Health impact assessment recommendations

Sun, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and a researcher at the China CDC, will submit a proposal at this year's National Conference, suggesting to protect young people from the harm of e-cigarettes and speed up the introduction of industry norms. As a disease control expert who studies poisoning, Sun said in an interview with Southern Metropolis Daily that the evaluation of e-cigarette hazards should not only look at the toxicity of a single substance, and teenagers should not bear the health risks of e-cigarettes. It is suggested that the General Administration of Market Supervision implement the requirements of the Law on the Protection of Minors and prohibit the sale of e-cigarettes to minors. China's e-cigarette industry developed relatively late, but China is already a big producer of e-cigarettes. E-cigarettes are becoming more and more popular among teenagers in China. In 20 14, the survey report on adolescent tobacco in China released by China CDC showed that 45.0% of junior high school students had heard of electronic cigarettes, and 1.2% of junior high school students had used electronic cigarettes in the past 30 days. 20 19 years accounted for 2.7%. ?

My professional background is poisoning. To understand why we should strictly manage e-cigarettes, we must first understand the harm that e-cigarettes bring to us. The COVID-19 epidemic should make people realize that the human respiratory system is actually very fragile. Washing hands can prevent foreign bodies from entering the human body through the skin, and washing hands before meals can also prevent toxic substances from entering the human body through the digestive tract. In addition to these two ways, there is another way through the respiratory tract. The area of human respiratory tract is actually very large, and the total area of alveoli and respiratory tract is beyond the imagination of ordinary people. If it is expanded, it will be tens of square meters. However, the human body's protection of alveoli is actually only one layer of cells, and substances entering the respiratory tract can easily enter our body through this layer of cells. Moreover, in this way, the absorption of substances by the human body is the fastest and most thorough. This is a kind of human vulnerability.

When evaluating e-cigarettes, we should not only look at the toxicity of a single substance. Some people say that e-cigarettes are harmless. They will argue that the composition of e-cigarettes is nothing more than a mixture based on propylene glycol and glycerol, and these substances are not highly toxic. In addition, they are spices and nicotine, but we ignore the production process of e-cigarettes. E-cigarette is an aerosol generated by heating the above substances and inhaled into the human body. If there is only one substance, we have a good way to evaluate the toxicity of this substance; However, if a variety of substances are stored and heated, it is difficult for us to evaluate what mixed substances may be produced, how their activities change, and what impact they will have after entering the human body.

Our evaluation of drugs, whether oral or inhalation, is basically to evaluate a single component. You can't compare electronic cigarettes with some food evaluations. When a variety of substances are mixed together, the evaluation should be more cautious, especially when e-cigarettes are used in the special group of teenagers. At present, there are several kinds of e-cigarettes circulating in the market, such as heated nonflammable cigarettes and atomized cigarettes, and their tastes exceed 15000. What to add, how much to add and what to produce are not standardized at present, including the manufacturing process and the safety of heating batteries, and the manufacturers are all in a mess. So avoid selling e-cigarettes to minors.