Key Issues

Globally-speaking, we are in the midst of a very large natural experiment in which e-cigarettes are being regulated in different ways around the world. Some countries classify and regulate them as electronic cigarettes, others as tobacco or tobacco-related products, while other countries regulate them as consumer products and/or medicines. How these vastly different regulatory approaches affect smoking rates and public health are yet to be determined; time, nationally representative surveillance data and health research will eventually tell. The table below summarizes the most common ways that e-cigarettes are classified around the world