E-cigarette "fancy" attracts young people, how to supervise urgently needs to be refined
The "Decision on Amending the "Implementation Regulations of the Tobacco Monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China" (Draft for Solicitation of Comments) clarifies the principles of supervision of electronic cigarettes.
However, industry insiders believe that this is not enough. To rectify the current chaos, the introduction of national standards for electronic cigarettes is a top priority.
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Last week, e-cigarette practitioners across the country were swiped by a piece of news: The "Decision on Amending the Implementation Regulations of the Tobacco Monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China" (draft for comments) proposed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration. New tobacco products such as e-cigarettes shall be implemented in accordance with the relevant regulations on cigarettes in these regulations."
This is the first time that new tobacco products such as e-cigarettes are to be supervised by special laws.
One stone stirred up a thousand waves.
After referring to cigarette management, will the production and sales of e-cigarettes be licensed and monopolized like cigarettes?
Can the negative impact of e-cigarettes on young people be reduced?
Will e-cigarettes be taxed like traditional cigarettes?
More regulatory rules are urgently needed
"This policy comes out, everyone has expectations, and the country will take control." Chen Gulong, founder of the e-cigarette industry media steam fan, told reporters that the introduction of the new e-cigarette supervision policy is not surprising.
The "Report on the Regulatory Status of the Electronic Cigarette Industry" (2019) released by the Public Health and Technology Supervision Research Group of Tsinghua University pointed out that the e-cigarette market grew by US$616 million from 2012 to 2017, with an average annual compound growth rate of 62%.
A research report by China Securities Investment Securities pointed out that the scale of China's vaping e-cigarette market in 2019 was US$1.5 billion, accounting for 0.6% of the overall domestic tobacco market.
China is the main producer of e-cigarettes, but the penetration rate of e-cigarette users is only 1.2%, which is much lower than that of Europe and the United States.
While growing soaring all the way, e-cigarettes also harbor a series of problems.
The most worrying thing is the impact of e-cigarettes on young people.
Many young people are not smokers, but under the marketing and promotion of e-cigarettes, they believe that smoking e-cigarettes is a novel and harmless trend and become "e-cigarettes."
The above-mentioned report of the Tsinghua University research team summarized the e-cigarette advertising and marketing "routine": e-cigarettes are symbolized as consumer goods of the upper class, and represent independent personality and lifestyle; in cultural products, especially TV dramas and MVs, e-cigarettes Connect with the atmosphere of joy, relaxation and enjoyment.
Under the "pervasive" marketing promotion, many teenagers have smoked e-cigarettes.
The results of the "China Youth Tobacco Survey Report" released by the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2014 show that 45.0% of junior high school students have heard of e-cigarettes, and 1.2% of junior high school students have used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days.
The latter proportion reached 2.7% in 2019.
The World Health Organization's 2019 Global Tobacco Epidemic Report pointed out that there is insufficient evidence to quantify the health risks associated with e-cigarettes.
Both users and non-users of e-cigarettes may face health risks.
In this report, the World Health Organization also pointed out that: more and more evidence shows that in certain scenarios, young e-cigarette users are more likely to start using traditional cigarettes in the future.
In order to protect young people from the effects of e-cigarettes, regulatory authorities have introduced a series of measures in recent years.
On November 1, 2019, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration and the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the "Notice on Further Protecting Minors from E-cigarettes", urging e-commerce platforms to close e-cigarette stores in a timely manner, and promptly provide e-cigarette products Off the shelf.
Subsequently, the eight national departments jointly issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening Youth Tobacco Control Work", warning various market entities not to sell electronic cigarettes to minors, especially electronic cigarettes to minors via the Internet.
my country’s minors protection law, which will take effect on June 1, 2021, also writes e-cigarettes into regulations for the first time, emphasizing the prohibition of the sale of cigarettes and e-cigarettes to minors.
Even so, there are still many e-cigarettes ignoring or bypassing regulatory regulations.
Li Enze, vice chairman of the Public Welfare Legal Professional Committee of the China Association for Smoking Control, visited and found that there are still many e-cigarette shops around kindergartens and schools in some places, and even some supermarkets and convenience stores are selling e-cigarettes, and some e-cigarettes. It will be sold alongside toys, stationery, and food, which has virtually played an advertising effect on youth marketing.
Li Enze said that although the Law on the Protection of Minors explicitly prohibits the sale of cigarettes and e-cigarettes to minors, many hidden practical problems are still difficult to solve, and more specific regulations and enforcement rules are needed.
When will the national standard be promulgated
In the discussion about the future, e-cigarette practitioners and tobacco control people are most concerned about how to rectify the current chaos?
When will the national standards for e-cigarettes be published?
He Lin, deputy director of the Institute of Health Promotion and Publicity and Education of the Guizhou Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, once mentioned at the National People’s Congress that the current e-cigarettes on the market include heating non-combustion, atomized cigarettes, etc., with more than 15,000 flavors. .
"There are currently no regulations on what is added, how much is added, and what is produced. There are no regulations on the production process and the safety of heating batteries. Manufacturers have their own affairs."
Wu Yiqun, a researcher at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters that at present, there is a lack of research on the substances that may be added to more than 15,000 flavors in e-cigarettes during the combustion and atomization process, and what effects they have on the human body.
"It's scary to think about it. He can add anything to it at will."
In Wu Yiqun's view, the worst problem right now is that e-cigarettes lack basic product standards.
"I said it will come out at the end of 2019. I haven't seen it for more than a year now. A product doesn't even have a product standard. How can I manage it?"
In October 2017, the National Standardization Management Committee issued a plan to formulate the national mandatory standard "20171624-Q-456 Electronic Cigarette".
According to the plan, the standard was drafted by the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, and the project period is 24 months.
But to this day, the status of this national standard is still "under review" and has not yet been released.
This standard was mainly drafted by Shanghai New Tobacco Products Research Institute, Zhengzhou Tobacco Research Institute of China National Tobacco Corporation, China Tobacco Standardization Research Center and other institutions.
In addition, there is also a national recommended standard "20171624-T-456 Gas Chromatography Method for the Determination of Nicotine, Propylene Glycol and Glycerol in Electronic Cigarette Liquid", which was also developed by China National Tobacco Corporation Zhengzhou Tobacco Research Institute, Guangdong China Tobacco Industry Co., Ltd., etc. Drafting.
The national standard has entered the "under approval" stage, but it should end on December 15, 2018 as planned, and it is suspected that it has exceeded the formulation cycle.
The "difficult delivery" of the national standard makes e-cigarette practitioners also very anxious.
Regarding the product standards of electronic cigarettes, Ou Junbiao, chairman of the Electronic Cigarette Industry Committee of the China Electronic Chamber of Commerce, said that the Electronic Cigarette Professional Committee of the China Electronic Chamber of Commerce is updating the electronic cigarette group standards.
"The members of our association are performing in accordance with our group standards."
Chen Gulong has also learned about the national standard for electronic cigarettes. In his opinion, the national standard that is still being developed "has requirements for more than 160 flavors and fragrances, heating elements, batteries, etc., and it is not difficult for current mainstream companies to meet the standards."
Chen Gulong noticed that e-cigarette companies generally support supervision. When the market supervision department requested the prohibition of online sales of e-cigarettes in 2019, many manufacturers supported it in the first time, but this time few companies vowed to support it.
According to his understanding, the electronic cigarette industry association and many electronic cigarette companies are holding meetings these days to discuss countermeasures and discuss who should supervise and how.
Who is responsible for e-cigarettes?
Due to the general characteristics of separate e-cigarettes and smoking accessories, there has been controversy over which product should be used to supervise e-cigarettes.
The State Tobacco Monopoly Administration actively advocates its inclusion in the tobacco management system.
In my country, tobacco implements a national monopoly system. The State Tobacco Monopoly Administration and the China National Tobacco Corporation have a joint office to centrally and uniformly manage the entire industry's "people, finances, materials, production, supply, marketing, internal, external, and trade".
In July 2020, the Tobacco Monopoly Bureau officially launched the "Special Inspection Action for the Electronic Cigarette Market", and subsequently interviewed 136 e-cigarette and Internet companies within two months.
Xie Jianping, Dean of China Tobacco Zhengzhou Tobacco Research Institute, published an article entitled "Electronic Cigarette Related Technology and Legal Supervision" in 2014. He discussed the electronic cigarettes from the sources of nicotine in e-cigarette leaves and the similarity between e-cigarettes and traditional cigarettes. The basis for the inclusion of tobacco in tobacco monopoly management.
At the same time, China Tobacco is also actively exploring the e-cigarette market.
According to media reports, at the Shenzhen International Electronic Cigarette Industry Expo in August last year, China Tobacco Yunnan and China Tobacco Henan both produced their own heat-not-burn products.
In addition, Sichuan Jinshi Technology, a listed company in the supply chain of China Tobacco, has also completed a strategic investment in non-China JVE e-cigarettes, holding 1.98% of the shares.
The domestic tobacco control community does not fully agree with this regulatory model.
In Wu Yiqun's view, many tobacco control measures, such as building a smoke-free environment and restricting tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, have not fully played their due role.
"Now that we haven't even finished selling cigarettes to minors, can e-cigarettes be managed?"
Both the tobacco control industry and e-cigarette practitioners generally believe that the supervision of e-cigarettes should involve multiple departments.
Zheng Rong, a professor at the School of International Economics and Trade of the University of International Business and Economics and director of the World Health Organization’s Center for Tobacco Control and Economic Policy Cooperation, believes that if international practices are followed, the health and health departments should participate in supervision, as well as industry, industry and commerce and other departments.
Mao Qun'an, Director of the Department of Planning, Development and Information Technology of the National Health Commission, said in July 2019, “The National Health Commission is working with relevant departments to conduct research on the supervision of e-cigarettes, and plans to pass legislation to supervise e-cigarettes.”
Ou Junbiao told reporters that with the tightening of regulatory policies, some e-cigarette companies will make products that do not burn at low temperatures, some will switch to medical atomization equipment, and some will make nicotine delivery devices or nicotine-free toy products.
This will bring more challenges to future e-cigarette supervision.
Wang Ke’an, former director of the New Exploration Health Development Research Center, believes that the current regulatory mechanism for e-cigarettes, a “new species”, is still unclear. The supervision of the entire tobacco industry chain is difficult to achieve full coverage.
If in the future the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration and China Tobacco Company can separate the government and enterprises, the former will mainly supervise e-cigarettes "there will be no problem."
In Zheng Rong's view, the market size of e-cigarettes is already quite large, and the requirements for product quality are only the bottom line.
If the supervision of e-cigarettes should refer to the management of cigarettes, in the future, it should also follow the requirements of the World Health Organization to make e-cigarettes also comply with relevant regulations such as smoke-free legislation, warning packaging, prohibition of tobacco advertising and promotion.
She suggested that considering the fact that many e-cigarettes can be separated from e-cigarettes and smoking appliances, smoking appliances can be regulated as ordinary commodities, while e-liquids containing nicotine and other ingredients can be defined as tobacco products and included in the relevant regulatory system.
Zheng Rong said that the draft released this time is a revision of the Tobacco Monopoly Law, and whether e-cigarettes will be included in the tobacco monopoly system in the future has not yet been fully determined.
"If it is really to be regulated as a tobacco product, then the regulatory requirements for traditional cigarettes (for) e-cigarettes should also be implemented mutatis mutandis."
China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily reporter Wang Lin and Li Ruoyi Source: China Youth Daily