State Tobacco Monopoly Administration

State Administration for Market Regulation

announcement

(No. 1 of 2019)

Notice on Further Protecting Minors from the Harm of Electronic Cigarettes

On August 28, 2018, the State Administration for Market Regulation and the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration issued the "Notice on Prohibiting the Sale of Electronic Cigarettes to Minors" (State Administration for Market Regulation and State Tobacco Monopoly Administration Notice No. 26 of 2018, hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"). Since the release of the notice, there has been a general increase in awareness among all sectors of society to protect minors from the harm caused by electronic cigarettes, and the phenomenon of directly promoting and selling electronic cigarettes to minors has improved. However, it is also found that there are still minors who know, buy and smoke electronic cigarettes through the Internet. Even some e-cigarette enterprises, in pursuit of economic interests blindly, publicize, promote and sell e-cigarette through the Internet, posing a huge threat to the physical and mental health of minors. To further protect minors from the harm caused by electronic cigarettes, the relevant matters are hereby notified as follows:

Electronic cigarettes, as a supplement to traditional tobacco products such as cigarettes, have significant safety and health risks. They have strong randomness in raw material selection, additive use, process design, quality control, and some products have quality and safety hazards such as e-liquid leakage, inferior batteries, and unsafe component addition. According to the relevant provisions of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Minors, in order to strengthen the protection of the physical and mental health of minors, various market entities are not allowed to sell electronic cigarettes to minors. Any organization or individual should discourage and stop the sale of electronic cigarettes to minors.

At the same time, in order to further strengthen the protection of the physical and mental health of minors and prevent minors from buying and smoking electronic cigarettes through the Internet, from the date of issuance of this circular, enterprises or individuals producing and selling electronic cigarettes are urged to close the Internet sales website or client of electronic cigarettes in a timely manner; Urge e-commerce platforms to promptly close electronic cigarette stores and remove electronic cigarette products from shelves; Urge the production and sales enterprises or individuals of e-cigarette to withdraw the e-cigarette advertisements published through the Internet.

Tobacco monopoly administrative departments and market supervision and management departments at all levels should effectively strengthen the promotion, implementation, and enforcement of this notice to protect minors from the harm caused by electronic cigarettes. The tobacco monopoly administrative department should strengthen the market supervision of electronic cigarette products, strengthen the monitoring, dissuasion and suppression of the promotion and sale of electronic cigarettes through the Internet, and investigate and deal with all kinds of illegal acts found in accordance with the law or notify the relevant departments.

This is to inform you.

State Tobacco Monopoly Administration

State Administration for Market Regulation

October 30, 2019