E-cigarettes first appeared in China in 2003 and they are now widely available across the world, especially over the Internet. In the past five years or so, they have become quite popular in the United States and Europe. A recent study by US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that e-cigarette experimentation and recent use doubled among US middle- and high-school students in 2011-12, with their number reaching about 1.78 million. This has raised serious concern because the overall impact of e-cigarette use on public health remains uncertain.

In China, e-cigarettes are yet to catch the fancy of people eager to quit smoking, but access into buying it particularly online is unlimited. To attract more buyers, China Tobacco is said to launch its own new line of e-cigarettes in partnership with another company.

Seemingly, the tobacco industry is trying to expand its market. But can its designs be thwarted at a time when tobacco control efforts in China are still found wanting? Globally, WHO has been making efforts to strengthen regulation over e-cigarettes. In fact, its latest report on "electronic nicotine delivery systems" will be discussed at the 6th Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in Moscow in October.

China's top legislature ratified FCTC in 2005, but it still hasn't passed a law to make it mandatory for tobacco companies to print repulsive graphic images on cigarette packets as health warnings and ban all forms of tobacco advertisements. A national legislation on tobacco/smoking control is under way, but it would be good if legislators also took into consideration e-cigarettes and their potential impact on human health before finalizing the draft.

There is no alternative to banning all forms of tobacco if the government wants to protect the people, especially youths, from the harms of smoking and possibly e-cigarettes.

The author is a senior writer with China Daily.

shanjuan@chinadaily.com.cn.