What is causing e-cigarettes to be in trouble?

Editor’s note: This article is from the Interface News Technology Channel, author Fang Yuanzhen.

In the past September, the United States and the United Kingdom have taken a very different attitude toward the new thing of e-cigarette: the United States wants to strengthen supervision and even prohibit sales, while the United Kingdom encourages smokers to switch from traditional tobacco to e-cigarettes. “Ice and fire two days.”

All differences stem from the “death” incident in the United States.

American e-cigarette encounters “Waterloo”

On August 23, 2019, a US health official in Illinois announced that a patient had symptoms of cough, shortness of breath, and lung failure after using an electronic cigarette. He was sent to the state hospital and died. This is the United States. The first case of suspected e-cigarette death. The US official also revealed that at least 22 patients between the ages of 17 and 38 in the state experienced this symptom after using e-cigarettes, and some patients also developed vomiting and diarrhea.

This is the first case of e-cigarette-related deaths in the United States after e-cigarettes were popular in the United States for 10 years. According to a report released this year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 3.7% of people in the United States currently use e-cigarettes for more than 9 million.

As the world’s largest consumer of electronic cigarettes, similar incidents are constantly being exposed throughout the United States. A month later, with the addition of a suspected e-cigarette death in Georgia and Florida, the total number of deaths in the United States exceeded 10, distributed in ten states including California and Kansas.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducted extensive surveys across the country to understand the real causes of severe lung injury and death. As of October 15, the CDC reported that the number of deaths from related diseases has reached 33, and the number of people with lung damage has reached 1,479, spread across 49 states, Washington, DC, and the US Virgin Islands.

With the rise in the number of deaths, there is strong regulation by the US government.

On September 12th, US President Trump met with the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the FDA in the White House to discuss the health threats posed by e-cigarettes. After the talks, Trump told reporters that he called for a ban on all non-traditional tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes on the US market. Later, US Secretary of Health Arsar also said that the FDA will soon introduce regulatory policies, and states and localities have also proposed temporary regulatory measures.

The official attitude has caused a series of chain reactions from channels, media and even producers – in mid-September, Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, announced the cessation of e-cigarettes, followed by the US SuperCity chain giant Kroger, the largest chain pharmacy operator in the United States, Walgreens also announced that they have joined the ranks of electronic cigarettes.

At the same time, Warner Media, the parent company of CBS, Viacom and CNN, announced that they would no longer broadcast e-cigarette ads. As the most controversial US e-cigarette company, Juul Labs issued a statement on September 25 stating that its CEO decided to resign and will stop advertising all products in TV, online and paper media in the United States. Previously, the valuation of this company has exceeded $38 billion.

This resistance to e-cigarettes even spread across the ocean and spread across the globe.

On September 19th, Indian Finance Minister Sitaraman announced that India will completely ban the production, import and export, sales and advertising of e-cigarettes. The ban does not apply directly to e-cigarettes, but it means that e-cigarette users in India will not be able to legally purchase related products.

In China, the topic of e-cigarettes has repeatedly appeared on Weibo’s “hot search list”. This is not only because China has more than 300 million smokers, but also because it is the hometown of electronic cigarettes. In 2003, Chinese pharmacist Han Li invented e-cigarettes, and today, China has 90% of global e-cigarette patents, more than 90% of production, and nearly 90% of exports.

But it’s astounding: In nearly a hundred countries in the world where e-cigarettes can be used legally, deaths only occur in the United States. In another UK, a major consumer of e-cigarettes, an official from the Department of Health said in mid-September: “All of our e-cigarettes here are living well.”

British “counterattack”

The Economist with more than 170 years of history speaks at the same time as the above-mentioned British officials.

This authoritative media published an article in mid-September saying that the public’s misunderstanding of e-cigarettes actually stems from the chaotic development of e-cigarettes. One of the core facts is that the e-cigarettes that cause death are not products purchased from regular stores, but inferior goods from the streets. Of the first six complaints about e-cigarettes, five were users who used illegally purchased e-cigarette products. The remaining one, its smoke oil was purchased by a user from a legal cannabis store in Oregon.

“When you buy an unlicensed liquid from an unregulated channel, you don’t know what you are going to face. That’s why the government doesn’t encourage people to drink fake wine in informal channels because These fake wines can be fatal. In Costa Rica, for example, 25 people have recently died of methanol. Like alcohol, regulators should also clearly distinguish between illegal e-cigarettes and those that are legal but uncertified.” The Economist Said.

Martin Dockrell, head of tobacco control at the UK Department of Public Health, said: “These people buy or make illegal illicit liquids on the streets, mostly containing cannabis ingredients such as THC (tetrahydrocannabinol). These products come from the black market, withThe electronic cigarettes purchased by regular channels are completely different.

In the area of ​​tobacco control, both the NHS and the UK Public Health Department support the use of e-cigarettes rather than traditional cigarettes, and encourage users of e-cigarettes to report any adverse reactions at any time. In 2018, the British Ministry of Public Health recommended that hospitals sell e-cigarettes and provide e-cigarette lounges for patients to encourage people to switch from traditional tobacco to e-cigarettes.

In contrast to Trump, then British Prime Minister David Cameron has publicly indicated to the media that he supports the development of e-cigarettes in the UK. “Obviously, e-cigarettes are a very successful way to quit smoking. We should look at the report of the UK Ministry of Public Health that there are already more than one million smokers using e-cigarettes to help them quit or completely replace smoking,” he said.

The trend of the US incident is increasingly consistent with the judgment of The Economist. On September 28, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) disclosed on its website that the latest findings on lung injury caused by the use of e-cigarettes showed that cannabis products played a role in the epidemic. According to the CDC’s latest report on Morbidity and Mortality Weekly, 77% of people in this epidemic use THC-containing products, or both THC-containing products and nicotine-containing products.

The United States’ largest newspaper, USATODAY, stated in a research report that “this is partly due to the 2018 Agricultural Act signed by Trump in December last year, which allows for Many states grow and sell cannabis and create a mass market for cannabis-containing products.”

The Economist says that it is more sensible to regulate e-cigarettes than to try to eliminate them. “The use of e-cigarettes can be a dangerous habit, but its fatality is far lower than that of traditional cigarettes.” The article suggests that governments should strictly control the nicotine content of e-cigarettes with reference to the EU, and should also regulate electronics. The advertising method of tobacco, especially the marketing of minors is strictly prohibited.

But it’s obvious that the United States has not done this.

History of electronic cigarette regulation

“In the history of e-cigarette regulation in the United States, there have been several policy changes, but in the end, there is no idea.” Yao Jide, executive vice president of the Electronic Cigarette Industry Committee of the China Electronics Association, said.

As early as 2009, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution to manage e-cigarettes as drug delivery equipment: limiting supply, restricting sales channels, and trying to cut off e-cigarettes from both sources and marketing.

This high-pressure policy has caused a rebound in the US e-cigarette companies. NJOY and Smoking Everywhere, two of the US e-cigarette companies, filed a lawsuit against the US Food and Drug Administration in Washington, DC, on the grounds that e-cigarettes contain almost no carcinogenic chemicals in traditional cigarettes.

Yao Jide, who has experienced this lawsuit, recalls, “Because of the FDA