The importance of e-cigarettes in global tobacco harm reduction activities

Nowadays, the public is paying more and more attention to health and safety, and is more aware of the harm of traditional tobacco. In addition to thousands of harmful substances, the tar and carbon monoxide of which are known to be highly carcinogenic.

Although most people think that smoking has nothing to do with others, in fact, the substances released by burning tobacco have strong transmission and retention, not only through second-hand smoke is absorbed by people, but also remains on the surface of hair, clothing, furniture and other substances, causing harm to the human body, more than directly smoking smoking grass.

Because secondhand smoke burns at a lower temperature than tobacco burned from a mouthpiece, and secondhand smoke undergoes incomplete combustion to produce carcinogens, many passive smokers fall ill under passive smoking conditions every year.

Especially indoors due to the closure of the environment, the carcinogens produced by tobacco combustion will remain in the room after smoke, such as sofas, carpets, clothes, which are easy to absorb smoke, and people living in such an environment will be harmed by third-hand smoke; Third-hand smoke is the biggest threat to infants and young children, because it is more hidden, toxic and harmful substances will remain on the surface of clothing fibers, hair and so on, which is commonly known as "smoke smell".

With the popularization of tobacco harm knowledge, many smokers are aware of the harm of smoking and are ready to start quitting smoking.

When the global harm reduction and smoking cessation activities are in full swing, e-cigarettes as a substitute tobacco product appear in the eyes of the public, and more and more people understand and choose e-cigarettes as the first step to quit smoking.

Electronic cigarette is a tar-free, heated atomized nicotine substitute product

The WHO (World Health Organization) has advocated the use of "nicotine replacement method" to promote smoking cessation, and electronic cigarettes, as a veritable "nicotine replacement method" substitute tobacco product, play a pivotal role in promoting smoking cessation.

But there are still many so-called experts and scholars, because of the problem of minors' use of electronic cigarettes, the use of electronic cigarettes will likely make people turn to smoking cigarettes, and even people who use electronic cigarettes are very likely to use cigarettes.

Because of the diversified flavors of electronic cigarettes, a variety of flavored electronic cigarettes are the favorite of ex-smokers, often smokers who have a demand for smoking cessation, more requirements for taste, because the variety of tastes will make people forget the desire for tobacco, and changeable tastes can meet people's taste needs. But on the other hand, in the view of various experts and scholars, various flavors of electronic cigarettes are very likely to attract minors without self-control, and at the same level, minors who are tempted to use electronic cigarettes are very likely to turn to traditional tobacco in the future, thereby increasing the smoking rate.

But what are the facts?

According to a study in India, "the majority of smokers say that they quit smoking or reduce their use of traditional tobacco after using e-cigarettes." The study, titled "Tobacco and E-cigarette Use Patterns in India: A Cross-sectional Survey of 3,000 E-Cigarette Users in 8 Cities in India," aims to obtain data on the characteristics of e-cigarette users and tobacco behavior profiles in India.

A total of 3,000 e-cigarette users (81.4% men and 18.6% women) participated in the study, most of whom regularly smoked or used smokeless tobacco (SLT) to be exposed to nicotine. Most respondents believe that e-cigarettes are less harmful than smoking. The vast majority of smokers said they stopped using traditional cigarettes or reduced the amount of traditional cigarettes smoked after using e-cigarettes. Similar changes were observed in patients using SLT.

Participants reported that after starting e-cigarettes, e-cigarettes had minimal side effects on the body and also had some health benefits.

Post-ban crisis

India has completely banned the production, import, export, sales and advertising of e-cigarettes since 2019, although the ban does not directly affect the behavior of smoking e-cigarettes, but it means that Indian e-cigarette users will not be able to legally purchase related products. A first-time violation of the ban may result in a fine of about $1,400 or one year in prison, or both, and multiple violators may face up to three years in prison and a fine of nearly $7,000.

With more than 100 million adult smokers, India is a major market for the global tobacco industry. Since the introduction of the e-cigarette ban in India, all e-cigarette companies have withdrawn from the Indian market, and more than 100 million e-cigarette users have been unable to buy e-cigarettes from legal channels overnight.

At present, electronic cigarettes cannot be found in formal channels in India, such as e-commerce platforms and physical stores, and no company dares to take risks.

Samrat Chowdhery of the Vapers Association of India said that all countries that ban e-cigarettes, including Mexico, Brazil and Thailand, have contributed to the booming local black market for e-cigarettes.

Although e-cigarette companies have withdrawn from India, most e-cigarette users will not be able to abandon the use of e-cigarettes overnight because of the government's ban, and no one can immediately quit nicotine dependence, whether it is tobacco or e-cigarettes, so the market potential of e-cigarettes in India is still considerable, although on the surface it looks calm.

Since people cannot buy e-cigarettes from legal channels, illegal channels naturally become the only choice, and once e-cigarettes become a strong commodity in the black market, then safety has become the biggest problem. Because the black market pursues profit maximization, a large number of inferior products will flood the market, and the safety of users cannot be guaranteed at all.

Legal and safe products are the most important issues that people should pay attention to, but the e-cigarette ban makes it impossible for these law-abiding mainstream legal companies to participate in the Indian market, and people can only choose high-priced but low-cost, low-quality and unguaranteed products.

The manufacturing threshold of electronic cigarettes is low and the technical level is low, and it is difficult to implement relevant management regulations under such production conditions. After companies that manufacture compliant e-cigarettes withdraw from the market, the black market industry develops, making channels that are already hidden in the dark more difficult to control.

What's more, because the principle and production process of e-cigarettes are not complicated, some e-cigarette users will buy raw materials on the black market to risk making e-cigarettes, which is a very dangerous behavior.

At the same time, for teenagers, these are written into the law, regulated by regulations electronic cigarettes are more likely to arouse the curiosity and vanity of teenagers, such as "top electronic cigarettes", "flying electronic cigarettes" and so on added to marijuana electronic cigarettes, smoking added to marijuana electronic cigarettes often appear visual hallucinations, anxiety, depression, mood mutations, paranoia, confusion and other reactions, long-term smoking will lead to low immunity, induce insanity and suicidal tendencies, these adolescents to "top electronic cigarettes" The prohibition of smoking containing cannabis synthetics is not known, and the harm of addiction is also poorly understood.

Traditional tobacco itself is a forbidden area for minors, smoking tobacco has countless injuries to the human body, not to mention minors whose bodies have not yet been fully developed, and their resistance to tobacco is weak. The biggest aspect is that smoking tobacco has an addictive effect, once addicted to tobacco, then if you want to quit smoking, you can not quit, adults still have the possibility of relapse, so how will minors without self-control be imagined.

Teenagers are proud to be able to buy e-cigarettes from the black market, but such high-risk and insecure products are an absolute threat to the physical safety of teenagers.

COVID-19 and e-cigarette bans are driving people to return to traditional tobacco

During the COVID-19 crisis, people not only have to face the deadly panic brought by COVID-19, but also bear the risk of unemployment caused by work stoppages, the greater the social pressure, the greater the demand for nicotine, the emergence of e-cigarette bans, people are forced to use traditional tobacco, smoking rates increase, and the prence rate increases.

Affected by the COVID-19 virus, various social and gathering places have been closed, people are working from home, social activities have been reduced, there are no restrictions on places, but consumers have been provided with more choices.

Data from all countries that ban e-cigarettes, such as Mexico, Brazil and Thailand, show that banning e-cigarettes leads to higher sales of traditional tobacco and higher smoking rates due to increased demand for tobacco.

Although the original intention of the e-cigarette ban is to help protect children and adolescents from nicotine addiction, but for those who want to quit smoking, the ban is not fair, for those who are about to get rid of cigarette dependence, at this time to lose e-cigarettes, there is a high chance of returning to cigarettes, because nicotine is difficult to quit for people who are already addicted, and this single-choice question composed of e-cigarettes and cigarettes 2 options, if the e-cigarette is marked as the "wrong" option, then the addict can only choose cigarettes.

E-cigarettes have played a role that cannot be ignored in the global harm reduction movement, if you blindly ban e-cigarettes and reject e-cigarettes, instead of making corresponding management measures, then for smokers and the social environment, it is a regression.

E-cigarettes have a fairly large consumer group in the United States, but China, as the place where e-cigarettes were invented, is not as high as foreign countries, and the domestic market is forward-looking and makes China the main producer of e-cigarettes manufactured and exported.

In recent years, the global tobacco control and harm reduction policy has become stricter, and e-cigarettes, as an emerging tobacco alternative, have emerged with the trend and developed strongly, but still policy supervision is an extremely critical variable in its development process.

For electronic cigarettes, domestic standards and regulatory measures have not been introduced, electronic cigarettes themselves as a substitute cigarette product, there is no fault, the fault lies in those who use electronic cigarettes for profit, electronic cigarettes are a great benefit to individuals, society and the environment of the industry Electronic cigarettes only need the relevant departments to establish a sound and effective management system, from comprehensive to subtle all-round management, in order to ensure the safety of products and promote the industry more perfect, standardized.

Tobacco kills many people worldwide each year, and these people can often be saved by quitting smoking. In the face of the harm caused by traditional tobacco, people should not only have tobacco as an option, smokers have the right to better nicotine products, whether active or passive smoking cessation should be an encouraging move.

Smoking cannot be allowed to become a popular, mainstream behavior, and only when there are more nicotine options on the market will smokers reduce their cigarette smoking or quit smoking, there is no doubt about this.

This tobacco harm reduction campaign is only meaningful if the decline in global smoking rates brought about by the gradual decline in sales of traditional tobacco leads to fewer people falling ill due to traditional tobacco.