Are E-Cigarettes Banned? More Precisely, Online Sales Were Prohibited—Why?

E-cigarettes are extremely popular among young people and are often described as an alternative to, or even the end of, traditional cigarettes. In particular, the arrival of the pod system era in China in 2018 made them hugely popular for a time. However, after the 2019 e-cigarette controversy in the United States and the release on November 1, 2019 of China’s relevant e-cigarette regulation, “State Tobacco Monopoly Administration / State Administration for Market Regulation Announcement No. 1 of 2019 on Further Protecting Minors from E-Cigarettes,” the e-cigarette industry experienced an unprecedented impact. Its growth slowed, the market shifted from online to offline, and purchasing moved from e-commerce to in-store buying, bringing it largely under a management model similar to that of cigarettes.

RELX Guardian Program for the Protection of Minors

Under current national regulations, online sales of e-cigarettes are not allowed; they can only be purchased through offline retail stores. The official reason given is that e-cigarettes also pose certain risks and create significant health concerns for minors. To ensure that minors cannot buy e-cigarettes through online shopping, and to prevent e-cigarette companies from misleading minors through false advertising, it was decided that e-cigarettes may not be sold online or advertised on the internet.

Earliest e-cigarette design drawing

In fact, e-cigarettes, like cigarettes, are also addictive. Cigarettes are addictive mainly because they contain nicotine, which can provide stimulation, reduce anxiety, and excite the nervous system. When e-cigarettes were originally invented, nicotine was likewise added in order to achieve an effect similar to that of cigarettes. This is why e-cigarettes, although less harsh than cigarettes and containing fewer substances than cigarettes, can still serve as a smoking substitute. Research from various countries has generally concluded that e-cigarettes are much healthier than cigarettes, but they are not completely harmless.

In recent years, e-cigarettes have been extremely popular in the United States. The 2019 U.S. vaping-related deaths pushed e-cigarettes into the spotlight. Subsequent investigations found no evidence directly showing that standard e-cigarettes were the cause of those deaths, but the disorder in the U.S. e-cigarette market was exposed from that point on. In the United States, many refillable vaping devices were used by extreme enthusiasts to add cannabis products and then inhale them, which harmed many teenagers. This also exposed the lack of regulation in the e-cigarette sector.

Slogan prohibiting use by minors

Therefore, regulating the ingredients in e-liquid is an urgent priority. The state must establish rules governing both e-liquid ingredients and quantity limits, and then enforce them strictly in order to truly standardize the e-cigarette market and put it on the path of proper development.