Crackdown on cigarette sales to juveniles needs to be ongoing, experts recommend

Experts have urged a continual crackdown on cigarette-related crimes involving minors after Chinese authorities launched a two-month campaign targeting the sale of electronic cigarettes to minors.

The Ministry of Public Security, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, the State Administration for Market Regulation and the Ministry of Education issued an action plan to fight such crimes on Tuesday, with the campaign to run till the end of April.

The authorities will take a series of tough measures including clearing out e-cigarette sales outlets and vending machines near schools, closing unlicensed businesses, and deleting online information promoting e-cigarettes.

Jiang Yuan, vice-president of the Chinese Association on Tobacco Control, said the campaign will help regulate and reduce illegal activities related to e-cigarettes.

"It would be better to make such a crackdown the normal state of affairs, because such illegal activities may emerge at any time," she said. "Besides, such crackdowns should also include other tobacco products, not just e-cigarettes, given that e-cigarettes are new products but more people are using tobacco, meaning that more illegal activities may appear."

The Report on Health Hazards of Smoking in China 2020, issued by the National Health Commission in July, showed that more than 300 million people smoke in China, and 26.6 percent of Chinese people aged 15 and over smoked in 2018. Over one million people lose their lives due to tobacco every year.

Plenty of evidence showed that e-cigarettes are unsafe and pose health risks, it said. For minors, e-cigarettes can cause adverse consequences to their physical and mental health and development, and can also induce them to use cigarettes, the report said.

Although the detailed rules for the implementation of the Law on Tobacco Monopoly took effect in November, putting the management of e-cigarettes under the same rules as regular cigarettes, management and implementation still need to be improved, Jiang said.

"Many retailers do not actively and strictly check the documents of buyers to confirm if the customer is an adult or not, and loopholes like this need to be closed promptly," she said. "Besides, the Law on Protection of Minors also has specific stipulations on the sale of tobacco products to minors."

The use of e-cigarettes has increased rapidly in urban areas in recent years, and consumers can access such products easily, with many not being aware of their hidden hazards, said Zhang Jianshu, president of the Beijing Tobacco Control Association.

"We have publicized the harm that can be caused by tobacco, but e-cigarettes with fancy and cool patterns have attracted many young consumers," Zhang said. "It is necessary to strengthen the management of such products, especially their use by minors."

A survey of middle school students in China in 2019 released by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in May 2020 showed that the use of cigarettes among middle school students had decreased from 2014 to 2019, but the use of e-cigarettes had increased. The legal prohibition on the sale of cigarettes to minors had not been effectively implemented, it said.

According to the E-Cigarette Industry Blue Book 2021, released by the Electronic Cigarette Industry Committee of the China Electronics Chamber of Commerce in December, there are more than 1,500 e-cigarette manufacturers and brands in China, and nearly 190,000 e-cigarette retail stores in China.

To curb e-cigarette distribution, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration and the State Administration for Market Regulation said in October 2019 that e-cigarettes must not be sold to minors. They also prohibited online sales of e-cigarettes.

But Zhang said some retailers disguised e-cigarettes as non-cigarette products or simply changed the names of the products to sell them through e-commerce and social media platforms.