The lowest price is "three-volt sticker 30 stickers for children and adults" naked three-volt stickers, 1 yuan 10 stickers. The price difference between the two products is 16,000 times.
Behind the therapeutic efficacy and ingredients are "subjects" with diverse identities. A reporter from Beijing Business Daily searched on an e-commerce platform and found that most of the "three-volt stickers" sold by old pharmacies such as Beijing Tongrentang and Caizhilin Guangyao Baiyun have medical device product filing certificate numbers or product filing numbers, but there are still many producers who produce "three-volt stickers" without a license.
Taking the top-ranked "Jingwang Yuai Sanfu Sticker" after searching for "Sanfu Sticker" on the e-commerce platform as an example, the product provides application methods for children's frailty, sub-health conditioning, joint problems, respiratory system, digestive system, gynecological problems, etc. There is a Class II medical device business filing certificate on the product detail page, but the entity belonging to Hefei Hehuating Trading Co., Ltd. is Hefei Hehuating Trading Co., Ltd., and Hubei Shechun Jingwang Yuai Technology Co., Ltd., to which the brand belongs, is a manufacturing enterprise.
Gray areas of classification
Regarding the difference between the "three-volt stickers" sold on e-commerce platforms and hospitals, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily contacted Dr. Wang, the attending physician of a traditional Chinese medicine hospital in Beijing, who said that the "three-volt stickers" sold in hospitals and e-commerce platforms are not exactly the same, especially in terms of supervision, "At present, the 'three-volt stickers' sold from third-class hospitals are the most strictly supervised, and are strictly verified by the Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the Market Supervision Bureau."
A reporter from Beijing Business Daily found that the current supervision of "three-volt stickers" at the national level mainly focuses on restrictions on the subjects that provide application services.
In July 2013, the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine issued a notice pointing out that the institutions carrying out the "three-volt sticker" service should be medical institutions with diagnosis and treatment subjects of traditional Chinese medicine, integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine or ethnic medicine approved and registered by the health administrative department and the traditional Chinese medicine management department, and have carried out corresponding traditional Chinese medicine or ethnic medicine services.
In addition, some regions have explicitly restricted the efficacy of "three-volt stickers". For example, on June 26, the Beijing Municipal Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine issued the notice of the "2023 Beijing Traditional Chinese Medicine "Winter Disease Summer Treatment Three Volt Patch" Work Plan" clarified that the "Winter Disease Summer Treatment Acupoint Patch" is only used for chronic respiratory diseases, allergic rhinitis, children and the elderly, people who are prone to colds and repeated coughs, and it is strictly forbidden to unreasonably expand the scope of application and application groups in pursuit of economic benefits.
However, there is a lack of clear and unified regulations on the main standards for the production and sales of "three-volt stickers" and the production standards of the "three-volt stickers" products themselves. When the Beijing Business Daily reporter called the health and family planning hotline 12320 to inquire, the staff said that there was no record of the production standard of "three-volt sticker" in the system.
"There is currently a certain confusion in the classification of 'three-volt stickers', some are classified as daily necessities, health products, and some are classified as medical devices. In response to this situation, the relevant national departments have not yet carried out clear classification and management. An industry insider, Mr. Zhao, told a reporter from Beijing Business Daily.
Hidden risks
The reason why the standard of "three-volt sticker" is so emphasized is because if the "three-volt sticker" is not applied well, it will produce greater risks.
The State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (SAM) mentioned in the article "The State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine Organized an Expert Group to Rush to Jiangxi to Guide the Diagnosis and Treatment of Adverse Reactions and the Aftermath of "Three Volt Patches" released on July 19, 2019, that when Jiangxi Provincial Children's Hospital provided acupoint application services for winter and summer treatment, some children had adverse reactions such as itchy skin, burning pain, and blisters. After investigation by the expert group, on July 12, 2019, in order to improve the efficacy, the medical staff of the hospital adjusted the young ginger in the previous year's formula to old ginger in the preparation process of "three-volt sticker" excipients, and the alcohol concentration was increased from 56° to 62°, and finally determined that the adverse reaction of "three-volt sticker" at that time was caused by the unreasonable preparation of excipients.
Regular hospitals have had problems in carrying out "three-volt sticker" application service, and the various ingredients on e-commerce platforms and various "three-volt stickers" of production enterprises have to attract attention.
At the same time, in addition to the product itself, the relevant regulations have always emphasized that the entity providing "three-volt sticker" application service needs to have an administrative license, and also clearly indicates the risk of buying "three-volt sticker" on the e-commerce platform to go home and apply it by yourself.
Chen Yunfei, director of the acupuncture department of Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, previously said in an interview with the media that some patients with yin and fire are not suitable for applying "three-volt stickers", but these people will still buy and try. After using it for a while, before you know it, you can't sleep at night. "This is the virtual fire in his body that has been ignited. Many patients will have similar adverse reactions, but they are not obvious, and everyone does not pay attention to them. ”
In addition, he pointed out that many online shopping products come with acupuncture point maps that are also inaccurate. If consumers paste the wrong part of some large blood vessels or less subcutaneous fat, such as the eight hip points, once ulcerated, it is difficult to heal, and may cause a series of problems such as inflammation. For example, for acupuncture points that improve immunity, acupuncture points in the joint area should not be used for dressing, and the "Xiexi" acupoint is located at the ankle joint, if blistering and ulcerating, it is easy to affect joint movement.
"After all, the 'three-volt sticker' contains pharmaceutical ingredients, some of the elderly at home do not understand well, it is very dangerous to go home after buying it online, or I hope that the relevant departments can unify the production standards, especially the products sold on e-commerce platforms." Consumer Wu Gang told a reporter from Beijing Business Daily.
Mr. Zhao also suggested that at present, only the "three-volt stickers" sold in tertiary hospitals are strictly supervised, and the degree of supervision of "three-volt stickers" sold in other hospitals or markets is different, so when purchasing "three-volt stickers", you need to choose a reputable and reputable channel, while paying attention to the composition and logo of the product, and choose products that meet your personal needs.
Beijing Business Daily reporter Jin Chaoli Lu Shanshan