Project description:

E-cigarettes were not classified in China; the supervision is still in a blank or controversy region. The attitudes of different countries toward e-cigarettes are not the same. It is based on the Global Tobacco Control database from 2017 to 2018, we visualized the attitudes and regulations of different countries around the world.

We have sorted out the acquisition information of the global tobacco giants since the birth of e-cigarettes, using timelines to show the center of tobacco market is moving to e-cigarettes.

Impact reached:

The project makes e-cigarettes receive enough public attention. The issue of false advertising, supervision ‘vacuum’ and the gateway effect of teenagers are widely noticed. This project has sparked heated debate on Weibo（ The largest social network platform in China） about the effect of quitting smoking, whether it should be banned by government and the new round of investment boom.

After this project, more details and issues of e-cigarettes were reported from other media organizations. China usually marks World Consumer Rights Day on March 15 with a string of media exposures. This year e-cigarettes were exposed on the annual “3.15” show by China Central Television (CCTV). We published it again the next day and the effect is significant.

The project has prosperous vitality. Cases of severe vaping-related pulmonary disease and a number of deaths have been reported. We update this project continuously as we get more news.

A small questionnaire was set at the beginning and end of the project, which can test the readers’ attitudes toward using e-cigarettes in public, teen vaping and advertising looked like kid-friendly food products. We can measure the impact of this project on readers by calculating how many people have changed their attitude after reading.

• the proportion of people who thinks E-cigarettes are available to guests at the restaurant decreased by 13%; 

• the proportion of people who thinks E-cigarettes are acceptable to teenagers decreased by 5%;

• the proportion of people who accept e-cigarettes with labeling or advertising looked like kid-friendly food products, such as cartoon images, decreased by 3%.

Techniques/technologies used:

HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

In grid map, we uses JS to reconstructure the map data. All the interactive map was made by D3.js.

Other illustrations and infographics were made by Adobe Illustrator.

What was the hardest part of this project?

This project made more media and governments pay more attention to e-cigarettes.Plenty of investigative news has put Chinese e-cigarettes under supervision.

Citing health concerns for minors, a Chinese regulator and the state tobacco monopoly jointly urged manufacturers and sellers to shut down websites related to the marketing and sale of e-cigarettes, in what could amount to an effective ban.

What can others learn from this project?

We set a small questionnaire at the beginning and end of the project to test readers’ attitudes toward using e-cigarettes in public, teen vaping and advertising looked like kid-friendly food products. We can measure the impact of this project on readers by calculating how many people have changed their attitudes after reading.

This project used the grid maps, which represent each country with a congruent square. It has removed the artificial visible weighting that larger geographic areas lend to a choropleth map. We present how it changes form a normal world map to a grid map, which will lower the difficulties in recoganizing country loactions and be very helpful to understand. It is also difficult for general readers to read the grid map without any reference. So next the main oceans were marked on the map .

Project links:

datanews.caixin.com/mobile/interactive/2019/ecig/