In recent years, e-cigarettes are becoming more and more popular in the world, and even labeled as less harmful to health and a substitute for tobacco. Before the 315 party also exposed some negative news about e-cigarettes. In fact, e-cigarettes are also very harmful to the human body. Is it true that e-cigarettes can cause epilepsy?
But on Wednesday, April 3, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a statement saying that the FDA has received 35 reports of epilepsy among young people after using e-cigarettes, spanning the years 2010 to 2019. Due to limited samples, it is not sure whether it is epilepsy caused by e-cigarettes, but FDA encourages the public to submit relevant reports.
After the announcement, shares of famous tobacco companies such as Altria group and British American Tobacco Group fell sharply.
Altria fell 4.78% to $53.98 on Wednesday, while British American Tobacco fell 2.29% to 3105.77p.
Recently, FDA has paid special attention to the potential hazards of e-cigarettes. On April 1, FDA director Scott Gottlieb and executive deputy director Amy Abernethy published articles discussing the potential hazards of e-cigarettes.
Scott Gottlieb said:
The rapid rise in the popularity of e-cigarettes is partly due to the fact that e-cigarette users are touted as safer products than combustible cigarettes because they inhale aerosols (commonly referred to as' vapors') rather than smoke. For adults who are addicted to smoking, the harm of e-cigarettes may be less than that of cigarettes, but it does not mean that e-cigarettes are safe. We are working to fully describe and quantify the potential hazards of e-cigarettes.
In addition, FDA also mentioned that existing scientific research has provided clear evidence that some dangerous chemicals in tobacco smoke can also be found in some e-cigarette aerosols
Studies have shown that in addition to propylene glycol, glycerin and flavoring agents, electronic aerosol also contains formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and unstable atoms (free radicals), which can damage cells and cause diseases and accelerate aging. Previous studies have shown that substances found in the electronic aerosol may cause lung hypoplasia, dyspnea, decreased defense against bacterial and viral pathogens, and may induce inflammation or cancer.
At the end of last year, the US tobacco giant Altria group spent $12.8 billion to acquire 35% of the e-cigarette start-up Juul labs, which raised the valuation of Juul labs to $38 billion.
At the end of 2017, the market share of Juul brand in the same type of e-cigarette products in the United States reached 47%, and further increased to about 70% in 2018. It is estimated that the sales of Juul will reach 1.5 billion US dollars in 2018.
Juul surpasses VUSE, which has long been the leading brand in the US market, and its market share in the steam cigarette category also surpasses the highest market share (46.2%) of the Marlboro brand of Fimo international in the traditional cigarette category.
British American tobacco, which owns 555, dunhill and other famous brands, began to lay out new generation tobacco products (NGPs) in 2010, and its extension strategy also began to tilt to the field of e-cigarettes.
By the end of 17 years, the company has acquired six e-cigarette enterprises including protabaco, cncreative, chic, tenmotors and Renault. At the same time, British American Tobacco continues to increase the research and development of NGPs, and the relevant R & D investment (including Renault) has exceeded US $2.5 billion.
At present, British American Tobacco's NGPs products include VUSE series, vype series, chic, glo and so on, among which glo is a heated and non combustible electronic cigarette. In 2017, British American Tobacco's NGPs products contributed about 500 million pounds, accounting for about 2.5% of the company's sales, of which Renault products contributed about 100 million yuan.