A Fork in the Road
The e-cigarette industry faces a life-and-death challenge in its development By Li Qing
As many e-business owners hailed surging sales during China’s November 11 online shopping festival, e-cigarette merchants were forced to watch from the sidelines during the fl urry.
Makers and sellers of e-cigarettes were ordered to shut down their online shops and remove any related online ads, according to a government notice released by the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration and the State Administration for Market Regulation on November 1. Four days later, several Internet companies where e-cigarette products were still available were told to take them down by market regulators in Beijing.
“Our department started to work on product promotion for the shopping festival a month ago, which ended up being for nothing,” Li Guoxing, marketing manager of a medium-sized e-cigarette shop located in Shenzhen in Guangdong Province of south China, told Shanghaibased newspaper China Business News.
Fig. 2 shows the diagram of the proposed POR circuit.This circuit is composed of two cascade delay elements, and four inverters. One of the inverters, INV3, is connected as a two-inputs logic gate, which is shown in Fig. 3.
Originally, their sales volume was projected to be 3 million yuan ($427,200), 20 percent more than last year. But with the ban, Li had to abandon the hope to meet such a target, since in 2018 online sales accounted for nearly 80 percent of the company’s total annual sales and 45.4 percent of their users get their products on the Internet.
E-cigarettes, sometimes called vapes, look like regular cigarettes, cigars or pipes, but they are battery-powered and are used to inhale an aerosol, which contains nicotine, flavors and other chemicals, although some e-cigarettes are nicotinefree.
U.S. e-cigarette manufacturer JUUL Labs attracted international investors and entrepreneurs after posting hefty profits. In 2017, it received $150 million worth of investment. A year later, the company was valued at $38 billion in the market, surpassing the commercial spacecraft giant SpaceX.
Shown in candy-colored packages and coming in various flavors such as peach and lychee, e-cigarettes were promoted online by celebrities. There was also a sales strategy to associate it with topics popular among young people such as romance, including videos teaching people how to look cool using the small item.
In the meantime, China has emerged as the world’s largest producer of e-cigarettes, producing 90 percent of the product worldwide. In 2018, China’s e-cigarette production exceeded 2.2 billion, and 8,083 applications for related patents were fi led. Meanwhile, the value of the e-cigarette market in China would exceed $800 million in 2019 and is expected to reach $45 billion in 2024, according to data recently released by the China Business Research Institute.
A trouble maker
第四,建立健全食品质量监督体制,完善农产品售后机制。充分利用现有互联网资源,建设农产品质量安检体系,建立覆盖全省的农产品信息查询系统,形成专业的食品质量检查组,不定期抽查检验农产品质量,对不合格产品进行销毁处理,并于线上进行公开监督、督查,通过现代信息技术实现对生产和经营农产品的全程监管,实现农副产品“从农田到餐桌”全过程可追溯,保障“舌尖上的安全”。
“I was told that it could help me quit smoking faster than other methods and that it was less harmful than traditional tobacco,” he said.
However, Xu Wenhui, a doctor at the respiratory department of the Second Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine of Jiangsu Province, told Beijing Review that smokers are kidding themselves thinking that e-cigarettes can protect their health.
目前,农村教育研究领域对新型职业农民的精准教育培训研究主要集中在2个方面。一方面,积极进行农民的教育培训工作,通过投入教育资源的方式,对传统农民进行技术教育、经营能力教育,使传统农民具备现代新型职业农民的基本素质;另一方面,通过农业高等教育,对拥有一定文化基础的学生开展新型职业农民的素质培育,以此培养学生成为新型职业农民的接班人。本文在以供给侧农业改革需求为导向的新型职业农民教育培训分析中,提出农村教育应当具有全面性和持续性,不应因文化基础不同而采取有选择的教育方式。因此,提出了精准教育体系下的集体学习机制,即利用集体学习方式,实现农村就地教育的开展,帮助传统农民提升认识、知识和技术等。
20 m脚内侧运球过杆数据上,可以发现试验后实验班与对照班在20 m脚内侧运球过杆的平均时间上均有明显的进步,合作学习法和传统的教学方法都可以提高运球过杆技术,但样本T检验后发现,其p值<0.05,差异非常显著,说明实验班采用合作学习模式所取得的成绩要明显好于对照班。
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in early October, there were 1,299 lung injury cases associated with e-cigarette products in the U.S., with 26 related deaths recorded. The state of Massachusetts has suspended the sale of all e-cigarette products and devices, and New York State has banned the sale of products with scents.
On March 15, the Consumer Rights Day Gala hosted by China Central Television exposed the harm of e-cigarettes and companies using fake information to mislead consumers and exposing them to health hazards. In addition to inferior product quality and irresponsible producers, problems also lay in the absence of relevant standards, quality supervision and safety evaluation in the industry.
According to national regulations, tobacco product packaging must display a warning about the dangers of smoking, and advertising is forbidden. Some companies, ignoring these requirements, adopted diverse approaches to attract young customers.
However, in China, the largest consumer and producer of tobacco in the world with some 350 million smokers, only 1 percent of users have switched to e-cigarettes, according to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC). Thus, the Chinese market has not been tapped.
Jiang Haiyang, a 20-something from Nanjing of Jiangsu Province in east China, bought an e-cigarette via the Internet. He told Beijing Review that he did it out of curiosity because he saw his friends doing it.
“They also release many harmful substances, causing respiratory diseases such as chronic bronchitis and even abnormal changes in the lungs,” Xu said.
China CDC revealed that today, 10.35 million Chinese people aged 15 and over use e-cigarettes. Young people aged 15-24 are the group that has the largest proportion vaping, at 1.5 percent. The number of users has been increasing every year.
On November 7, eight administrations, including the National Health Commission (NHC), the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Ministry of Education, issued a notice on further strengthening tobacco control among teenagers. Along with prohibiting the sale of these products online, the notice also committed to eliminating tobacco ads in all their forms and teenage access to tobacco.
LI SHIGONG
Some insiders suggested that requesting customers to show ID cards before buying tobacco products should be written into relevant laws in order to eliminate both tobacco and e-cigarette use among teenagers.
A U.S. Food and Drug Administration study on e-cigarettes found that in addition to 53 immune genes suppressed by traditional tobacco, e-cigarettes also suppress another 305 immune genes. In addition, the majority of e-cigarettes contain extremely high levels of nicotine, which can lead to addiction.
The way ahead
At present in China, e-cigarettes are mainly regulated by local legislation and industry standards. For instance, in Shenzhen in south China’s Guangdong Province, a major producer of e-cigarettes, the government has regulated the product as tobacco. Meanwhile, the China Electronic Chamber of Commerce has designed two industrial specifi cations for vaporizer products and vaporizer liquid, which took effect in December 2017.
Among 195 members of the World Health Organization, e-cigarettes with nicotine have been banned in 30 countries, while 65 others have regulated the products as tobacco or consumer products.
认知功能损害及睡眠障碍是抑郁症常伴发的症状[5-6],目前主要应用MCCB测量认知功能,儿童青少年抑郁症患者认知功能评分较低,且低于健康儿童的认知功能评分,表明儿童青少年抑郁症患者确实存在认知功能障碍[7]。在童年时期经历了各种负面事情造成的心理或生理创伤被称之为童年创伤,有研究表明,抑郁症的发病与患者在童年受到的创伤有相关性。本研究中观察组成长经历量表评分显著高于健康儿童青少年的量表评分[8]。通过分析可得,儿童青少年在童年的创伤经历与其的认知功能存在负相关性,即儿童青少年的童年经历水平越低,则其认知功能越好,也可说明儿童青少年在童年受到的创伤会导致其认知功能状态变差。
In July, the NHC began researching e-cigarette regulation. According to China Business News, a national standard is under review and is expected to be issued by the end of 2019. All sectors were involved in drafting the professional policy, including China Tobacco Standardization Research Center, Shanghai Tobacco Group Co. Ltd. and the Yunnan Academy of Tobacco Science.
Many insiders regard low entry thresholds and high profits as features of the e-cigarette industry. However, they said that regulation policies will eliminate small and mediumsized enterprises without technological and brand advantages at the same time that some state-owned tobacco companies with competitiveness will enter the fi eld.
心理学表明,少年儿童的好奇心强,容易对周围陌生的事物产生浓厚的兴趣,由于儿童的阅历浅、头脑中的疑问较多,爱问“为什么”因此,科学课教师要根据一般儿童的年龄和心理特点,尤其要了解所教学生的情况和特点,不能吝啬自己的语言,而应用赞美的话调动学生,用鼓励的话语使学生感到兴奋,精心设计出学生喜爱科学探究活动,引领学生踏上科学探究学习之路。
“An industry reshuffl e is inevitable, and it has already begun. Many small e-cigarette manufacturers in Shenzhen have been swallowed up by big ones,” Li said.
Xu Xiaoxin, an associate professor at the School of Social Development and Public Policy at Beijing Normal University, told China Daily that the supervision of e-cigarettes can be complicated, and it needs the joint efforts of many administrations.
旅游最主要的目的是到异地体验不同的文化、风情、民俗,让游客既能收获感性体验,也能获得知性快乐。乡村观光旅游是当前都市人群最为关注的方式之一,乡村景观意境的感知和体验也成为现代最为时尚和有吸引力的乡村旅游活动和产品形态。
“E-cigarettes can be regarded as electronic products to a large extent. But they can affect people’s health, which is related to the functions of food and drug administrations and public health departments.,” Xu Xiaoxin explained while calling for inter-departmental cooperation in regulation.
Copyedited by Rebeca Toledo
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