Chinese Companies Are Selling Vapes With Chemicals Potentially More Potent Than Nicotine
Chinese Companies Are Selling Vapes With Chemicals Potentially More Potent Than Nicotine
中国公司正在销售含有化学物质的电子烟，其效力可能比尼古丁更强
Earlier this year, I picked up a rather unfortunate habit: vaping. More specifically, I started smoking flavored vapes manufactured in China’s so-called “Vape Valley” and sold throughout the United States. 今年早些时候，我养成了一个相当糟糕的习惯：抽电子烟。更具体地说，我开始抽那些在中国所谓的“电子烟之都”制造并销往全美的调味电子烟。
Flavored nicotine vapes are largely illegal in the US, yet convenience stores and tobacco shops across the country have generated billions of dollars in sales from these products in recent years, despite periodic law enforcement seizures and efforts by the Food and Drug Administration to keep them off the market. More recently, Chinese manufacturers have found a new way to sidestep the law, escaping regulatory oversight altogether. 调味尼古丁电子烟在美国大部分地区是非法的，但近年来，尽管执法部门定期查封，且美国食品药品监督管理局（FDA）也努力将其清出市场，全美的便利店和烟草店仍通过这些产品创造了数十亿美元的销售额。最近，中国制造商找到了一种绕过法律的新方法，从而完全逃避了监管。
Like many people, I assumed the only addictive chemical in these products was synthetic nicotine, which vape manufacturers have used for years to avoid FDA oversight. But after Congress closed that loophole in 2022—expanding regulation beyond tobacco-derived nicotine—Chinese manufactures began filling their vapes with little-studied chemicals that mimic nicotine’s effects, known as nicotine analogs. 和许多人一样，我原以为这些产品中唯一的成瘾性化学物质是合成尼古丁，电子烟制造商多年来一直利用它来规避 FDA 的监管。但在 2022 年国会堵住这一漏洞——将监管范围扩大到烟草衍生尼古丁之外——之后，中国制造商开始在电子烟中填充研究甚少的、能模拟尼古丁效果的化学物质，即“尼古丁类似物”。
Because current regulations still narrowly define what counts as nicotine, Chinese companies have been able to sell nicotine analog vapes in the US without having to worry about federal tobacco rules, which generally require companies to submit new products to the FDA for scientific review before they can be legally marketed. 由于目前的法规对“尼古丁”的定义仍然狭窄，中国公司得以在美国销售尼古丁类似物电子烟，而不必担心联邦烟草法规。这些法规通常要求公司在合法销售新产品之前，必须将其提交给 FDA 进行科学审查。
“This is just like whack-a-mole, these companies will do everything they can to circumvent regulation,” says Robert Jackler, an emeritus professor of head and neck surgery at Stanford University and the founder of an interdisciplinary research group studying the impacts of tobacco advertising. “这就像打地鼠游戏，这些公司会竭尽全力规避监管，”斯坦福大学头颈外科名誉教授、研究烟草广告影响的跨学科研究小组创始人罗伯特·杰克勒（Robert Jackler）表示。
The effects of nicotine analogs on humans haven’t been extensively researched, but animal studies have found that one of the most popular variants, 6-methyl-nicotine, could be more potent and addictive than regular nicotine. Vapes containing nicotine analogs may also expose users to other mysterious chemicals. One 2024 study found that some manufacturers were selling nicotine analog vapes that contained additional unlabeled ingredients, including artificial sweeteners and cooling agents with unknown inhalation risks. “What’s on the label has very little relationship to what’s in it,” says Jackler. 尼古丁类似物对人类的影响尚未得到广泛研究，但动物实验发现，其中最受欢迎的变体之一“6-甲基尼古丁”可能比普通尼古丁更强效、更容易上瘾。含有尼古丁类似物的电子烟还可能让使用者接触到其他神秘的化学物质。2024 年的一项研究发现，一些制造商销售的尼古丁类似物电子烟中含有额外的未标注成分，包括人工甜味剂和吸入风险未知的冷却剂。“标签上写的内容与实际成分几乎没有关系，”杰克勒说。
Researchers first documented the emergence of vapes containing 6-methyl-nicotine and other nicotine analogs in the US market about three years ago. But the chemical compounds themselves are nothing new—tobacco companies have been researching them since as far back as the 1970s. 研究人员大约在三年前首次记录了含有 6-甲基尼古丁及其他尼古丁类似物的电子烟在美国市场的出现。但这些化合物本身并非新鲜事物——烟草公司早在 20 世纪 70 年代就开始研究它们了。
A 2005 review of millions of previously secret internal industry documents found Big Tobacco had long explored nicotine-like compounds as replacements for nicotine, in part because they believed they could help circumvent potential regulation. 2005 年对数百万份此前保密的行业内部文件进行的一项审查发现，大型烟草公司长期以来一直在探索用尼古丁类化合物替代尼古丁，部分原因是他们认为这有助于规避潜在的监管。
But US tobacco companies never wound up marketing mainstream products containing any of these nicotine-like chemicals. Instead, they surfaced decades later in disposable vapes made by Chinese manufacturers, which have proven extremely adept at finding new ways to keep selling their wares in the United States. 但美国烟草公司最终从未将含有这些尼古丁类化学物质的产品推向主流市场。相反，几十年后，它们出现在了中国制造商生产的一次性电子烟中，这些制造商已被证明非常擅长寻找新方法，以继续在美国销售其产品。
Chinese vape companies “are extremely creative, they are extremely smart,” says Rich Marianos, a former official with the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who is now executive director of the Tobacco Law Enforcement Network, an advocacy group that does not publicly disclose its funding. 中国电子烟公司“非常有创造力，也非常聪明，”美国烟酒枪炮及爆炸物管理局（ATF）前官员、现任烟草执法网络（Tobacco Law Enforcement Network，一个不公开其资金来源的倡导组织）执行董事里奇·马里亚诺斯（Rich Marianos）表示。
“The Chinese have been flooding the American market with illegal vape products designed to target children for years. These fake nicotine products appear to be a new scheme to trick American consumers into putting illicit, potentially dangerous chemicals into their body,” Tim Sheehy, a Republican senator from Montana, said in a statement to WIRED. “The Trump Administration has made cracking down on these unregulated Chinese products a priority, and I hope they continue to sound the alarm on this problem.” “多年来，中国一直向美国市场倾销旨在针对儿童的非法电子烟产品。这些假尼古丁产品似乎是一种诱骗美国消费者将非法、潜在危险的化学物质摄入体内的最新阴谋，”蒙大拿州共和党参议员蒂姆·希伊（Tim Sheehy）在给《连线》（WIRED）的一份声明中表示。“特朗普政府已将打击这些不受监管的中国产品作为优先事项，我希望他们继续就这一问题敲响警钟。”
But Jeckler notes that the Trump administration has effectively dismantled the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention office responsible for the agency’s tobacco prevention programs and significantly reduced the size of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. That means much of the effort to regulate nicotine analogs has fallen to the states. Jackler says he’s aware of four states—California, Nebraska, Indiana, and Tennessee—that have expanded their definitions of tobacco products to explicitly include nicotine-like chemicals. But there is still no comprehensive federal law that treats these substances the same way as tobacco-derived or synthetic nicotine. 但杰克勒指出，特朗普政府实际上已经解散了美国疾病控制与预防中心（CDC）负责烟草预防项目的办公室，并大幅缩减了 FDA 烟草产品中心的规模。这意味着监管尼古丁类似物的大部分工作已落到各州头上。杰克勒表示，他知道有四个州——加利福尼亚州、内布拉斯加州、印第安纳州和田纳西州——已经扩大了烟草产品的定义，明确将尼古丁类化学物质包括在内。但目前仍没有全面的联邦法律将这些物质与烟草衍生或合成尼古丁同等对待。
That could soon change. The Trump administration’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2027 includes a legislative proposal that would expand the definition of nicotine to include nicotine analogs, allowing them to be regulated by the FDA the same way as old-fashioned cigarettes. The proposal notes that the compounds “can be more potent, addictive, and cytotoxic than nicotine.” 这种情况可能很快会改变。特朗普政府 2027 财年的预算提案中包含一项立法建议，旨在扩大尼古丁的定义以涵盖尼古丁类似物，从而允许 FDA 像监管传统香烟一样对其进行监管。该提案指出，这些化合物“可能比尼古丁更强效、更易成瘾且具有细胞毒性”。
If enacted, the change would close the loophole that Chinese vape manufacturers have been exploiting, but it would also mean major US tobacco companies could potentially legally develop and sell their own nicotine analog products, provided they comply with the FDA’s regulatory requirements. 如果该提案获得通过，这一改变将堵住中国电子烟制造商一直在利用的漏洞，但也意味着美国大型烟草公司只要符合 FDA 的监管要求，就有可能合法开发并销售自己的尼古丁类似物产品。
“What we’re seeing the administration do is to adopt the agenda of the major US tobacco companies,” says Jackler. In theory, that includes protecting Americans from unregulated products from China, “but really, what it is about is the large tobacco companies are saying, ‘damn we are losing business to these Chinese startups.’” “我们看到政府所做的是采纳了美国大型烟草公司的议程，”杰克勒说。从理论上讲，这包括保护美国人免受来自中国的未受监管产品的侵害，“但实际上，这背后的原因是大型烟草公司在说：‘该死，我们正在输给这些中国初创公司。’”
This is an edition of Zeyi Yang and Louise Matsakis’ Made in China newsletter. Read previous newsletters here. 这是杨泽毅（Zeyi Yang）和路易丝·马萨基斯（Louise Matsakis）的《中国制造》（Made in China）通讯的一期。点击此处阅读往期通讯。