Vaping in China: Rules and regulations

In 2003, a Chinese pharmacist produced the first e-cigarette. From China, the use of e-cigarettes spread to other parts of the world rapidly. Since vaping started in China, one would expect that there are established rules and regulations as regards vaping in China. However, that is not exactly the case. Go here and read below as we consider vaping rules and regulations in China in this article.

The rules and regulations guiding vaping in China remain very ambiguous as vaping is not treated like smoking. Vaping is also not treated as smoking of tobacco products so there is that grey area where the laws that apply to vapes are not known.

Although general laws have not been established in China on vaping, different regions have established measures of managing vaping. These measures were established because of public outcry on the need for rules and regulations to control vaping.

Vaping is generally recognized as a safer alternative for smoking. However, the health implications of vaping have not been adequately studied. There have been reports that vaping is about 95% safer than smoking. However, a general consensus on the safety of vaping has not established. Since it took decades for researchers to establish the health implications of smoking traditional cigarettes and vaping is just about a decade old, it has been argued that there should be ways of monitoring the use, sales and advertisement of vapes, especially in China, the home of vaping.

Because of the public outcry, some Chinese towns have implemented measures of monitoring the use, sales and advertisement of vapes. For example, Hangzhou, a town in Eastern China considers vaping as an equivalent of smoking. The rules that apply to smoking traditional and e-cigarettes in Hangzhou are thus the same. This is, however, not the case in a lot of Chinese towns.

Strict regulations of vaping also exist in Shanghai, a Chinese city. The tobacco laws in Shanghai apply to e-cigarettes, and they restrict the smoking of e-cigarettes in public spaces that are non-smoking areas.

Hong Kong is another Chinese city with regulations on the use of e-cigarettes. However, the regulations are restricted to the e-cigarettes that contain nicotine. Such e-cigarettes are considered as Type 1 poison according to the Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance. The sales and use of e-cigarettes that contain nicotine are thus prohibited in Hong Kong and one could bag a jail term of 2 years if caught selling, using or with a nicotine-containing e-cigarette. The ban is, however, not extended to e-cigarettes that do not contain nicotine.

Generally, Chinese rules and regulations do not prohibit the sales, advertisement and manufacture of e-cigarettes. The current state may change soon as there has been a clamour for the total ban on the sales as well as manufacture of e-cigarettes, especially in the manufacturing hubs. Local health authorities of certain Chinese cities and towns such as Macau have also supported the move to restrict the use and manufacture of e-cigarettes throughout China. If these bans are implemented, the Chinese vaping industry, which is currently well established will be largely affected.

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