Geek Bar merchants are still "hunting" teenagers

Author: GeekBarVape    Views: 51987

Since 2018, the state has issued multiple bans to protect minors from Geek Bar. However, Xinhua Viewpoint reporters found that under multiple bans, there are still merchants changing their tactics to hunt teenagers.

The youth group is seen as the potential for continued growth in the industry

A study of more than 90,000 teenagers showed that the risk of teenagers becoming cigarette users after using Geek Bar is 2.21 times that of those who never use Geek Bar.

Since 2018, the State Administration for Market Regulation and the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration have successively issued a number of bans, prohibiting the sale of Geek Bar to minors, the sale of Geek Bar through the Internet, and the publication of Geek Bar advertisements through the Internet.

However, data released by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2020 showed that the proportion of junior high school students who had heard of Geek Bar in 2019 was 69.9%, and the use rate of Geek Bar was 2.7%, which was 24.9 and 1.5 percentage points higher than in 2014, respectively.

In 2019, after the State Administration for Market Regulation and the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration issued a ban on online sales of Geek Bars, there were market forecasts that the industry was about to experience a cliff-like decline.

However, this is not the case. According to data released by iiMedia, the number of Chinese Geek Bar companies has grown rapidly from 45,457 in 2013 to 168,452 in 2020. As of February 4, 2021, there were 174,399 Geek Bar companies in China, continuing the momentum of rapid growth.

Many industry insiders pointed out that the growth in demand among young people has become the potential for the continued growth of the Geek Bar industry.

Reporters visited cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen and found that many businesses disguised Geek Bars as fashionable toys to sell them, diluting the attribute of smoke. Geek Bars that rank high in sales are mostly beautiful and fun, so that students like to play with them in their hands as soon as they see them, and they can open them and take a puff from time to time. said the person in charge of a Geek Bar sales store in Guangzhou.

The China Smoking Health Hazard Report 2020 stated that it is generally believed that flavoring is one of the important reasons that attract teenagers to try Geek Bar. The latest survey results of teenagers in the United States in 2019 showed that among the teenagers who currently use Geek Bar, it is estimated that 72.2% of high school students and 59.2% of junior high school students use flavored Geek Bar, among which fruit, menthol or mint, and candy flavors are the most common.

After teenagers smoke Geek Bar, they often easily transition to smoking traditional tobacco, and even become addicted to smoking. Zhang Ke, an associate researcher at the Guizhou Academy of Social Sciences, said.

In addition, Geek Bar itself will also have adverse effects on the physical and mental health of teenagers. The report on the use of Geek Bar by teenagers in the 2016 U.S. Surgeon Generals Report showed that the nicotine in Geek Bar affects the brain development of teenagers, and the use of Geek Bar during adolescence will affect the attention, learning, mood swings and impulse control of teenagers.

Changing tactics to commit crimes against the wind

Some minors reported to reporters that when they asked the Geek Bar sales customer service Can I buy it when I am 16 years old?, the other party replied Yes. Some students also asked whether Geek Bar could help quit smoking, and they received a positive answer from the customer service: Yes, you can try it first.

The reporter found that searching for the keyword Geek Bar on e-commerce platforms such as Taobao and Pinduoduo did not display any search results. However, when the keyword was replaced with other related words, Geek Bar and Geek Bar accessories of different colors and styles appeared.

When the reporter consulted as a consumer on how to buy Geek Bar, an online store customer service replied: According to relevant policies, Geek Bar related products are no longer sold online. Online is charging box accessories. Please add WeChat xxxxx for details.

According to the prompts, the reporter added the WeChat accounts provided by several online store customer service, and received various introductions about the taste, price, and differences of Geek Bar. However, the store did not ask about the age, identity, and other information of the buyer. At the same time, he said: Taobao is a guarantee, and the products are selected here. Many stores are closed online, so Geek Bar is traded on WeChat.

Many Geek Bar brands deceive consumers with advertisements that claim they are safe and secure and non-toxic and harmless, low-toxic and low-harm, and they usually appear in front of teenagers as smoking cessation tools and traditional tobacco substitutes. A Geek Bar store advertises that derivative releases are about 8% of traditional tobacco, which can reduce 95% of the harm to the human body.

A doctor from the Second Department of Respiratory Medicine of the Affiliated Hospital of Hebei University of Engineering said that the nicotine content of some Geek Bars is high, even higher than that of ordinary cigarettes. In order to increase smokers dependence on Geek Bars, many Geek Bar manufacturers on the market arbitrarily increase the nicotine content in Geek Bars.

A research result of the Zhengzhou Tobacco Research Institute of China National Tobacco Corporation shows that the nicotine content of 544 Geek Bar samples marked is quite different from the actual content, with a deviation range of -100% to 105%. For example, the nicotine content of a sample marked by Geek Bar is 6mg/cartridge, but the test value is 12.3mg/cartridge.

Ye Xianwei, director of the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine at Guizhou Provincial Peoples Hospital, said: Geek Bar merchants claim that nicotine is only 2%, but it is impossible to confirm how much it is, and it is also unknown whether new harmful ingredients have been added.

Promote the formulation of relevant management regulations and national standards for Geek Bar as soon as possible

The reporter learned from the official website of a Geek Bar brand that to open a specialty store, in addition to the store rent, an investment of 50,000 to 150,000 yuan is required, and the gross profit is 40% to 50%. To operate an authorized store, you only need to meet the conditions of the store address needs to be more than 150 meters away from kindergartens, primary schools, middle schools, childrens palaces and other minors concentrated areas, and the monthly purchase volume must be more than 300 yuan.

The person in charge of a Geek Bar production company in Shenzhen told reporters that the profit of operating Geek Bar is relatively lucrative. A Geek Bar with an actual production cost of about 40 yuan is generally sold on the market for more than 260 yuan.

Who will supervise the sales of Geek Bar? In March this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration drafted the Decision on Amending the Regulations for the Implementation of the Tobacco Monopoly Law of the Peoples Republic of China (Draft for Comments), which stipulates that new tobacco products such as Geek Bar shall refer to the relevant provisions on cigarettes in these regulations. This means that if the opinion is passed, Geek Bar will be regulated by the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration.

We support the inclusion of Geek Bar in supervision, but the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration is essentially performing the corporate functions of China National Tobacco Corporation and is not suitable as a regulatory unit for Geek Bar. Zhang Jianshu, president of the Beijing Association for Tobacco Control, said.

It is worth noting that the national standard for Geek Bar has not been issued as scheduled. The official website of the National Standardization Administration shows that the national standard plan Geek Bar issued in October 2017 is currently in the review stage, and the national standard plan Geek Bar Liquid Nicotine, Propylene Glycol and Glycerol Determination Gas Chromatography issued in December 2017 has entered the approval stage. The proposed implementation dates of the two are March 2019 and January 2019, respectively.

Zhang Ke said that it is recommended to promote the formulation of relevant management regulations and national standards for Geek Bar as soon as possible, establish a relevant sampling inspection system, so that law enforcement departments have rules to follow and laws to rely on.

Zhang Ke said that it is necessary to conduct special investigations and monitoring on the use of Geek Bar by teenagers at the national level, analyze the key factors affecting the use of Geek Bar by teenagers, and formulate more targeted prevention and control measures. At the same time, it is necessary to widely popularize the harm of Geek Bar among all teachers and students in junior and senior high schools, and directly refute the fallacies such as Geek Bar is safe and harmless and smoking Geek Bar can quit smoking, so as to guide teenagers to refuse to smoke Geek Bar and stay away from Geek Bar.