Can 'milk tea cups' be inhaled too? Beware of e-cigarettes disguised for illegal online sales

Reporter Hu Lingo Xiong Jiayi Guangzhou Today

Recently, some netizens reflected that the consumer market appeared in the name of "milk tea cups" "Coke cups" and other disposable fruit-flavored electronic cigarette products priced at 40-199 yuan. keylink">e-cigarette products, priced at 40-199 yuan. Some of the products are packaged in English, and there is no manufacturer's name, address and date of production and other information. The reporter randomly purchased a few sent to the test found that these products exist e-cigarette nicotine exceeds the quality problems. At the same time, these e-cigarettes online sales channel is quite covert, the seller through the keyword shielding, hidden logistics information to avoid platform supervision.

On March 11, 2022, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STAA) issued the Measures for the Administration of Electronic Cigarettes, which came into effect on May 1, 2022. However, the reporter found that there are still merchants online "change armor" to sell e-cigarette products.

Experts believe that the inflow of such products into the market will have a serious impact on the physical and mental health of minors, it is recommended to focus on the supervision of the atomizer factory, from the source to cut off the threat to the physical and mental health of young people's industry chain.

Illegal e-cigarettes proliferate

"milk tea cups" quality is worrying

"'Milk tea cups ' 'Coke cans' 'Planet cups', 3 packages, factory direct delivery." Xiao Chen (a pseudonym) in the circle of friends from time to time to see the sale of such "toys" micro-merchants ads. "Although it is disposable, but there are 15 ml of high-capacity cigarette oil, buy back to smoke on five or six thousand mouth."

Reporters in the WeChat circle of friends and other channels to see, many sellers have claimed that such e-cigarettes do not have the harmful substances of traditional cigarettes, but traditional cigarettes, "taste", is the perfect alternative to quit smoking. Some of the e-cigarette product name to electronic coffee, atomized energy bar or even quit smoking stick name, which also confused a lot of minors.

"It doesn't seem to be harmful, and there are many flavors" Some minors have used these products without knowing, and smoked their first cigarettes.2022 In May 2022, the CDC released its "2021 Tobacco Epidemic among Middle School and College Students in China". In May 2022, the CDC released the "2021 Tobacco Epidemic Monitoring Results for Chinese Middle School and College Students", which showed that the proportion of middle school students who had used e-cigarettes in 2021 was 16.1%, with the proportion of those who used fruit flavors accounting for 63.8%. In fact, the Mandatory National Standard for Electronic Cigarettes, which came into force on October 1, 2022, prohibits the sale of e-cigarettes with flavors other than tobacco flavors. This kind of "three no" e-cigarettes through a variety of fruit flavors, confused a lot of consumers.

"The emergence of fruit-flavored e-cigarettes has seriously interfered with our original anti-smoking campaign targeting youth." Zhuang Runsen, head of the Shenzhen Smoking Control Association, said.

In addition to the name, packaging and "taste" is confusing, the reporter also noted that most of these e-cigarettes are disposable oil, and the packaging of the e-cigarettes are in foreign languages, no Chinese markers, no indication of the name of the manufacturer, the address and the date of production and other information, in fact, for the "three-free" products. "The reporter randomly purchased four micro-commerce products. The reporter randomly purchased four micro-business e-cigarettes, based on the "mandatory national standards for e-cigarettes" for electronic smoke chemicals in the nicotine and heavy metal content of the test. The test results show that the four samples, the extracted e-cigarette tobacco oil are not up to the claimed 15 ml or 20 ml, some even only 7, 8 ml; one of the products nicotine content exceeds the national standard of 20mg/g, the test value of 24mg/g, nicotine concentration exceeds the standard.

In addition, many of the "three-free" e-cigarettes do not have the main components of the oil written on the packaging, but only in English, "This product contains nicotine, nicotine is an addictive substance". Consumers are not sure what kind of ingredients are added to these e-cigarettes with a variety of flavors.

Guangdong Quality Supervision and Inspection Research Institute researcher Sun Shiying said, fruit-flavored e-cigarettes in the "fruit flavored essential oils" in what ingredients, it is difficult to detect through the standardized testing, only through the smell to judge, which gives a lot of unscrupulous businesses to take advantage of the opportunity. Many consumers say that smoking such fruit-flavored e-cigarettes "sucked a mouthful of want to vomit" "taste completely abnormal". Some of the micro-businesses usually "everyone is smoking" "evaluation are no problem" as a reason to stall, do not make a positive response.

Disguised as "foreign trade goods"

Platform regulation is still a loophole

Reporter investigations have found that some of the "three-free" e-cigarettes are online.

The reporter noticed that most of the products sold on the market, such as "milk tea cups" and other products, are packaged in English, disguised as "foreign trade goods", and some production information is not specified. For these e-cigarettes packaging in English, a self-proclaimed and e-cigarette manufacturers close personal relationship with the micro-business source (a pseudonym) revealed that the "mandatory national standards for e-cigarettes" after the implementation of a number of e-cigarette manufacturers began to play on the "foreign trade products "

These are the first time I've ever seen an e-cigarette in my life, and I've never seen one.

In addition to micro-business channels, in some e-commerce platforms, the reporter also found the trace of such products. The reporter searched the Taobao page for "electronic cigarettes", there are a large number of "electronic cigarette protective cover" "silicone cover" "electronic cigarette lanyard " and other peripheral products, store customer service pop-up message "please add vx in a timely manner to avoid the impact of the policy can not be contacted", customer service said "can still buy, Taobao did not, +v", and the so-called The so-called "+v" is to contact through the social software WeChat. In another WeChat mall called "WAPE total warehouse", the reporter saw the mall displayed a large number of including "fluid bear" "smoke bomb" and so on. cigarette cartridges" and other fruit-flavored e-cigarette products. Customer service told reporters, only need to choose a good WeChat payment can be, the mall does not show logistics information will not be monitored by the platform.

According to sources, in the "three no" electronic cigarette sales chain, delivery service is an important link. According to the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, the State Post Bureau issued a "notice on the limited delivery of e-cigarette products, atomizers, e-cigarette nicotine, etc.", the delivery of tobacco, e-cigarette cartridges (liquid atomizers), cigarette bombs and tobacco products sold in combination (including disposable e-cigarettes, etc.), liquid atomizers, electronic cigarettes, e-cigarettes, nicotine, each person is limited to one per day, not allowed more than one piece of delivery. However, most of the products purchased by the reporter are through the virtual number "one more hair".

Some merchants know that e-cigarettes are prohibited by the express delivery of contraband, still in the delivery of the link to the loophole. In the "WAPE General Store" micro-business mall in the "user order must read" wrote, "tobacco limited to send the courier has been out, e-cigarettes have become contraband". "If someone calls to consult the purchase of goods is what, say living supplies, remember not to say e-cigarettes".

Suggested multi-party efforts

Realization of the whole industry chain strict supervision

In response to this type of e-cigarettes online hidden sales, the experts interviewed suggested that the implementation of the whole industry chain of e-cigarettes strict supervision, control of the online and offline sales channels, and encourage the public to report actively! The experts suggested that the whole industrial chain of e-cigarettes should be strictly regulated, the online and offline sales channels should be controlled, and the public should be encouraged to actively report the illegal clues, and the all-round interception should be carried out, so that the "three no's" of e-cigarettes could not be exploited.

Liu Junhai, a professor at the Law School of the Renmin University of China, suggests that the responsibility of network platforms should be further strengthened by adopting technical means to shield some associated words that may involve e-cigarettes, and strictly checking whether the platform merchants are operating in the dark, and the social media platforms should conduct more stringent screening of information that involves e-cigarettes and their associated words. Social media platforms should conduct more stringent checks on information involving e-cigarettes and their associated words. Cai Yuyang, a researcher at the China Institute of Urban Governance at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, suggests that the supervision of social media platforms should be strengthened, and illegal accounts should be blocked to effectively protect consumer safety.

In addition, the management of similar "three no" illegal e-cigarettes, tracing the source is the key. It is reported that the relevant regulatory authorities have begun to take action to block the black industry chain of "three-no" e-cigarette manufacturers.2022 In November, Dongguan Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology issued a follow-up notice of e-cigarette enterprises that have not yet been licensed. management notice, requiring all departments to launch a mapping exercise in the city. The State Tobacco Monopoly Administration also carries out "milk tea cups", "Coke cans" and other flavored e-cigarettes remediation work, to detect all kinds of cases 593.

Cai Yuyang said, the circulation of a large number of such products repeatedly prohibited, prompting regulators must increase supervision, focusing on the supervision of licensed enterprises, atomized material factories. Suggested by the tobacco management department to lead, market supervision departments and judicial organs to support, the e-cigarette industry intensive areas and related enterprises, atomizers factory to carry out regular supervision.

Teenagers are in the stage of rapid exploration, learning things around them, there is a strong curiosity about new things, e-cigarettes have a novel design, different flavors and styles, more in line with the psychological characteristics of young people. Liu Junhai and other experts believe that schools and parents should jointly assume the responsibility of education, schools should strengthen the legal knowledge of young people and health knowledge of publicity and education, so that young people understand the harm of tobacco, correctly guide young people away from tobacco. For the campus bad trend, the school should be timely guidance to stop, parents should also strengthen the education, to avoid young people to go to the easy access to tobacco occasions. #p#Page title #e#