China to Draw Up E-Cigarette Standards for This Year

MA XIAOHUA

(Yicai Global) June 3 — China aims to bring in mandatory national standards for electronic cigarettes with approvals expected before the turn of the year.

The standards will assess and limit all components in e-cigarettes to control toxic substances.

Technical specifications and content center on detecting nicotine, propanediol and glycerol in e-cigarettes.

Many e-cigarette makers advertise their products as tasting like real cigarettes without being harmful, but the World Health Organization and other authorities have identified that e-cigarettes are not less harmful than conventional cigarettes.

E-cigarettes contain toxic substances and pollutants and most e-cigarettes contain nicotine, research shows. They contain glyoxal while conventional cigarettes do not, and the concentration of some metals is even higher than that of conventional cigarettes, said Sun Jiani, a technical official at the WHO China Representative Office told Yicai Global.

China’s State Tobacco Monopoly Administration applied to the Standardization Administration to set up standards in 2017.

Editor: Zhang Yushuo