By Allen Liao
As tobacco quality and safety as well as the harm cigarette smoking causes have aroused increasing public concern over recent years, the tobacco industry of China appears to be attaching increasing importance to quality control over its tobacco products.
Official data released at the 2011 national tobacco work conference held in Beijing in January indicate that in 2010 the tobacco industry conducted 59,365 index tests on 4,969 batches of cigarette products, cut tobacco, cigarette materials, etc in 14 major categories nationwide, with the up-to-standard rate of the quality of cigarette products and the up-to-standard rate of quality and safety indexes of cigarette products both reaching 100%. In 2010, the tobacco industry conducted inspections on 1,047 batches of leaf tobacco in trade between the manufacturing and commercial sectors of the tobacco industry to check its up-to-standard rate, and also performed a series of tests on imported leaf tobacco and cigarettes to monitor the content of pesticide residue and transgenic traits, according to the official data.Through continued development for more than 20 years, the tobacco industry has established a relatively complete product quality supervision, inspection and test system. Along with its steady development over recent years, the product quality test capacity, test equipment, professional human resources and management have continued strengthening or improving while the scope of tests has enlarged. The well-established product quality supervision, inspection and test system of the tobacco industry has provided a powerful technological guarantee for government efforts to enforce cigarette product quality supervision and control, maintain the authority of the tobacco monopoly law enforcement, improve the system of product quality and the system of access to the tobacco market as well as strengthening quality control by tobacco manufacturing enterprises.
At the 2011 national tobacco work conference, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA) explicitly proposed that priority be given to quality control and product safety and that efforts be made to further improve product quality supervision, inspection and test systems, effectively implement various measures for strengthening quality control and product safety, gradually establish a licensing system for using additives in cigarette production and create a system for disclosing information on the ingredients used in products in accordance with the law.
Increased investment
In 2010, the tobacco industry, in accordance with the general planning of STMA, quickened its pace in establishing a product quality supervision, inspection and test system led by a national-level quality inspection center, in which a total of eight comprehensive provincial-level tobacco quality inspection agencies will be playing a leading role and a total of 20 specialized provincial-level tobacco quality inspection agencies will be participating. The establishment of the product quality supervision, inspection and test system was intended to comprehensively promote the quality control and product safety supervision and control capacity of the tobacco industry to a higher level. Meanwhile, the tobacco industry managed to strengthen efforts to establish a system of provincial-level tobacco quality supervision and inspection agencies, promoting the work of quality control and product safety supervision and control to a higher level.
In efforts to improve the efficiency and quality of the work of quality control and product safety supervision and control, the tobacco industry has kept increasing investment. Hu Qingyuan, deputy executive director of the National Tobacco Quality Supervision and Inspection Center (NTQSIC), said that over recent years, the state has made heavy investments in the establishment of NTQSIC – RMB6.8 million (US$1.05 million) in 2004, RMB12 million in 2009, and nearly RMB4 million in 2010 – used to purchase apparatus and equipment. The heavy investment contributed to significantly promoting the center’s testing capacity.
Meanwhile, NTQSIC has also made obvious progress upgrading its software. For example, there is an invisible computer management system playing an important role at the laboratories of the center. The computer management system, which is actually a data collection system, connects all apparatus and equipment to the computer system. The data generated is automatically collected, and eventually, the computer management system produces final testing results, which not only makes it convenient for the staff to collect and process data, but also reduces possible interference by human factors and guarantees the accuracy of data.
In fact, the upgrading of software has far exceeded this milestone. The center is a comprehensive system of laboratories, with the testing capability and scope being the leading indexes for appraising its overall capacity. Boasting a physical testing laboratory, chemical testing laboratories, a leaf tobacco testing laboratory, etc, the center is capable of testing various products including tobacco and tobacco products and cigarette materials. Generally speaking, the testing capacity of the center covers all aspects of tobacco manufacturing, including cigarettes, leaf tobacco, cigarette materials and tobacco machinery. As far as testing parameters are concerned, the center has a total of 322 parameters recognized by China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment(CNAS).
First-rate laboratories deserve first-rate human resources
“With great support by STMA, the center has over recent years admitted graduates from first-rate universities in China, including three doctors and 10 masters,” Hu Qingyuan told Tobacco Asia. “Presently, the center boasts two researchers and eight senior engineers, four of whom are doctors. The continued admission of well-educated students has contributed to the upgrading of the testing human resources and improving the work efficiency of the center.”
While NTQSIC made efforts to keep upgrading its software and hardware, 28 provincial-level tobacco quality supervision and inspection centers have also done all they can to increase investment upgrading their software and hardware over recent years.
Speaking to Chinese news media, deputy general manager Yang Jun of China Tobacco Hubei Industrial Corporation (CTHIC) in north China’s Hebei province said that since 2008, the corporation has invested a total of RMB22 million in buying more than 70 sets of new equipment including a heat energy analysis joint instrument, an ion chromatograph and a high efficiency liquid chromatograph.
“As a result, the corporation has acquired 133 sets of testing equipment and has established its own system of specialized quality supervision and inspection laboratories,” according to Yang. “Through the strengthening of efforts for human resources training and participation in programs of joint operation of laboratories, the corporation has succeeded in continuously improving the work proficiency and professional quality of its testing human resources, obviously enhancing its comprehensive testing capacity. So far, the corporation has met all the technical standards for product testing required by STMA.”
In south central China’s Hunan province, Hunan Tobacco Monopoly Administration (HTMA) has attached great importance to the establishment of the Hunan Tobacco Quality Supervision and Inspection Station ( HTQSIS) over recent years. Speaking to Chinese news media, director Yang Xianjie of HTMA said that the administration has invested RMB16 million purchasing equipment for testing the content of pesticide residue, heavy metals, etc in tobacco, improving the environment of the laboratories and upgrading the equipment and facilities of HTQSIS.
“Today, HTQSIS is fully capable of testing the content of pesticide residue and trace elements in cigarettes, leaf tobacco, filter rods, cigarette paper and cigarette fragrances and essences and also harmful substances in cigarette smoke, in accordance with the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control,” Yang said. “So far, HTQSIS has met all the stringent technical standards of STMA for the qualification of provincial-level tobacco quality supervision and inspection stations in terms of both hardware equipment and the testing capacity.”
In 2011, Yunnan Tobacco Quality Supervision and Inspection Station (YTQSIS) in southwest China’s tobacco-producing Yunnan province will see its testing capacity significantly enhanced. The station will be relocated to a compound of new office buildings and laboratory facilities including 4,000 square meters of testing space and over 200 square meters of constant temperature and humidity laboratories backed by a large quantity of newly-procured research and testing equipment. The execution of the upgrade will contribute to paving the way for turning the station into a first-rate comprehensive and innovative tobacco quality supervision and inspection station.
Remarkable achievements
Continued improvement of both software and hardware conditions has given a powerful impetus to promoting the quality supervision and inspection capacity of the tobacco industry to a higher level.
As part of an international network of laboratories, NTQSIC has fulfilled many important assignments. For example, it has taken the lead in theoretical proof and affirmation of some testing methods. In 2010, NTQSIC applied for 14 patents, was granted eight patents and published 23 theses, including three published through the famous Science Citation Index. In an effort to keep promoting its scientific-technological research and development capacity to higher levels, NTQSIC annually participates in the work of theoretical proof by Cooperation Center for Scientific Research Relative to Tobacco (CORESTA) and some other international organizations. So far, it has become a member of seven research subgroups under CORESTA.
In 2010, NTQSIC fulfilled 25 supervisory tests assigned by STMA, an increase of 17, or 47%, over 2009, and tested nearly 10,000 samples, with the total number of tests reaching some 80,000. Besides, the center, in response to emergencies, fulfilled three urgent tasks assigned by STMA that year in a timely manner, providing large quantities of testing data as scientific bases for decision making by top leaders in a relatively short period of time.
Over recent years, provincial-level tobacco quality supervision and inspection stations across China have also made great advances.
As a priority comprehensive provincial-level tobacco quality supervision and inspection agency, YTQSIS assumes heavy tasks of tobacco quality supervision and inspection under the system of state tobacco monopoly in China, with assignments covering more than 150 items and parameters in the 14 categories prescribed by STMA. In conducting supervision and inspection over the quality of leaf tobacco of all grades purchased by state-run leaf tobacco purchase stations in 2010, inspection squads dispatched by YTQSIS randomly inspected more than 400 leaf tobacco purchase stations in 95 counties or county-level urban districts operated by the tobacco companies of 12 prefectures or prefecture-level cities across Yunnan and 10 leaf tobacco redrying and processing enterprises, and examined 1,147 batches of leaf tobacco stored at the central storage depots of five city-level tobacco companies, finding out that the comprehensive up-to-standard rate reached 73.06%. In the year, it also randomly examined 980 batches of leaf tobacco of all grades in trade between leaf tobacco suppliers and manufacturers, with the comprehensive up-to-standard rate reaching 69.6%.
In central China’s Hubei province, China Tobacco Hubei Industrial Corporation (CTHIC) has made relatively significant achievements in the establishment of its tobacco quality supervision and inspection information system. Zhang Shenghua, an engineer with the technology center of CTHIC, said that the corporation has actually succeeded in establishing a provincial cigarette quality control information sharing platform, realized the exchange of business information through computer webs covering information collected from all processes of product supervision and testing, the testing of cigarette materials, raw materials testing analysis, quality control analysis in cigarette processing and management of apparatus and equipment.
“In short, CTHIC has realized the sharing of tobacco quality supervision and inspection data resources for the whole of Hubei province, and has initially realized numerical quality control in cigarette production,” Zhang said.
As a result of increases in investment to improve both software and hardware, the tobacco industry has seen its product quality and safety standards and its testing capacity rapidly upgraded, its work of supervision and testing clearly becoming more timely and more effective and the up-to-standard rate of its products maintining a very high level. Official data suggest that the up-to-standard rate of the products of the tobacco industry got close to or reached 100% in 2008, 2009 and 2010. It is worth mentioning here that the strengthening of efforts for quality supervision and testing by the tobacco industry has extended to safety and quality control in the production of cigarette paper, tipping paper, cigarette tow, packaging materials, etc.
Challenges
In its future business development, the tobacco industry will definitely meet greater challenges in strengthening product quality supervision and inspection. STMA has always attached great importance to the work of product safety and quality control. At the 2011 national tobacco work conference, the leadership of STMA raised higher requirements for the work of product safety and quality control.
“NTQSIC, in the capacity of the national tobacco quality supervision and inspection agency, is required to have sufficient human resources, first-rate equipment, guaranteed funding, and a greater capacity,” it said.
If the tobacco industry wishes to promote its general quality supervision and testing capacity to a still higher level, it needs to abide by stricter procedures and standards. NTQSIC deserves the reputation as a model to this effect. At the beginning of each year, the center will work out an annual training program, strive to meet new quality testing standards, manage to acquire new apparatus and equipment and study relevant new laws, regulations and technical standards in training its human resources in order that the quality inspectors with the center will not only have sufficient theoretical knowledge but also enough practical experience. Annually, the center has all its apparatus and equipment calibrated by competent authorities to ensure accuracy.
Inside the center, there are supervisors designated to conduct real-time inspection to ensure that all testing will strictly follow the relevant procedures and standards in the interest of lowering the rate of error. The center has a strict system of maintaining all records of supervision and inspection. The center will have an annual appraisal of its internal management in order to uncover any loopholes.
Hu Qingyuan gave an example of technological control.
“For instance, in the analysis of cigarette smoke, inspectors will frequently add sample cigarettes with a known quantity of tar in testing,” he said. “Through comparison between the test value and the known quantity value, they will be able to reach control over the whole process of testing, to ensure accuracy of the testing data.”
With data obtained from the various processes of testing, NTQSIC will conduct exchanges with other laboratories both in China and abroad and make comparisons to check accuracy of the data. And, by applying statistical measures, it will be able to see whether the data it has obtained is consistent with that obtained by other laboratories both in China and abroad. By doing so, it regularly checks accuracy of the data it has obtained. In efforts to guarantee scientific relevance and accuracy of its testing data, the center has established a quality assurance system that meets the appropriate international standards. In making continued efforts for improvement, the center has developed plenty of program files for recognizing testing methods and testing procedures covering customer service, preventive measures, control over records, management of samples, testing results quality assurance, etc.
“In the next stage, we will manage to guarantee greater accuracy of our quality testing data, strengthen supervision and control over product safety and quality in an all-round way, and further enhance our capacity respond rapidly to emergencies,” Hu Qingyuan said.
Provincial-level tobacco quality supervision and inspection centers will also try their best to promote their product quality testing capacity to higher levels through continued investment in both software and hardware components. By means of scientific-technological progress, they will be able to further promote their product quality to higher levels and supply consumers with safe, reliable and credible cigarette products.
