As Cigarettes Are Banned, Will E-Cigarettes Catch Up?

Introduction: As cigarettes face increasing bans, people have become more curious about the concept of e-cigarettes. Can e-cigarettes replace cigarettes? Can e-cigarettes help smokers quit? Should smokers “love” e-cigarettes, or “fear” them?

China E-Cigarette News: With cigarettes being banned, would you switch to e-cigarettes? Starting in March, Shenzhen implemented what has been called the “strictest smoking control order in history,” and fines now closely accompany those who continue to “puff away.” This has left many long-time smokers feeling conflicted. The emergence of e-cigarettes seems to have given smokers new hope. However, a recent statement on e-cigarettes from The Union, the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, said that e-cigarettes are not harmless, that their safety has not yet been scientifically proven, and that they also release carcinogens indoors.

More than 90% of e-cigarettes are made in Shenzhen

In recent years, as smoking control policies have been introduced in many places, e-cigarettes—marketed as non-toxic and helpful for quitting smoking—have gradually entered the public eye. Zeng Fanyu, director of the office of the Chinese Association on Tobacco Control, introduced e-cigarettes as electronic products that imitate cigarettes, with the same appearance, smoke, taste, and sensation as conventional cigarettes. As anti-smoking campaigns have spread overseas, e-cigarettes, originally invented in China, have rapidly risen in markets such as Europe and the United States, and many small e-cigarette companies have sprung up like mushrooms after rain.

If a few years ago you still did not know what e-cigarettes were, today e-cigarettes in many flavors can be found all over the internet, and even some large supermarkets sell them. Zeng Fanyu said that China is the main production base for e-cigarettes, and that more than 90% of the e-cigarettes currently on the market are produced by companies in Shenzhen. A reporter’s online search found a wide variety of e-cigarettes labeled as made in Shenzhen, with flavors ranging from chocolate to fruit, and prices varying dramatically from a few dozen yuan to over ten thousand yuan. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, many e-cigarettes were even marketed under a “health” theme, encouraging consumers to give “healthy e-cigarettes” as gifts. Sales records show that e-cigarette sales were quite considerable ahead of the holiday.

Public awareness of e-cigarettes is low

As Shenzhen is a major production base for e-cigarettes, how aware are local residents of them? Reporters visiting many shopping centers found that although Shenzhen is a major e-cigarette production area, few malls are willing to sell e-cigarettes, and not many residents are familiar with them. At Shenzhen Book City Central, reporters asked 20 residents and found that only 6 had heard of e-cigarettes, and only 1 had actually used one that had been given by a friend.

Mr. Sun, a resident of Futian District, has been a smoker for more than a decade. In 2013, after learning that Mr. Sun wanted to quit smoking, a friend specially gave him an e-cigarette. But after trying it for about two months, Mr. Sun eventually gave up. “E-cigarettes are very hard to use as a substitute for cigarettes, and they can’t really help you quit. They’re also too troublesome to use,” Mr. Sun said when describing his experience with them.

Although the public response has been lukewarm, e-cigarette companies in Shenzhen remain highly active. This month, the e-cigarette industry association under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration also held the “CECMOL E-Cigarette Summit Forum” in Shenzhen. More than 400 people attended, including domestic e-cigarette manufacturers, channel distributors, e-cigarette component suppliers, and leading upstream and downstream figures from the United States, France, and Spain.

Businesses are active, but the market is quiet. What impact will the growth of Shenzhen’s e-cigarette industry have on the city’s smoking control efforts? Yang Jie, a researcher at the Tobacco Control Office of the China CDC, said that the vast majority of e-cigarettes produced in Shenzhen are currently exported. Based on international tobacco control experience, cities where e-cigarettes are popular are often also cities with very strict smoking control. Shenzhen’s smoking control measures can, to a certain extent, effectively reduce the number of smokers in public places, but whether smokers who can no longer smoke cigarettes will turn to e-cigarettes remains unclear. It also cannot be ruled out that many smokers who want to quit but cannot overcome nicotine dependence may use e-cigarettes just to satisfy the craving. However, at present, the effect of e-cigarettes in helping people quit smoking is not obvious.

Experts recommend regulating e-cigarettes as pharmaceuticals

Recently, The Union’s published Statement on Electronic Cigarettes drew considerable public attention. The statement said that it is still impossible to determine what potential health risks e-cigarettes may pose to users, and that their safety has not yet been fully scientifically demonstrated. The statement also said that e-cigarettes do not eliminate the health impact of secondhand smoke on non-smokers, because they also release inhaled liquid fine particles and ultrafine particles, nicotine, and carcinogens into indoor air. The organization supports regulation of the production, marketing, and sale of e-cigarettes, with the preferred option being to regulate them as pharmaceuticals. #p#Page title#e#

Since 2013, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration has shifted from opposing e-cigarettes to supporting them, which has caused concern among some industry observers. Wu Yiqun, deputy director of the New探 Health Research Center, is particularly worried about the negative impact of e-cigarettes on adolescents. “Teenagers who use e-cigarettes are three times more likely to go on to smoke conventional cigarettes than those who do not use e-cigarettes,” Wu said. She added that many e-cigarette advertisements currently market themselves as fashionable and are paired with various flavors, making them highly attractive to young people.

According to statistics from the Chinese Association on Tobacco Control, China has more than 300 million smokers. Among them, the youth smoking rate is 11.5%, representing about 14 million adolescent smokers, while the number of adolescents who have tried smoking reaches 40 million. In the 2013 China Youth Tobacco Survey of 13- to 15-year-olds, a sample of 158,236 students from 1,020 schools nationwide showed that 45% of students had heard of e-cigarettes, with awareness higher among boys than girls and higher among older students than younger ones. A total of 1.2% of students had used e-cigarettes in the previous 30 days, including 1.8% of boys and 0.5% of girls. Wu Yiqun said that before the safety of e-cigarettes is fully scientifically demonstrated, the government should strengthen regulation to avoid harming the health of young people.