The 6th cigarette pack warning pictures and phrases, which will be applied from December 23rd, project a much more intuitive and harsh reality than before. The previously somewhat euphemistic expression ‘you may get cancer’ has been changed to the definitive form of ‘you may get cancer’, emphasizing that the consequences of smoking are not a matter of choice, but an inevitability. In particular, for cigarette-type cigarettes, instead of deleting the sexual dysfunction item, it directly warns of fatal diseases such as lung cancer and kidney cancer, and for electronic cigarettes, it was also replaced with a picture that clearly distinguishes between addiction and lesions. This is a strategic move to encourage smokers to face their health status by clearly conveying the destructive effects that smoking has on the body, regardless of the type of cigarette.

Regulations for synthetic nicotine liquid electronic cigarettes have finally reached full swing. Synthetic nicotine products, which were previously available for sale online outside the legal category of ‘cigarettes’, are now subject to the same strict standards as regular cigarettes due to the revision of the Tobacco Business Act. After completing a sufficient guidance period of two months, the government will begin a nationwide on-site crackdown for three weeks starting on the 24th, and will impose strong sanctions such as banning use in non-smoking areas and operating vending machines without adult authentication devices. Since it can now only be purchased at offline designated stores, the era of easy purchasing online can be seen as virtually over.

The belief that electronic cigarettes are a safe alternative to tobacco cigarettes is clearly collapsing in the face of recently published research results. According to a research team from Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, the shocking fact was revealed that quitting smoking and switching to e-cigarettes increases the risk of developing lung cancer by 56% and nearly doubles the risk of death compared to completely quitting smoking. In particular, the side effects are more evident in high-risk groups over 50, scientifically proving that e-cigarettes can never be a healthy substitute. Formaldehyde and heavy metals in e-cigarette liquid are still fatally toxic, and this continues to pose a risk of lung cancer even to long-term smokers.

There is a stark difference in the public's perspective on tobacco control policies between smokers and non-smokers. According to a survey conducted by the Korea Health Promotion Institute, non-smokers expressed a very high level of caution regarding the risks of electronic cigarettes, while smokers gave relatively low scores, showing a gap in perception. However, surprisingly, it is noteworthy that both groups have formed a certain level of consensus in terms of cigarette price increases and policy acceptability. This suggests that our society has reached a certain level of agreement on the cause of preventing smoking among youth and creating a clean, non-smoking environment, regardless of whether they smoke, and is serving as a foundation for the government's regulatory policies to gain further momentum in the future.