Walmart stops selling e-cigarettes, which are more harmful than you think

Recently, the topic of "Walmart stops selling e-cigarettes" has occupied the hot search list of major websites. For a long time, in the eyes of many people, e-cigarettes are far less harmful than traditional tobacco. However, they do not know that the "sweet" e-cigarettes are a bigger "devil"... 

According to a report issued by US health officials, the number of confirmed and suspected lung disease cases caused by e-cigarette smoking in the United States has risen from 380 a week ago to 530. As the number of confirmed cases related to e-cigarettes continues to increase, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a warning to the American people that "e-cigarettes are very harmful", and the US government and some companies have also launched a combination of measures to crack down on e-cigarettes.

According to CNN, Walmart, a large American supermarket chain, issued a statement on the 20th local time: "In view of the increasingly complex and uncertain federal, state and local government regulations, we plan to stop selling e-cigarette products in all Walmart and Sam's Club stores across the United States." The statement stated that Walmart will completely stop selling the product after the existing inventory is sold out.

Earlier this year, Walmart raised the minimum age for buying cigarettes in its stores to 21. At the time, Walmart said it might stop selling "sweet-flavored e-cigarettes" that are popular among teenagers. The report said that this decision by the largest retail giant in the United States may affect other stores.

The rapid rise of the e-cigarette industry can perhaps be attributed to the tightening global anti-smoking situation year after year. On the other hand, the smoke produced by e-cigarettes is indeed much "fresher" than the smoke of traditional cigarettes. Through the fancy inducement and publicity of merchants, e-cigarettes have gradually become a tool for young consumers to "improve their social status."

To this end, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced plans to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes nationwide to curb the trend of young people smoking e-cigarettes. This signal has undoubtedly poured cold water on the booming e-cigarette industry and also pressed the slowdown button for the e-cigarette industry.

Some advertising media companies also announced last week that they would ban e-cigarette ads within their media networks. According to Forbes, both CBS and CNN have decided to stop broadcasting e-cigarette ads. Warner Media and Viacom Group also issued statements saying that their other media networks would also immediately stop broadcasting e-cigarette related ads.

Just one day before Walmart stopped selling e-cigarettes, some Democratic and Republican congressmen jointly announced a new bipartisan initiative to crack down on e-cigarettes by raising federal tobacco taxes from $1 to $3, and also imposing a $3 tax on e-cigarettes.

The dangers of e-cigarettes

Electronic cigarettes, also known as heat-not-burn cigarettes, are products that turn nicotine and other substances into vapor through atomization and other means for people to inhale. An international research team recently published a report in the British journal Scientific Reports, saying that regardless of whether electronic cigarettes contain nicotine, some flavored electronic cigarettes can damage the respiratory tract and aggravate respiratory diseases such as asthma.

The World Health Organization has also conducted special research on e-cigarettes and reached a clear conclusion: e-cigarettes are harmful to public health, and they are not a means to quit smoking. They must be strictly regulated to prevent harm to young people and non-smokers.

In fact, as early as this year's 315 Gala, CCTV named e-cigarettes, saying that they would release harmful substances and cause harm to people's health. However, in the eyes of addicted smokers, the harm of e-cigarettes is no greater than that of traditional cigarettes. The recent series of life-threatening incidents of e-cigarette smoking in the United States has made many people re-examine e-cigarettes.

According to the results of the 2018 China Adult Tobacco Survey released by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the proportion of people who have heard of e-cigarettes, have used e-cigarettes, and are currently using e-cigarettes has increased compared to 2015.

According to incomplete statistics, from April 2018 to July 2019, at least 20 e-cigarette companies have received more than 30 rounds of financing. In the first half of 2019 alone, the total amount of financing obtained by the e-cigarette industry exceeded 1 billion yuan - the e-cigarette industry has become a new track for entrepreneurship and capital.

At present, there is no unified standard for the production of e-cigarettes, and various e-cigarette brands emerge in an endless stream. Most e-cigarette products are sold through the Internet channels with low supervision. Data shows that the main way for "e-cigarette smokers" to obtain e-cigarettes is through the Internet, accounting for nearly 50%.

Walmart is not the first retailer to ban the sale of e-cigarettes. Rite Aid, one of the largest suppliers of medicines in the United States, announced earlier this month that it would stop supplying e-cigarettes.

In August this year, Dollar General announced that it would remove e-cigarettes from its shelves, and Costco also removed all e-cigarette products from its shelves. In addition to retailers, American advertising media companies also stopped broadcasting e-cigarette-related advertisements.

From this perspective, in the short term, removing e-cigarettes from shelves and stopping sales may become a trend.

The e-cigarette industry chain may be significantly affected

With the rapid growth of the overseas e-cigarette market, the domestic e-cigarette OEM companies are the biggest beneficiaries in China's e-cigarette industry chain.

According to incomplete statistics, 90% of the world's e-cigarette production capacity comes from China. Whoever does not do OEM cannot have sufficient supply to seize the market. Therefore, domestic e-cigarette OEM companies launch their own e-cigarette brands while taking on OEM for global e-cigarette brands.

Due to the strong manufacturing system, e-cigarette OEM has become a domestic feature. Most of the major European and American e-cigarette brands choose to OEM in China. For example, McQuay mainly OEMs for Smoore and Vaporess; Avips mainly OEMs for Smok and Coopor; Heyuan Technology mainly OEMs for Kangcheng Yipin, etc. Other domestic OEM manufacturers include Sigelei, Zhuoeryue, Xinyikang, Wulun Electronics, Jirui Technology, Hengxin Technology, Yijiate, Kanger Technology, Tianchang Group, etc.

Several suspected e-cigarette-related deaths in the United States have already drawn international attention to the e-cigarette industry. This time, Walmart announced that all its U.S. stores would stop selling e-cigarettes, which will have a huge impact on the e-cigarette industry chain. However, this incident will also push the e-cigarette industry to develop in a more formal direction.