Month: March 2024

  • Taiwan to Increase Size of Health Warnings

    Taiwan to Increase Size of Health Warnings

    Image: Andrii

    In Taiwan, graphic health warnings will soon have to cover at least 50 percent of cigarette packages, an increase from the current requirement of 35 percent, according to the Health Promotion Administration (HPA), reports Focus Taiwan.

    The new rules take effect Friday, March 22, 2024, following the expiration of a one-year transition period.

    Manufacturers caught violating the rules will face fines up to NTD5 million ($156,629), and those caught selling improperly labeled products will face fines up to NTD50,000.

    According to HPA Director General Wu Chao-chun, 122 countries and territories require graphic health warnings covering at least half of packaging, exceeding the World Health Organization recommendation of at least 30 percent.

    The HPA has sent officials around Taiwan to promote the upcoming policy, making sure that those affected are aware of the changes, according to Lo Su-ying, head of the HPA’s Tobacco Control Division.

  • Cigarette Manufacturing to Increase

    Cigarette Manufacturing to Increase

    Image: www.akolosov.art

    A cigarette manufacturing plant is under construction in Zimbabwe, with the expectation that it will increase manufacturing capacity by 50 percent, reports The Herald.

    “(The) Cabinet would like to report that the value of local tobacco purchased has increased from $650 million in 2022 to $897 million in 2023,” said Jenfan Muswere, minister of information, publicity and broadcasting services. “Out of this amount, tobacco purchases using local financing were $61.4 million in 2022 and $73.2 million in 2023. For the 2024 tobacco marketing season, the recorded intentions for local financing amount to $81 million.”

    “There are opportunities to increase the level of value addition and beneficiation of tobacco into cut rag and production of cigarettes, from 2 percent of total tobacco produced to 30 percent,” said Muswere. “Currently, seven cigarette manufacturers operate in Zimbabwe, with a combined production capacity of around 5 billion cigarette sticks per annum.

    “An additional cigarette manufacturing plant is under construction, with a current production of 1.6 billion sticks per year. The plant will increase capacity by 50 percent in the first half of 2024.”

  • Organizations Urge Biden to Ban Menthols

    Organizations Urge Biden to Ban Menthols

    Image: Margarita

    A total of 123 civil rights, public health, medical, faith, youth-serving and other organizations placed a full-page ad in The Washington Post and issued a joint statement urging the Biden administration to issue final rules this month to prohibit cigarettes and flavored cigars to meet a deadline the administration set in December, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

    The ad and joint statement underscore the support across the nation for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s proposed rules to eliminate menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, including from organizations representing populations that have been targeted by the tobacco industry and disproportionately harmed by these products.

    “President Biden, we stand united,” the ad reads. “Act now to eliminate menthol cigarettes.”

    “These rules are supported by overwhelming scientific evidence, they will have enormous benefits for our nation’s health and they are critical to achieving top priorities of the Biden administration, especially the president’s Cancer Moonshot and the administration’s commitment to promoting health equity,” the joint statement reads.

    “We were deeply disappointed in December when the administration delayed issuing these long-overdue rules. As tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, killing nearly half a million Americans every year, any further delay in issuing the final rules will result in needless disease, suffering and deaths. The administration must stand up to the tobacco industry and act now to save lives.”

  • Scotland Welcomes Proposed U.K. Ban

    Scotland Welcomes Proposed U.K. Ban

    Image: boygostockphoto

    Scotland Public Health Minister Jenni Minto has welcomed proposed legislation to ban tobacco sales to anyone born after Jan. 1, 2009, and allow for tougher measures on vaping.

    The proposed legislation, which is U.K.-wide, would gradually increase the age of sale, making it illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 2009. The bill also includes powers to regulate displays, contents, flavors and retail packaging of vapes and nicotine products, allowing restrictions to target flavors marketed at children and to move vapes out of sight of children and away from products like sweets, according to the Scottish government.

    The legislation will also remove existing provisions making it illegal for those under the age of 18 to purchase tobacco products.

    The government previously published proposals to ban the sale and supply of single-use vapes, which, if agreed upon by the Parliament, would come into effect April 1, 2025.

    “Scotland has been a world-leader on a range of tobacco control measures, and while there has been a steady reduction in the proportion of people smoking, we know it still damages lives and kills more than 8,000 people a year in Scotland,” said Minto. “Smoking is a huge burden on our NHS [National Health Service] and social care services and contributes significantly to health inequalities, which is why our goal is for a tobacco-free Scotland by 2034.

    “Research suggests that almost one in five young people have tried vaping, and we’re particularly concerned about how flavors are used as an enticement to children and young people.

    “We will now consider how to use these powers, if passed by Westminster, with the consent of the Scottish Parliament, to benefit public health. We will continue our four-nations approach to avoid any unnecessary regulatory divergence and to offer more certainty for business and consistency for consumers. Powers on vapes will be taken forward following further consultation and engagement.

    “In addition, we were the first government to commit to taking action on single-use vapes and have now fulfilled our 2023 Program for Government commitment to consult on measures to tackle the environmental impact of single-use vapes.”

    In accordance with the Sewel Convention, the bill will require the legislative consent of the Scottish Parliament.

  • U.K. to Introduce Generational Ban

    U.K. to Introduce Generational Ban

    The UK government is set to introduce a bill in parliament aimed at phasing out smoking among young people by prohibiting nicotine sales for future generations.

    The Tobacco and Vapes Bill, if passed unamended, will be one of the world’s toughest anti-tobacco laws and prevent children turning 15 this year or younger from ever being able to be legally sold nicotine products.

    The government said smoking itself would not be criminalized. Therefore, anyone who can legally buy tobacco now will not be prevented from doing so in the future, according to Reuters.

    “If we want to build a better future for our children, we need to tackle the single biggest entirely preventable cause of ill-health, disability, and death: smoking,” Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a statement.

    Critics say the move is “unconservative,” and former prime minister Liz Truss is one of several members of the governing party who have said they will vote against the legislation.

    Despite the opposition, the legislation is expected to pass with the opposition Labour Party suggesting it would support the measure.

    Last month, a similar law introduced by New Zealand banning tobacco sales to those born after Jan. 1, 2009 was repealed by the country’s new coalition government.

  • New Zealand to Ban Disposables

    New Zealand to Ban Disposables

    Image: slexp880

    New Zealand will ban the sale of disposable e-cigarettes, increase fines for retailers caught selling to those under the age of 18 and better regulate retailers, reports Reuters.

    Following a rollback of the planned generational tobacco ban, the government has stated that it is committed to reducing smoking, though it is taking a different approach, which includes more regulation of vaping.

    “While vaping has contributed to a significant fall in our smoking rates, the rapid rise in youth vaping has been a real concern for parents, teachers and health professionals,” said Casey Costello, associate minister of health.

    “The coalition government is committed to tackling youth vaping and to continue to drive down smoking rates to achieve the smoke-free goal of less than 5 percent of the population smoking daily by 2025,” said Costello.

    The new rules will include higher fines for retailers selling to underage individuals, a review of vape retailer licensing and a ban of all disposable vapes.

  • Similar DNA Changes in Smokers and Vapers

    Similar DNA Changes in Smokers and Vapers

    Image: tonaquatic

    A new study from University College London (UCL) and the University of Innsbruck shows that e-cigarette users with limited smoking history have similar DNA changes to specific cheek cells as smokers, reports Medical Xpress.

    The study was published in Cancer Research. It analyzed epigenetic effects of tobacco and e-cigarettes on DNA methylation in more than 3,500 samples to determine the impact on cells directly exposed to tobacco (e.g., cells in the mouth) and cells that are not directly exposed to tobacco (e.g., blood cells or cervical cells).

    Data showed that epithelial cells in the mouth had substantial epigenomic changes in smokers. Similar epigenetic changes were seen in epithelial cells in the mouths of e-cigarette users who had smoked fewer than 100 tobacco cigarettes in their lifetime.

    “This is the first study to investigate the impact of smoking and vaping on different kinds of cells—rather than just blood—and we’ve also strived to consider the longer term health implications of using e-cigarettes,” said Chiara Herzog, first author of the study. 

    “We cannot say that e-cigarettes cause cancer based on our study, but we do observe e-cigarette users exhibit some similar epigenetic changes in buccal cells as smokers, and these changes are associated with future lung cancer development in smokers,” Herzog said. “Further studies will be required to investigate whether these features could be used to individually predict cancer in smokers and e-cigarette users.”

    “While the scientific consensus is that e-cigarettes are safer than smoking tobacco, we cannot assume they are completely safe to use, and it is important to explore their potential long-term risks and links to cancer,” said Herzog. “We hope this study may help form part of a wider discussion into e-cigarette usage—especially in people who have never previously smoked tobacco.”

    The study also showed that some smoking-related epigenetic changes remained more stable than others after quitting smoking, including smoking-related epigenetic changes in cervical samples.

    “The epigenome allows us, on one side, to look back,” said Martin Widschwendter, senior author of the study. “It tells us about how our body responded to a previous environmental exposure like smoking. Likewise, exploring the epigenome may also enable us to predict future health and disease. Changes that are observed in lung cancer tissue can also be measured in cheek cells from smokers who have not (yet) developed a cancer.

    “Importantly, our research points to the fact that e-cigarette users exhibit the same changes, and these devices might not be as harmless as originally thought. Long-term studies of e-cigarettes are needed. We are grateful for the support the European Commission has provided to obtain these data.”

    In response to the study, the U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) released a statement.

    “While the study data—which one leading academic has described as ‘crude’—implies a link to changes in cheek cells, which could potentially cause cancer, the study authors said their findings did not prove that e-cigarettes caused cancer,” the statement read.

    “The study authors said their findings showed that vapes ‘might not be as harmless as originally thought,’ but it is important to make clear that nobody in the vape industry ever said that vaping was harmless. There are risks from vaping, but they are tiny compared to smoking,” the UKVIA said.

    “This latest study,” the UKVIA statement said, “is also questioned by leading experts such as Peter Shields, an emeritus professor of medical oncology at Ohio State University. He states that critical pieces of information are missing and calls the smoking and vaping data that they are working from as ‘crude.’ He points to the fact that there is no biochemical verification that the vapers are actually not also smokers. He concludes that ‘researchers are still a far distance from being able to show causality, and the data looks like vapers are actually more like never smokers—implying their risk of cancer is not increasing by vaping.”

  • Sales Reach $13 Million as Season Starts

    Sales Reach $13 Million as Season Starts

    Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    Tobacco sales at Zimbabwe’s auction and contract floors has reached 1 million kg by day three of the marketing season. Farmers have earned $13 million so far, a 216 percent increase from the $4 million earned in the comparable period last year, according to The Herald.

    Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) statistics show that there has been a 167 percent increase in volume sales by day three at both auction and contract floors, from 1,555,090 kg to 4,148,403 kg.

    The average auction price is $3.15 per kilogram. Contract floors have recorded an average price of $3.11 per kilogram. The overall average price this year is $3.12 per kilogram, an 18 percent increase from the $2.63 per kilogram seen last year.

    This year, there was a 201 percent increase in total bales and a 62 percent decrease in bale rejection.

    The highest price seen on the auction floor was $4.99 per kilogram while the highest price on the contract floor was $6.50 per kilogram. The lowest price on both floors was $0.10 per kilogram.

    “The $4.99 per kilogram price ceiling has not yet been broken, and we have noticed a worrying trend where contract pricing seems not to make use of the prices determined on the auction to inform their pricing,” said George Seremwe, chairman of the Zimbabwe Tobacco Growers Association (ZTGA). “This discord needs to be addressed by having more tobacco on auction for competition.”

  • New Study on Harm Reduction Public Policy

    New Study on Harm Reduction Public Policy

    Image: alexskopje

    R Street Institute has released a new report, “Progressive Except for Nicotine: A Discussion of States’ Inconsistent Adoption of Harm Reduction Public Policy.”

    The study examined the harm reduction policy landscape across tobacco, opioids and cannabis in all 50 U.S. states. Researchers identified several important harm reduction-related policies that have varying levels of acceptance/implementation across different states or are currently in legislative flux: tobacco: state and municipal restrictions on electronic nicotine-delivery systems, also known as e-cigarettes or vapes; opioids: states’ authorization of syringe services programs, decriminalization of drug checking equipment, and presence of state-imposed restrictions on methadone that go beyond federal regulations; and cannabis: the legal status of medical and recreational adult-use cannabis markets in each state.

    Researchers then used this information to rank states as “restrictive,” “moderate” or “permissive” on harm reduction with regard to each substance. These rankings were quantitatively compared for all states, and states deemed “restrictive” on at least one substance were qualitatively examined. 

    The report found that while some states support one type of harm reduction, those same states may actively oppose another type of harm reduction. The report also showed that the five states most restrictive of reduced-risk nicotine products in tobacco harm reduction are California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island, and these states are relatively “permissive” when it comes to opioid harm reduction and cannabis use.

    The researchers have suggested that lawmakers reflect on the inconsistencies between harm reduction policies across substances and put political motivations aside to support harm reduction across all substances.

  • Baltimore Bans Nicotine at Sports Stadiums

    Baltimore Bans Nicotine at Sports Stadiums

    Credit: Matthew Tighe

    Mayor Brandon Scott of Baltimore, Maryland, signed a bill last week banning all tobacco and nicotine products in city stadiums.

    Orioles and Ravens games were already smoke-free, as required by state law. But now, all tobacco and nicotine products are banned inside the gates.

    Scott made the ban official. The ordinance banning tobacco and nicotine products extends to all stadiums and athletic facilities in Baltimore city – notably, Orioles and Ravens home games.

    Locals and visitors are reacting to the new bill, according to media reports.

    Bill Vickers from Boston supports the ban, emphasizing the importance of a family-friendly environment at the ballpark. “It’s a great idea, probably been a long time coming. It’s just you have families coming to the ballpark,” Vickers said.

    Other residents say they would prefer a compromise. “I can always understand both sides of things. It’d be nice if there was just a designated area,” Kevin Robertson of Baltimore said.