Is Vaping Really as Bad as Negative US Media Reports Claim?

In recent days, the e-cigarette industry has been on the hot seat of the U.S. ban on e-cigarettes, and for a few days, the circle of friends has been swept by this kind of news. As the negative news about e-cigarettes in the U.S. has intensified, the industry has been pushed to the forefront again, and in September, the Trump administration took the position that it would adopt a ban on flavored e-cigarettes. Immediately thereafter, several states in the U.S. joined in echoing the announcement to adopt a ban on e-cigarettes; and this triggered a panic among e-cigarette brands around the world.
 
However, despite the fact that the e-cigarette ban in the U.S. has made e-cigarette brands around the world tremble three times, there are a lot of people who don't realize that the U.S. isn't the biggest e-cigarette penetration country in the world. The number one country in the world for e-cigarette penetration is the UK! Not only that, but as of today, the UK has not received a single report of an adverse reaction from an e-cigarette user.

So how did the UK do it? Are e-cigarettes really as bad as the negative reports from the US?

I. The country with the highest e-cigarette penetration rate in the world.

Data shows that the current global smokers have reached 1.1 billion. Among them, China's smokers are 350 million, the e-cigarette market penetration rate is less than 0.6%; the U.S. smokers are 0.35 billion, the e-cigarette market penetration rate is 15%; and the UK smokers are 0.11 billion, the e-cigarette penetration rate is as high as 35%, the world's highest e-cigarette permeability of the country.

The UK has always been supportive of e-cigarettes, and both the NHS and the UK Department of Public Health support the use of e-cigarettes by smokers. Last year, the UK's Department of Public Health even directly suggested that hospitals sell e-cigarettes and provide e-cigarette lounges for patients in order to encourage people to switch from traditional tobacco to e-cigarettes.

The UK's positive attitude towards e-cigarette support is the main factor that has contributed to the UK becoming the country with the highest e-cigarette penetration rate in the world!



The unregulated black market for e-cigarettes is a key breeding ground for bad e-cigarette products and has been a major factor in several bad e-cigarette reports in the United States.



Not only that, all e-cigarette products in the UK must also be subjected to strict quality and safety regulation by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. In the UK, smokers can check the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) website to find out if the e-cigarette products they are buying and using are being sold legally. ”

This regulation at the source in the UK also guarantees that the e-cigarette products of each brand are safe and reliable for smokers once they are on the market.

Third, how does the UK view the adverse reports caused by e-cigarettes in the US?

A London authoritative magazine —— The Economist, founded in September 1843, with a history of more than 170 years, said: "The e-cigarettes that have sparked controversy in recent foreign reports in the U.S. are not from products purchased in regular stores, but are inferior goods from the streets. 5 out of the 6 disputes about e-cigarette complaints were about users using illegally purchased e-cigarette products. In the remaining case, the user purchased his own vape oil from a legal marijuana store in Oregon.

There is also a claim that. The lung problems caused by e-cigarettes that are currently being reported in the U.S. are largely due to users adding their own vitamin E to e-cigarette oils. studies have shown that inhaling vitamin E can lead to lung damage in vapers; and none of the ill effects can be pointed to as being related to the e-cigarettes themselves.

Four: Are e-cigarettes really as bad as they are reported to be?
In July 2019, the World Health Organization in the release of the latest "Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic" pointed out that ‘compared with traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes produce less harm, and if regular smokers can use the e-cigarettes that have been well regulated to replace cigarettes altogether, the toxicity impact suffered by them may be smaller, but not harmless. ’

On August 29th, Tsinghua University's Public Health and Technology Regulation Research Group released the "Public Health and Technology Regulation Research Report of the E-cigarette Industry Regulatory Status Report (2019)" in Beijing, which also cites this passage from WHO's "Global Tobacco Epidemic Report". It can be seen that this China's first blue paper on e-cigarettes also expresses the recognition that e-cigarettes have harm reduction properties. #p#Page Break #e#

In addition, the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) also encourages e-cigarette users to report any adverse reactions. And according to Deborah Arnott, chief executive of UK health charity “Action on Smoking and Health”; up to now, the UK has not found any cases of serious side effects from smoking e-cigarettes.

Not only that, the NHS also said: “So far, there is no evidence that smoking e-cigarettes causes harm to those around you. The available evidence suggests that any risk of harm (from e-cigarettes) is extremely low, even when compared to second-hand smoke. ”
 
V. Concluding Remarks

Since the Trump administration stated that it would take a ban on flavored e-cigarettes, more than 100,000 people in the United States have petitioned to prohibit Trump from signing the relevant ban; and a number of smokers have gone to Trump's Twitter to say that they have made better improvements in their lives through e-cigarettes, and that if Trump were to sign the relevant ban it would be pushing them back into a bad smoking environment.

In summary, in my opinion, a sweeping ban does not improve this market environment; and standardize the e-cigarette market, to solve the e-cigarette counterfeiting and prevent the generation of e-cigarettes black market, is the fundamental solution to the problem. At the same time, I also expect the domestic e-cigarette national standard can be introduced as soon as possible, standardize the production standards of electronic cigarettes, sales channels, so that the domestic e-cigarettes can enter as soon as possible into a standardized, transparent development channels.