E-Cigarettes Removed Online: Why Is Tea Smoke Still Unregulated?
As vaping products are removed from major e-commerce platforms, questions are being raised about why cigarette-style tea smoke products are still sold online.
Recently, I searched various online shopping platforms in China and unexpectedly found many stores openly selling a type of tea smoke that resembles cigarettes, marketed as health products, smoking cessation aids, and nicotine-free options, seemingly with good sales. According to statistics, the online sales of tea smoke reached 48.251 million yuan in January 2020, a 143% increase compared to February 2019, with total online transactions exceeding 500 million yuan within a year.<\/span><\/div>
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What is tea smoke? How does it differ from traditional cigarettes and e-cigarettes?<\/span><\/div>
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Why has e-cigarettes been removed from online platforms, yet so-called tea smoke remains unregulated?<\/span><\/div>
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Tea smoke uses tea leaves instead of tobacco in traditional cigarettes. When the tea leaves are ignited, they are inhaled, resembling the shape of traditional cigarettes but lacking the actual tobacco. Smoking tea smoke is essentially "smoking tea."<\/span><\/div>
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E-cigarettes, on the other hand, are products that vaporize nicotine-containing or nicotine-free liquids for users to inhale.<\/span><\/div>
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Traditional cigarettes are addictive primarily due to the nicotine content in the smoke. However, in addition to nicotine, cigarette smoke contains over 60 harmful substances, including tar.<\/span><\/div>
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Why does the government mandate the removal of e-cigarettes while completely ignoring tea smoke?<\/span><\/div>
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On October 31, 2019, the National Tobacco Monopoly Administration and the State Administration for Market Regulation jointly issued a notice to further protect minors from the harm of e-cigarettes, explicitly prohibiting the promotion and sale of e-cigarettes on domestic internet platforms.<\/span><\/div>
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So, the question arises: the government has mandated the prohibition of online sales of e-cigarettes, but why are there no regulatory measures for tea smoke?<\/span><\/div>
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Although tea smoke resembles real cigarettes, its main ingredient is tea leaves, not tobacco, and its most significant feature is the absence of nicotine, meaning it is nicotine-free. However, tea smoke also releases some harmful substances during use. When tea leaves burn, most of the caffeine sublimates and dissipates, while tea polyphenols, amino acids, and vitamins decompose or denature, releasing mostly carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and inhalable particulate matter, all of which are harmful to human health.<\/span><\/div>
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Additionally, whether tea smoke can help smokers quit is also under scrutiny. Some experts point out that the taste of tea smoke is not pleasant, which may make it unacceptable to smokers, making it difficult to serve as a substitute for traditional tobacco. "While smoking tea smoke, I felt a musty straw taste, with almost no aroma of tea. Compared to regular cigarettes, tea smoke has a harsher throat hit and can easily cause respiratory discomfort. This taste is entirely different from regular cigarettes; I couldn't accept it the first time I tried tea smoke and haven't smoked it since," revealed a user with a 30-year smoking history.<\/span><\/div>
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Why has e-cigarettes been removed from online platforms, yet so-called tea smoke remains unregulated?<\/span><\/div>
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E-cigarettes, although they look different from real cigarettes and do not contain tobacco, most products on the market contain nicotine, with concentrations categorized as high, medium, and low. Nicotine is an addictive chemical that poses certain risks to human health. As for whether e-cigarettes have other harmful effects, there is currently no unified, authoritative conclusion worldwide.<\/span><\/div>
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In fact, the controversy surrounding e-cigarettes mainly revolves around the nicotine content and whether there are other unknown harmful substances. Most importantly, whether they can indeed help with smoking cessation as advertised. If they can help with quitting, they become a smoking alternative, which raises significant concerns.<\/span><\/div>
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"I've been vaping for six months, trying both large clouds and nicotine salt pods, and it has indeed been effective. Although they don't look the same, the effect of quitting is real, especially with nicotine salt pods; I haven't smoked a single cigarette in nearly four months," said a vaping user. Whether this is true, only users know, and we reserve some opinions here.<\/span><\/div>
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The UK Public Health England (PHE) once published an independent expert review concluding that e-cigarettes are approximately 95% less harmful to health than smoking traditional cigarettes and may help smokers quit. This serves as a psychological comfort and a source of confidence and hope for those in the e-cigarette industry and users.<\/span><\/div>
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Finally, let's hypothesize: if one day e-cigarettes are proven to genuinely help users achieve smoking cessation, it would confirm that e-cigarettes can replace tobacco, establishing a stronger correlation. Tea smoke and traditional cigarettes are two different things and cannot replace each other. If that's the case, then the answer to the earlier question becomes self-evident and requires no further elaboration.<\/span><\/div>
