Vape Weekly: RELX Sunflower System Launch; U.S. Passes Tobacco 21

This article is reproduced in Blue Hole New Consumption, with the original title "E-Cigarette Weekly | EVALI blamed on harmful substances; Yueshi releases sunflower system; the United States passes Tobacco Act 21"

1. Domestic developments

1. Shenzhen strictly investigates the sale of e-cigarettes to minors around the campus, and conducts random inspections of smoking equipment and tobacco oil.
 
On December 17, it was reported that the Market Inspection Bureau of the Shenzhen Municipal Market Supervision Administration and the Shenzhen Tobacco Monopoly Bureau jointly launched a series of special regulatory actions for e-cigarettes. The two departments conducted a thorough inspection and registration of convenience stores selling e-cigarettes around the campus of Luohu District, and warned them to effectively fulfill their responsibilities as market entities and not sell e-cigarettes and other tobacco products to minors.

In addition, the two departments also visited and investigated three e-cigarette production companies in the city to publicize the spirit of the "Notice" and urge companies to promptly close online e-cigarette sales channels and withdraw e-cigarette advertisements. The Market Inspection Bureau of the Market Supervision Bureau also joined forces with the Municipal Inspection and Metrology Institute to conduct risk monitoring and random inspections on e-cigarette smoking sets, cigarette oil and other products produced by e-cigarette companies in Shenzhen, and a total of 33 batches of e-cigarette products were randomly inspected.

2. The court's second-instance judgment: Yueshi can continue to apply for the 34 categories of trademark of fog core
 
On December 18, it was reported that the Beijing City Higher People's Court issued a second-instance administrative judgment on December 3 between Yuexie's operating company Shenzhen Wusxin Technology Co., Ltd. and the State Intellectual Property Office, showing that the court revoked the Beijing Intellectual Property Court's first-instance judgment in support of the Intellectual Property Office not to register Wusxin Technology's 34-category trademark registration. Wusxin Technology will be able to initiate another registration application for Wusxin 34-category trademark registration.

It is reported that Fog Core Technology Co., Ltd. previously applied to the State Intellectual Property Office to register the word Fog Core on the Class 34 e-cigarette trademark, but the Intellectual Property Office rejected it. Yue Shi refused to accept this and sued the State Intellectual Property Office with the Beijing Intellectual Property Court. In May, the court held that the State Intellectual Property Office's actions were correct, and the first-instance judgment rejected Yue Shi's lawsuit.

In addition, according to Tianyan data, RELAX has recently added 8 new invention patent applications, and has now become the domestic e-cigarette company that owns and applies for the most intellectual property rights.

3. Jinjia Shares: The company's e-cigarettes are currently expanding its channels in Southeast Asia
 
On December 18, according to Panorama. com, Jinjia stated on the interactive platform that the new tobacco business belongs to the company's strategic emerging sector and is currently in the investment period. The company's e-cigarettes are currently sold online and offline in China, and has expanded market channels such as the United Arab Emirates abroad., and is currently expanding Southeast Asian market channels.

4. relx released the Sunflower System
 
On December 18, domestic e-cigarette brand RELAX officially released the "Sunflower" intelligent system for the protection of minors, and will ban minors from purchasing e-cigarette products in all aspects offline. According to reports, the combination of name-ID number-face triple age check levels is the biggest highlight of the system. With the help of AI intelligence, Face Recognition, IoT and other technologies and product innovations, it can be ensured that only adults can buy e-cigarette products in Yuexie stores.

It is reported that the system has currently submitted a patent application. In the future, 100 Sunflower System benchmark stores will be built within 3 months and all Yuexie stores across the country will be covered within 7 months.

 5. E-cigarettes are non-toxic and harmless on the list of top ten scientific myths in 2019 end
 
On December 18, a few days ago, at the site of an event organized by the China Science Association to praise the 2019 Science Popularization China, the final list of the top ten scientific rumors of 2019 was officially released. Among them, e-cigarettes are non-toxic and harmless on the list.# p#pagination title #e#

Rumor content: E-cigarettes can replace traditional cigarettes. Their products are healthy and pollution-free. They have the effect of eliminating second-hand smoke and eliminating carcinogens such as tar and helping to quit smoking. They are worth promoting; rumour content: Although e-cigarettes do not contain tar, they are less harmful than traditional cigarettes. However, e-cigarettes contain nicotine, which is harmful to health. In addition, the main ingredient that causes cravings is nicotine, and the nicotine in e-cigarettes is also addictive. The nicotine content of some e-cigarettes even exceeds that of traditional cigarettes, so smoking e-cigarettes cannot help smokers effectively quit smoking.

 6. Beijing Mentougou inspected stores around the campus to sell e-cigarettes
 
On December 18, according to the Beijing News, the Market Supervision Bureau of Mentougou District of Beijing City recently carried out supervision and inspections centered on the campus to eliminate sales channels for e-cigarettes to minors, and conducted a carpet survey of enterprises around the campus. So far, the bureau has inspected more than 30 business entities of various types and has not found any sales of e-cigarettes. The bureau said it will continue to increase supervision and resolutely investigate and deal with the sale of e-cigarette products to minors, especially cutting off online e-cigarette sales channels to ensure that minors stay away from the dangers of e-cigarettes.

7. Sales of China's e-cigarette market in 2019 were US$1.61 billion, a year-on-year increase of 175%
 
On December 18, at the 2019 International E-Cigarette Summit Forum hosted by the E-Cigarette Industry Committee of China Electronics Chamber of Commerce, Ao Weinuo, Secretary-General of the E-Cigarette Industry Committee of China Electronics Chamber of Commerce, introduced that the total global sales of e-cigarettes (excluding heating and non-burning) reached US$33 billion in 2019, an increase of 106% compared with US$16 billion in 2018, and an increase of 14 times compared with US$2.2 billion in 2012; In 2019, China's e-cigarette exports were US$6.26 billion, a year-on-year increase of 52.6%, and domestic sales reached US$1.61 billion, a year-on-year increase of 175%. There were 907 e-cigarette smoking equipment manufacturers in China, of which 85.7% were located in Shenzhen, and 86 cigarette oil manufacturers, 72% were located in Shenzhen; as of November 2019, there were a total of 28642 e-cigarette patents in the world, of which China accounted for 87.3% and 25005.

8. McWair plans to go public in Hong Kong
 
On December 19, it was reported that Shenzhen McWare Technology Co., Ltd. submitted a prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in the name of its holding company Simmore International Holdings Co., Ltd., and planned to list on the main board of Hong Kong. The exclusive sponsor is CITIC CLSA.

Financial data shows that financial data shows that from 2016 to 2018, Mcwell's operating income was 707 million yuan, 1.565 billion yuan, and 3.434 billion yuan respectively, with a compound annual growth rate of 120.3%. The company's gross profit margin also increased from 24.3% to 41.5%, corresponding to net profits over the years of 106 million yuan, 189 million yuan, and 734 million yuan respectively, with a compound annual growth rate of 162.9%. In the first half of this year, McWeir's performance further increased. Operating income was 3.274 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 178.4%, net profit was 931 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 415.9%, and gross profit margin reached 41.5%.

2. Foreign developments

1. A new US bill will tax e-cigarette companies to support anti-e-cigarette activities
 
On December 17, Republican Representative Raja Krishnamoti, Republican Representative Pete King of New York and Democratic Senator Dick Durbin introduced a supporting bill in the Senate. The bill would allow the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to charge e-cigarette companies user fees to fund the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's program to educate young people about the dangers of e-cigarettes. Under the bill, states, local government agencies and non-profit organizations will receive grants to carry out prevention programs in schools across the country.

2. Research: Compared with non-smokers, e-cigarettes increase the risk of lung disease by 30%
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A new study in the United States shows that compared with people who never smoke traditional cigarettes or e-cigarettes, people who smoke e-cigarettes have a 30% higher risk of developing lung disease, and people who smoke both traditional cigarettes and e-cigarettes have a higher risk. The above conclusions are based on smoking habits and health data for 32,000 American adults and data on diagnoses of lung disease between 2013 and 2016.

According to the researchers, the participants in the survey did not suffer from lung disease at the beginning. Three years later, compared with those who never smoked, people who only smoked e-cigarettes developed lung diseases such as asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The risk was about 30% higher, the risk was 1.6 times higher for people who only smoked traditional cigarettes, and the risk was more than 2 times higher for people who smoked both cigarettes.

3. UK cigarette imports fell 47% compared with a decade ago
 
On December 18, according to statistics, in the 12 months to the end of September 2019, the number of duty-paid cigarettes imported by the UK dropped to 24.5 billion, down from 46.1 billion in the same period 10 years ago. 47%, at the same time, the import volume of cigar leaves also dropped by nearly 50%, with the quantity only 260,000 kilograms. However, imports of self-cigarette tobacco (silk) in the UK increased by 17% to 6.5 million kilograms.

In this regard, some analysts in the UK believe that it is the government's implementation of tobacco control policies that have caused a decline in the number of smokers in the UK, which in turn led to a decline in imports of tobacco products and tobacco leaves.

4. Study: 75% of American teenagers smoke nicotine, marijuana or multiple substances through e-cigarettes
 
On December 18, a new study from the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that the number of addictive or mind-changing substances among teenagers who use e-cigarettes has increased compared with the past. The study analyzed data from the 2017 Monitoring the Future (MTF) cross-sectional study that looked at the use of nicotine, marijuana and flavoring among teenagers over the past 30 days. Among the 14560 teenagers who participated in the study, 12% said they had smoked in the past 30 days, with 7.4% using nicotine and 3.6% using marijuana. In this group, only 24.9% of teenagers said they only used flavored tobacco oil, while the majority (75.1%) said they had used nicotine, marijuana or multiple substances.

5. British Columbia, Canada may increase e-cigarette taxes: from 7% to 20%
  On December 19, as e-cigarette data collected from more than 75,000 students in grades 9th to 12th in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, Canada, shows that the number of young e-cigarettes among high school students has increased significantly, the British Columbia government will announce changes to youth e-cigarette regulations to prevent minors from using e-cigarette products. British Columbia Health Minister Adrian Dix said the move would be the first in Canada, and one of the new measures would be to increase the sales tax on e-cigarette products from 7% to 20%.

 6. Facebook and Instagram ban KOL from promoting e-cigarettes and tobacco
 
According to foreign reports, on December 18, local time in the United States, Facebook has promised to crack down more severely on the marketing of e-cigarettes, tobacco products and guns on its social media platforms, and announced on Wednesday that it will no longer allow KOL on Facebook and Instagram platforms to operate content that promotes related brands. The company said it would begin implementing the new rules in the coming weeks. An Instagram spokesperson said this is the first time Instagram has imposed restrictions on the types of products that can promote branded content.

7. The number of male smokers globally declines for the first time in history
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On December 19, according to Sina U.S. stocks, the latest report from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that the number of male tobacco consumers around the world is declining for the first time in history. The number of male smokers around the world is expected to decrease in 2020 compared with 2018. About 2 million people will be reduced, and a further decrease of 4 million will be achieved by 2025. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said the data marked a turning point in the fight against tobacco. rdquo;

According to the WHO, although the total number of smokers worldwide fell by about 4% to 1.34 billion between 2000 and 2018, this was mainly due to a decline in the number of female smokers. Male smokers still account for more than three-quarters of the world's total number of smokers.

8. The U.S. Congress formally passed Tobacco Act 21: effective within 9 months
  On December 20, local time in the United States on Thursday, according to a new bill passed by Congress, the legal smoking age in the United States will be raised to 21 years next year, including cigarettes, e-cigarettes and all other tobacco products. It is understood that the bill passed the House on Tuesday and then the Senate on Thursday. The bill should take effect nationwide within nine months after being signed.

9. The CDC says electronic aerosol lung disease is attributed to vitamin E
 
On December 21, according to foreign media reports, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued a statement stating that the outbreak of electronic aerosol lung disease in the United States can be officially attributed to vitamin E acetate in electronic aerosol products containing tetrahydrocannabinol. salt. In a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on December 20, the chemical was found to be directly related to lung disease in almost all lung fluid samples from a new group of patients. Clinicians collected lung fluid samples from 51 patients with confirmed or probable EVALI, and vitamin E acetate was found in 48 samples, accounting for 94%.

The study also compared samples from this group of patients with samples from 99 healthy people who did not suffer from lung disease and found that no vitamin E acetate was detected in healthy people (e-cigarette smokers who only used nicotine, traditional smokers or non-smokers), including e-cigarette smokers. The new data, coupled with previous reports and product analysis, allows the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conclude that the chemical was the cause of the epidemic.