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Do you believe that smoking helps improve your skin?

Would you give it a try if there is a new beauty product that claims to improve your skin condition, enhance digestion function and boost metabolism? What if the product is actually a smoking product, will you believe that smoking is safe?

Some e-cigarettes that claimed to contain nutrients like vitamins are named as “beauty e-cigarettes” or “vitamin vape pen”. They are marketed as “good”, “trendy”, “harmless” and even “healthy” products. Colorful packaging, novel and slim design, fancy advertisements and wide choices of flavours are adopted to mislead people that they are different from traditional cigarettes and harmless to health. Out of curiosity and misbelief in beauty and fashion, many teenagers and young women get hooked to e-cigarettes.

A group of women shared their views with COSH on the so-called "beauty e-cigarettes". Check it out. (In Chinese version only)

The allure of novel and feminine smoking products

As revealed in the tobacco industry’s internal documents that exposed in the early years, teenagers and women have long been the targets of tobacco industry. Different forms of new smoking products were invented to explore the new markets and attract new customers.

In order to capture the women’s market, the tobacco industry has launched women-oriented products by using feminine colors and deceptive terms such as “light”, “slim” and “mild” on cigarette packs to tune down the harmfulness of the products, and using appealing slogans such as “be the one with style”, “a woman’s place is any place her feet will take her”, etc. to attract women. These tactful promotions have lured the public, especially women, to take up smoking. Moreover, fancy cigarette packs imitating cosmetics and perfumes were designed for users to hide the smoking products and shape smoking as glamorous and fashionable behaviour. The slim design of cigarettes which carried feminine elements also misled people that the products are less harmful.

False claims to conceal the harm of smoking

Regardless the names, packaging and design, all forms of smoking products are undoubtedly detrimental to health and addictive. In fact, there is no medical evidence proving the claim that inhaling substances like vitamins into the lung is safe or effective. Under the heavy promotions of the tobacco industry and retailers, some people have been misled into trying these new smoking products and even traditional cigarettes.

Mr Henry TONG, Chairman of Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health clarifies the misconceptions of the “beauty e-cigarettes” and other new forms of smoking products.

The harm of alternative smoking products – not less, can be even more

Some chemical substances that are safe for use and safe for eat are not necessarily safe for inhale in to the lung and body. Toxic and harmful substances can be generated when some common chemical substances are heated and vapourized in high temperature, and it poses severe risk to health.

COSH commissioned Hong Kong Baptist University to carry out a laboratory test on e-cigarettes. The e-cigarette samples were labelled with common ingredients such as propylene glycol, glycerine, additives, etc. But the test results found that carcinogens such as formaldehyde and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (“PAHs”) and other harmful chemicals such as poly-brominated diphenyl ethers (“PBDEs”), heavy metals, volatile organic compounds (“VOC”), etc. were found in the e-cigarette aerosols. Worryingly, the concentration of formaldehyde and PBDEs (rarely found in conventional cigarettes) were higher than those in traditional cigarettes¹.

Tobacco is inherently toxic, all forms of tobacco use are harmful whether it is combusted, heated or manufactured in any means. Overseas research found that heated tobacco products could release similar or even higher level of nicotine and tar than traditional cigarettes and also contained carcinogens². European Respiratory Society stated that some harmful and carcinogenic substances including formaldehyde were found much higher in concentration in heated tobacco products³. A recent research also found that heated tobacco products release formaldehyde cyanohydrin (rarely found in conventional cigarettes), which would be metabolized into formaldehyde and cyanide⁴.

Be Aware of the harms of new forms of smoking products

There is no safe and harmless tobacco product in the world. The harm reduction claims of alternative smoking products were the usual tricks of the tobacco industry used for decades to deter smokers’ intention to quit, entice non-smokers especially women and teenagers to try, and undermine the tobacco control effort. The so-called “beauty e-cigarette” is just a marketing gimmick to attract people. Don’t be misled by tobacco advertisements and promotions. Don’t try any forms of smoking products!

Related information:

• Brochure on Alternative Smoking Products (In Chinese only)
• Q&A Information Sheet on Alternative Smoking Products
• Reasons to Quit - Tobacco Facts: Alternative Smoking Products (The Tobacco and Alcohol Control Office of the Department of Health)

Reference:

1. COSH Report No.20 – Report on E-cigarette Analytical Testing

2. Study finds heat-not-burn cigarettes no less harmful than ordinary cigarettes (Korea Biomedical Review)

3. ERS Position Paper on Heated Tobacco Products

4. iQOS: evidence of pyrolysis and release of a toxicant from plastic (Tobacco Control)