Regulator sends smoke signals about flavored e-cigarettes ban

China is considering banning flavored e-cigarettes over concerns about vaping by teens and children.

It has been more than three months since China's Tobacco Monopoly Administration started to solicit opinions from the public on regulating e-cigarettes after the vaping industry was subsumed into tobacco supervision last November.

A draft listing Chinese national standards for e-cigarettes was published on Friday.

It underlined the importance of reducing the appeal of e-cigarettes to the underage, stating: "Flavors other than tobacco taste shall not be offered in products."

To be specific, 21 additives, referring to tastes like plum, rose and orange, are removed from the list. In other words, sweet and fruity flavors are banned, which is expected to keep the underage away from e-cigarettes.

The draft is now available on the administration's website, and feedback is welcomed through to March 17. If it is passed, there will be an end to flavors like strawberry, melon and yogurt.

China's e-cigarette industry has seen a massive expansion over the past two decades. In particular, more than 95 percent of the world's e-cigarettes are made in China, according to iiMedia Research.

As US and some European countries like Finland already have flavor bans in place, experts believe the new regulations may have a greater impact on domestic market rather than exports.

In an interview with Securities Times, an unnamed industry insider said sales volumes of tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes in the domestic market are dwarfed by other flavors. So it would be "subversive" for the domestic market, he said.

After the draft was published, shares of RLX Technology, China's leading e-cigarette maker listed in New York, have dropped more than 36 percent, and closed at US$1.49 on Friday (US time).