State Tobacco Monopoly Administration Issues Notice on Special Governance to Protect Minors from E-cigarette Harm

Notification from the Office of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration on conducting special governance to protect minors from the harm of e-cigarettes. (Reference: National Tobacco Monopoly Administration General [2024] No. 67)

Provincial Tobacco Monopoly Bureau:

In order to earnestly implement the requirements for rectifying feedback from the central inspection, to lawfully investigate and deal with the illegal sale of e-cigarettes to minors, to resolutely prevent e-cigarettes from invading primary and secondary school campuses, and to fully protect the physical and mental health of minors, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration has decided to organize a special campaign to protect minors from being harmed by e-cigarettes starting from May 6. The relevant matters are hereby notified as follows:

1. General Requirements

Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, the spirit of the 19th National Congress and the second plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has been deeply implemented. In response to the issue of e-cigarettes invading primary and secondary schools, efforts will be further intensified to promote legal education for minors. This will include clearing sales points and vending machines near schools, inspecting retailers for compliance with warning signs and identity verification regulations, cracking down on illegal sales of e-cigarettes to minors, and creating a healthy environment for the growth of young people.

2. Primary Tasks

(1) To strengthen propaganda and guidance. Tobacco monopolies across the country should actively collaborate with market supervision, education departments, and other agencies to carry out public awareness campaigns on e-cigarettes in schools. Various measures should be taken to educate elementary and middle school students on the dangers of using e-cigarettes and to promote awareness of new types of drugs like "upside-down e-cigarettes" to prevent students from becoming addicted to smoking card games. This initiative aims to enhance minors' self-protection awareness and resistance to temptation. It is important to reinforce legal education at tobacco retail outlets, requiring retailers to comply with warning sign placement and ID verification regulations and to refuse minors' demands to purchase e-cigarettes. Typical cases should be exposed, with various channels and forms of publicity to clarify the tobacco department's firm stance on strictly regulating e-cigarettes in accordance with the law and protecting minors' physical and mental health. This will help create a universal consensus in society to protect minors from harm caused by e-cigarettes.

(2) Strictly clean up and rectify. Tobacco monopolies in various regions should promptly carry out a "revisit" of e-cigarette sales outlets and automatic vending devices around campuses, establish work logs, comprehensively and systematically inspect to prevent regulatory loopholes, and effectively purify the surrounding environment of schools. They should cooperate with market supervision and other departments to discourage convenience stores, supermarkets, and stationery stores around campuses from selling cigarette packs, cigarettes, and other items to minors. They should strengthen the collection and disposal of information related to e-cigarettes on the internet, increase efforts to handle leads on e-commerce, social media, and short video platforms inducing minors to buy and consume e-cigarettes, and continue to clean up online false advertising and illegal sales of e-cigarette information. Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Shenzhen, and other places should solidify their local regulatory responsibilities, take measures such as administrative interviews and sending regulatory letters to require local internet companies to independently clean up information on e-cigarettes, cigarette cards, and other products, and shut down illegally operating stores.

(3) Crackdown with strict measures. Tobacco monopoly bureaus across the country must strengthen market law enforcement inspections, focusing on whether e-cigarette operators comply with laws, regulations, and regulatory policies. Market entities that sell e-cigarettes to minors will be punished according to the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Minors, in order to educate and deter operators from illegal operations. The crackdown on illegal production of e-cigarettes must be maintained, with severe measures taken against the production and sale of non-standard and counterfeit e-cigarettes such as "milk tea cups" and "cola cans." Efforts are also needed to prevent the production and sale of new types of illegal drugs, such as "over-stimulating e-cigarettes," by investigating production sources, dismantling production and sales networks, and punishing criminals severely. By cutting off the distribution of e-cigarettes to minors at the source, the physical and mental health of minors can be effectively safeguarded. Provinces such as Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, and Hunan should strengthen efforts to investigate clues related to counterfeit cigarette branding on cigarette cards, trace the production sources of illegally using cigarette trademarks to produce and sell cigarette cards, and hold those responsible legally accountable.

3. Work Schedule

The special rectification campaign will last for two months, starting on May 6th and ending on July 6th. Local tobacco monopoly bureaus should focus on integrating the special rectification with their daily work, and promote education, cleaning up, and enforcement throughout the entire process of the campaign. This will be done in conjunction with special inspections on online cigarette sales issues and regulating the e-cigarette market, integrating them all as one cohesive effort.

4. Job Requirements

(1) Improve political stance. The issue of e-cigarettes invading primary and secondary school campuses is related to the future of the motherland and the growth of minors. Local tobacco monopoly bureaus should fully understand the urgency and importance of carrying out this special governance, strengthen a sense of overall situation and responsibility, enhance organizational leadership, refine work arrangements, fulfill their duties according to law, and promote the effectiveness of special governance.

(2) Strengthen comprehensive governance. Local tobacco monopoly bureaus should carefully summarize the experience of e-cigarette regulation in recent years, strengthen coordination with market supervision, public security, and other departments in information sharing, joint law enforcement, and case handling, and do a good job in transferring cases and connecting criminal enforcement actions, to promote the formation of a collaborative governance mechanism to protect minors from harm caused by e-cigarettes.

(3) Focus on refining and summarizing. Tobacco monopoly bureaus in various regions should establish special governance work accounts, strengthen material archiving and organization, focus on collecting typical cases, summarize advanced law enforcement experiences, actively study countermeasures for new situations and problems that arise during special governance, promote the establishment of a sound long-term supervision mechanism, comprehensively enhance the level of e-cigarette supervision capabilities, and make every effort to protect the physical and mental health of minors.

Office of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration

April 26, 2024