In the next 30 years, electronic cigarettes will replace traditional cigarettes and save 1 billion lives

In the next 30 years, electronic cigarettes will replace traditional cigarettes and save 1 billion lives

China News Agency, Hong Kong, August 25 (Yintian Jingzi) - in April this year, the Royal College of Internal Medicine reported that electronic cigarettes are at least 95% safer than traditional cigarettes. Recently, a research report of the reason foundation, an American think tank, pointed out that e-cigarettes will gradually replace traditional cigarettes in the next 20 to 30 years, which will save nearly 1 billion lives, more than half of Asia's population.

In recent years, the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has achieved remarkable results in regulating the management of traditional cigarettes. According to the data of the census and statistics department in 2015, the daily smoking rate of people over 15 years old has dropped to 10.5%, equivalent to about 640000 people, which is the lowest rate since records were made in 1982. However, the rise of e-cigarettes in Hong Kong has also raised the call to "ban" e-cigarettes.

Earlier, it was reported that several primary school students, including a six-year-old girl, were found smoking e-cigarettes in Lai on estate Park in Sham Shui Po, which aroused public concern. Deputy Secretary for food and Health Chen Zhaochao pointed out that e-cigarettes are mainly aimed at young people, and they are worried that young people will become smokers because of the rise of e-cigarettes.

Julian Morris, vice president of the research department of reason foundation, said that e-cigarettes are relatively safe and healthy. Even because of the emergence of e-cigarettes, the number of young people smoking began to decrease. However, regarding the situation of children smoking e-cigarettes in Hong Kong, Julian said, "this is not a good thing." He had never seen or heard of six-year-old children smoking electronic cigarettes anywhere else. "I don't encourage this kind of behavior very much. Parents should take good care of their children. Don't bring bad effects on what is good."

Julian believes that the regulation and management of e-cigarettes should not be over regulated, which will increase the cost of e-cigarettes, reduce the choice of consumers, and undermine good competition and innovation. In Hong Kong, the regulation of electronic cigarettes needs to strengthen the supervision of the production process and quality of products, so as to increase the integrity and reliability of products. He added that Hong Kong could learn from the regulatory measures of other countries, but it was more necessary to adopt a management scheme that met local needs.

He concluded that as long as the use of e-cigarettes is properly regulated, they will gradually replace traditional cigarettes, and hundreds of millions of lives can be saved and improved in Asia alone. (end)