****
The article “Candy-Flavoured Smokes for Kids*” discusses the effects and popularity of “e-cigarettes” worldwide with emphasis on the Chinese market. “Vaping” with e-cigarettes has became extremely popular in Europe and North America due to it being a healthier alternative to the gruesome ingredients contained in cigarettes. Yet China, the primary country who manufactures this product, continues to demonstrate a higher interest in classic cigarettes, as portrayed in the graph below.
.*****
Throughout the article the author highlights various reasons as to how e-cigarettes are beneficial to the populations fight towards “quitting”. The Chinese government continues their attempt to limit smoking by introducing various laws, bans and advertising e-cigarettes. Yet, due to continual trends, it is evident their approach has had little affect on this issue. At their current rate it will be impossible to have an impact on the 50% of Chinas male population who currently smoke cigarettes within the country. China should limit the amount of cigarettes within their country by taxing the market and promoting e-cigarettes.
With regards to the article “Effects of Tobacco Taxation and Pricing on Smoking Behavior in High Risk Populations**”, the authors discuss the effects of how the economy and general population respond to taxation towards tobacco. They highlight how a raise in price will definitely lower demand but not significantly, being that cigarettes are an inelastic product. It is also suggested that with this raise in price the government should designate a fund to programs that aid and rehabilitate previous addicts. Evidently this raise in price would have an affect on the current market, yet perhaps rather than funding rehabilitation of “quitters” the Chinese government could promote and offer the alternative of e-cigarettes.
Currently Cigarettes are selling for 2.5 yuan or 0.40$ USD versus the e-cigarette which is over 70 times more expensive than the cigarette. If the government raised the price of cigarettes and successfully popularize e-cigarettes this would likely attract a large sum of Chinese smokers to the healthier alternative of “vaping”.
In the article “Whether the Government Should Control Alcohol Markets***”, the author states how the addiction of alcohol can severely impact not only themselves but others surrounding them as well, which is why the government should consistently monitor and control this market . Overall Cigarettes are parallel to this situation being that it has been proven that cigarettes can influence harmful affects to people who have never smoked them. Evidently if the Chinese government desires to resolve this issue they must take control of the Cigarette market.
Word count: 388
Sources:
Articles
*= http://www.economist.com/news/china/21654108-vaping-west-seen-way-quit-smoking-china-it-may-not-be-candy-flavoured-smokes
**=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3228562/
***=https://blogs.ubc.ca/vanessazhuang/2016/10/02/whether-government-should-control-alcohol-markets/
Images
****=http://images.medicaldaily.com/sites/medicaldaily.com/files/styles/full_breakpoints_theme_medicaldaily_desktop_1x/public/2016/02/11/vaping-vs-smoking.jpg
*****=http://cdn.static-economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/original-size/images/print-edition/20150613_CNC573_1.png
One response to “Can “Vaping” tackle Cigarettes?”