Tobacco covered with "Chinese herbal medicine" to add illegal "efficacy"

In order to expand sales, some well-known tobacco brands are trying to add Chinese herbal medicine to cover the harmful tobacco with "health care" In an interview with reporters, many tobacco controllers pointed out that tobacco enterprises are fooling consumers with "concocted fragrance and fabricated health care function", which has no scientific basis and national standards, violates international conventions, and even further harms health A number of experts suggested that the State Food and drug administration should manage the addition of Chinese herbal medicine and other additives in tobacco products Many brands play the "Chinese herbal medicine" brand "The tobacco industry is increasing the attractiveness of tobacco products by adding a large number of chemicals to enhance fragrance, flavor, add various kinds of Chinese herbal medicine, and using" health-friendly "and" vitality enhancing "as bait." Wang Yiqun, a researcher at the new research center for health development, said at a seminar on tobacco control Tuesday afternoon The reporter inquired the official websites of many famous tobacco enterprises On the official website of Hongyun Honghe Group, the taste feature of "Yunyan? Hard treasures" is "the combination of spicy, woody and floral flavors, and the addition of natural drug extracts" On the website of Hubei Tobacco Industry Co., Ltd., the product quality of Yellow Crane Tower (gratitude) was introduced as "based on the principle of Chinese medicine and the theory of dispelling fire, the material of the herbal extract extracted from the essence and fragrance base is fully added" According to Wang Yiqun, in addition to Chinese herbal medicine in cigarette products, there are also "Zhongnanhai" blue fashion cigarettes adopting Chinese herbal medicine addition technology; five leaf God brand cigarettes adding new natural plant extract -- Shennong extract; Jinsheng brand cigarettes adding "Jinshengxiang" extract and having "health care function" of traditional Chinese Medicine, etc "According to preliminary statistics, there are dozens of Chinese herbal medicines added to tobacco products, including Siraitia grosvenorii, honeysuckle, dandelion and liquorice." She said tobacco companies are using additives to increase the appeal of tobacco products, targeting mainly young people and women According to the data, the sales volume of these cigarette brands associated with Chinese herbal medicine is amazing Wu Yiqun, deputy director of the health development research center of new exploration, said that the sales volume of cigarettes in China increased by 3% last year, and the profit mainly came from high priced cigarettes Huanghelou and Yunyan are the top ten brands in the total volume of class I cigarettes in 2010 (Daily Economic News) at the National Tobacco work conference held in early 2011, Jiang Chengkang, director of the state tobacco administration, revealed that the wholesale sales revenue of 15 brands in the whole year of last year exceeded 20 billion yuan, of which Yunyan exceeded 40 billion yuan Does the addition of Chinese herbal medicines to tobacco products in violation of the FCTC really reduce the harm of tobacco and even play a health role? The answer is still unknown A deputy department level cadre who once worked in the Department of policies and regulations of the Ministry of Health told the daily economic news that adding Chinese herbal medicine is not necessarily beneficial to health At present, in addition to a few varieties with the same origin of medicine and food, adding other varieties of traditional Chinese medicine needs approval "What's more, the structure of traditional Chinese medicine is complex and the research and development is difficult Even if good things are added, no one knows what new substances appear under high temperature reaction after combustion, whether they have good efficacy or even toxicity." Said the above deputy department level cadres Wang Yiqun pointed out that the urine of 135 Chinese herbal cigarette smokers and 143 ordinary cigarette smokers had been tested, and it was found that there was no difference in nicotine level or carcinogen level between Chinese herbal cigarette smokers and ordinary cigarette smokers Although the efficacy of Chinese herbal medicine has not yet been determined, it is certain that this behavior has violated the Framework Convention on tobacco control (hereinafter referred to as the "Convention") This year is the sixth year of China's accession to the Convention According to the resolution adopted at the fourth meeting of the parties to the Convention, the added ingredients in tobacco products aimed at enhancing attractiveness should be controlled According to Wang Yiqun, the current situation of component management of tobacco products in China is "vacuum" of system, standard and supervision In the national standard of food additives, there is no one additive that can be clearly used in cigarette products These "vacuum" make the legitimate rights and interests of tobacco consumers can not be effectively protected Qiu Baochang, a lawyer of the Consumer Association, said that the addition of additives to tobacco products by the tobacco industry violated consumers' right to life and health, the right to know and the right to choose "Tobacco products are neither medicine nor food, but they can enter human organs through the mouth There should be a unified national management standard in accordance with the food and drug management mode "Wang Yiqun suggested to establish an effective control over the composition of tobacco products Yao Naili, member of the CPPCC National Committee and executive director of the Chinese society of traditional Chinese medicine, believes that the addition of drugs to cigarettes should be under the control of the drug administration, which should be given clear regulatory power.