[Anchor]

New types of pseudo-cigarettes, similar to liquid e-cigarettes, are spreading these days. Users can inhale not only soft drinks but even alcohol through them. Because there is no verification of whether these products are harmful to the body, caution is needed.

Morning Zoom-In, reported by Park Ha-jeong.

[Reporter]

An e-cigarette shop in Seoul.

[They sell a lot.]

Promoting it as a popular product recently, they explain like this.

[Store employee: You can mix in alcohol, you can mix in beverages, you can mix in orange juice. Then the percentage comes out. The nicotine percentage.]

They even help demonstrate by pouring cola into it.

[Store employee: Smoking it like lung inhalation, lung inhalation. You draw on it for a while. Since it is smoked like a shisha, it is less harmful to the human body.]

This product, which promotes that users can enjoy their own recipes, is structured so that when a person puts their mouth to the mouthpiece and inhales, the aerosol generated by heating the built-in liquid passes through the beverage and is delivered together.

Alcohol, cola, and energy drinks high in caffeine can all be put into the device and inhaled.

Nicotine can also be added, but the product sales website only discloses a battery safety verification confirmation certificate, with no information regarding its harmfulness to the human body.

[Choi Chang-min / Professor of Pulmonology, Asan Medical Center: Even if there are no problems when ingested, the lungs are very sensitive and have a lot of blood vessels, so nobody knows what kind of damage it might cause. Inhaling substances like drugs could also lead to major social problems.]

The device importing company claims that the product itself does not contain nicotine, making it safer than liquid e-cigarettes.

However, health authorities maintain that caution is necessary because products marketed as nicotine-free may actually contain nicotine or other unverified chemical substances.

[Nam In-soon / National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee member (Democratic Party): (Overseas) even if it is nicotine-free, cases where it vaporizes and is directly inhaled into the lungs are regulated. I think safety tests are necessary, but because it is in a legal blind spot...] (Photo: Yonhap News)

Countries like Canada and the EU manage all liquid inhalation products as e-cigarettes, regardless of whether they contain nicotine.

In response to an inquiry asking about product safety, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety stated that products not using nicotine as a raw material cannot be regarded as tobacco, and therefore are not products under its jurisdiction.

Reported by Kim Yong-woo | Video by Ahn Yeo-jin | Graphics by Kang Yoon-jung | VJ by Shin So-young