Author: Staff Writer

UKVIA Proposes Regulatory Changes
The U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) has unveiled a landmark package of recommendations to government aimed at maximizing the public health benefits of vaping and bolstering ambitions for a “Smokefree 2030.” The document, A Blueprint for Better Regulation, urges government to use its post-Brexit independence to become a world leader in harm reduction.
The U.K.’s Tobacco and Related Products Regulations (TRPR) are currently being reviewed, with a crucial consultation due to close on March 19. The resulting decisions made by government are set to shape public health and smoking cessation policy for years to come.
Former Health Minister Norman Lamb, also a former chair of Parliament’s science and technology committee, praised the recommendations.

The TRPR review offers a great opportunity to improve public health across the U.K. by tackling misinformation about vaping.
Former Health Minister Norman Lamb
“I welcome the launch of the UKVIA’s blueprint document responding to the government’s consultation—the TRPR review offers a great opportunity to improve public health across the U.K. by tackling misinformation about vaping.
“It also presents an opportunity for the industry to build on the evidence-based approach, which the government has consistently taken on vaping products, and to support smokers who want to switch to a less harmful product.”
“The current public consultation on TRPR and SPoT is an ideal opportunity to highlight how less harmful products have improved public health,” said former Labour MP Kevin Barron, who is also a former chair of Parliament’s health and social care select committee.
“The current lowest recorded smoking rates have been achieved by numerous avenues, including switching from tobacco to less harmful products. The opportunity to bring in legislation to further encourage the move to products that can satisfy an addiction using products 95 percent less harmful than burning tobacco should not be missed.”
The opportunity to bring in legislation to further encourage the move to products that can satisfy an addiction using products 95 percent less harmful than burning tobacco should not be missed.
Former Labour MP Kevin Barron
Developed by the sector’s leading businesses, the recommendations aim to help adult smokers quit while increasing vaping’s economic contribution and even addressing environmental concerns. The UKVIA blueprint, among other things, calls for:
The use of government-approved, expert health claims on products to encourage smokers to switch
Greater opportunities to engage with smokers, as current restrictions also deter those who may otherwise make the switch
The extension of certain regulations to cover additional vaping products, such as non-nicotine e-liquids, thereby supporting a highly responsible industry
Product size changes that reduce prevalence of single-use plastic
John Dunne
“The recommendations published today are the result of intense collaboration among vaping’s leading experts and entrepreneurs,” said John Dunne, director general of the UKVIA. “This is truly a landmark moment in the history of our industry, which has grown to be a genuine market disrupter and a route out of smoking for people all over the world. With the adoption of these recommendations, the U.K. could take its place as a progressive, global leader on public health.
“The government has claimed that post-Brexit regulatory independence will mean a new, and better, way of doing things. Now is the time for this pledge to become a reality. By embracing this evidence-based approach, we can empower consumers, revitalize businesses and put the ‘Smokefree 2030’ ambition within our grasp.”
March 15, 2021
Thailand Tobacco Authority Eyes Cannabis

Photo: cytis | Pixabay
The Tobacco Authority of Thailand (TOAT) is hoping that sales of cannabis and hemp extracts will help compensate for deteriorating income from tobacco production, reports the Bangkok Post.
The TOAT is drafting a ministerial regulation to give the organization the authority to grow and produce extracts from cannabis and hemp, which can be used in medicine and cosmetics, said TOAT governor Panuphol Rattanakanjanapatra.
Although the Tobacco Act stipulates TOAT can produce tobacco leaves and other plants, clarity is needed on TOAT conducting R&D on cannabis and hemp for commercial purposes.
The business value of cannabis and hemp could reach tens of billions of baht, according to Panuphol.
At present, a two-tier system is applied for excise duties levied on cigarettes. A 20 percent tax rate is applied to the retail price for packs costing up to THB60 ($1.95).
If the retail price exceeds THB60 per pack, a 40 percent tax rate is applied.
A flat tax rate of 40 percent was scheduled to be applied in October 2019, regardless of the retail price, but there has been opposition from the authority and tobacco farmers.
March 15, 2021
Zimbabwean Selling Season to Start in April

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
Zimbabwe’s tobacco marketing season kicks off April 7, reports Daily News, citing the Tobacco Industry Marketing Board (TIMB). The auction floors will officially open on that day, but contract tobacco sales will begin April 8.
Normally, the tobacco marketing season opens in February, but the coronavirus crisis could have affected the dates for this year.
Three auction floors, Boka Tobacco Floors, Premier Tobacco Auction Floors and Tobacco Sales Floor, have been licensed for 2021. The three firms would all operate from Harare only, and there will be no decentralization of auction sales. As was the case last year, some of the contracting companies would operate out-of-Harare sales points.
Tobacco growers are anticipating a bumper harvest after good rains and adequate supplies of inputs. The potential national tobacco output is currently being assessed by Agritex and TIMB with the results set to be released by the parent Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement.
According to the TIMB, 180.8 million kg valued at $452.3 million were delivered to the country’s contract and auction floors last year. Last year’s average price was $2.50 per kg.
Zimbabwe exports its tobacco mostly to China and the European Union.
Following a policy change by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, tobacco farmers are set to receive 60 percent of payment in foreign currency and the remainder in local currency. Last year, farmers were paid 50 percent of their proceeds in U.S. dollars with the other 50 percent being in Zimbabwe dollars.
The tobacco Farmers Union of Zimbabwe has warned that the retention levels still fall short of growers’ production cost.
March 15, 2021
More Liquid Makers Receive Warnings

Photo: Eugene Onischenko | Dreamstime.com
On March 12, the U.S. FDA sent warning letters to 13 firms that manufacture and sell unauthorized e-liquids. The regulatory agency advised the companies that selling products lacking a premarket authorization is illegal, and therefore, the products cannot be sold or distributed in the U.S.
According to the FDA, the firms did not submit a premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) by the Sept. 9, 2020, deadline. The recipients of the warning letters are VapinUSA, Vapor Springs, Vapor Cigs, Vegas Vapor Emporium, Vape 911, The Philosopher’s Stone, The Clean Vape, Tooters Vape Shop, Cloudchasor, Boardwalk Elixir, Dieselbycg-Hometown Vape Lounge, Blue Lab Vapors and Revolution Vapor.
“While each warning letter issued today cites specific products as examples, collectively these companies have listed a combined total of more than 75,000 products with the FDA,” the agency wrote in its statement.
Following an initial set of such warning letters announced earlier this year, the FDA has continued to issue additional warning letters for products that failed to submit a PMTA.
Per a court order, applications for premarket review for certain deemed new tobacco products on the market as of Aug. 8, 2016—including e-liquids—were required to be submitted to the FDA by Sept. 9, 2020. For companies that submitted applications by that deadline, the FDA generally intends to continue to defer enforcement for up to one year pending FDA review, unless there is a negative action taken by the FDA on the application.
March 15, 2021
Growers Welcome Increased Forex Cap

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
The Tobacco Farmers Union of Zimbabwe (TOFUZ) has praised the government for increasing the nation’s foreign currency retention cap from 50 percent to 60 percent ahead of the 2021 tobacco selling season, reports All Africa.
Growers are now able to purchase and/or supplement their foreign exchange requirements from the auction system. The union had called for a 70 percent retention cap but noted that 60 percent was still a positive level for tobacco leaf growers.
“Though we would have wanted 70 percent forex retention for farmers, we applaud the RBZ [Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe] and the Ministry of Agriculture for the policy review, which is set to benefit farmers,” a TOFUZ spokesperson said.
This will certainly see an increase in tobacco production.
TOFUZ
“This will certainly see an increase in tobacco production as farmers will increase hectare capacity. Our concern as a union is to see totally empowered tobacco farmers who can independently make decisions without conditions as the case with contract farming. Given that tobacco is the country’s largest single foreign currency earner after gold and it contributes much to our economic growth as a nation, tobacco farming should be promoted through supportive input loan facilities.”
March 12, 2021
Dutch Smoking Prevalence Down

Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive
Adult smoking prevalence rate for occasional smokers in the Netherlands was 20 percent in 2020, down from 22 percent in 2019, Statistics Netherlands revealed.
For daily smokers, the prevalence rate remained at 15 percent for 2020 and 2019. The survey also noted that 46 percent of adults said that they never smoked and that 34 percent said that they formerly smoked, figures that were also the same for 2020 and 2019.
The percentage of nonsmokers aged 18 and over who said that they have never been or were barely exposed to environmental tobacco smoke rose from 75 percent in 2019 to 79 percent in 2020.
The Dutch government aims to reduce smoking among adults to 5 percent by 2040, according to Statistics Netherlands.

March 12, 2021
Illegal Cigarette Factory Dismantled in Denmark
Police arrested 13 individuals for smuggling counterfeit cigarettes from a clandestine factory in Denmark to the United Kingdom, reports Europol.
A timely exchange of intelligence via Europol between the Danish, Dutch and Polish investigators facilitated the investigation carried out in the framework of the European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats.
On March 2, law enforcement officers dismantled an illegal cigarette factory in Vamdrup. This is the first illegal cigarette factory to be dismantled in Denmark. Police arrested 13 individuals of Polish and Ukrainian nationality and confiscated 11 million cigarettes alongside 11 tons of raw tobacco and a full production line.
Forensic analysis is still ongoing to quantify the factory’s exact production capacity, which is presumably several million cigarettes per week.
The value of the seized tobacco products on the illegal market in the United Kingdom is believed to be in the region of €13 million ($15.5 million).
The action in Denmark led to another one in the Netherlands that same week. Investigators of the Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service searched the premises of a warehouse in Ospel. Eight pallets of contraband cigarettes stored in maritime containers were seized, worth close to €1 million in the destination market.
The cigarettes produced in Denmark were shipped to the U.K. via the Netherlands.
March 12, 2021
U.K. High Court Revokes BAT Patents

Photo: Oliver Le Moal
The U.K. high court has revoked two British American Tobacco (BAT) e-cigarette patents, reports World Intellectual Property Review. In doing so, the court dismissed BAT’s claim that Philip Morris International (PMI) infringed on the patents with its IQOS tobacco-heating product line.
Justice Richard Meade on March 9 concluded that the BAT patents lack an “inventive step” over PMI’s patent.
One of the BAT patents, EP 3 398 460 B1, covers an “aerosol-generating device with housing and a cigarette” whereas the other, EP3491944, refers to a cigarette “for use with” an aerosol-generating device.
Meade argued the patents merely covered a method of getting reconstituted tobacco into a cigarette form, and all methods of which—including rolling, gathering a sheet or cutting—were limited and would be obvious to a skilled team.
Both patents were found invalid for added matter and obviousness. However, Meade also concluded that, if the patents were valid, PMI’s IQOS products would have infringed them.
The tobacco giants have been quarreling over intellectual property for several years.
In 2018, PMI filed a complaint against BAT’s heated-tobacco products in Japan. PMI alleged that some technological features of BAT’s Glo device infringed on two of PMI’s Japanese patents.
In May 2020, BAT’s R.J. Reynolds subsidiary filed a lawsuit against PMI in the U.S. and Germany claiming that the IQOS tobacco-heating technology infringed patents for Reynolds’ Vuse vaping system.
In June 2020, PMI filed counterclaims, arguing that R.J. Reynolds’ vapor products infringed multiple patents owned by PMI and its U.S. partners, Altria Client Services and Philip Morris USA.
The patents are also currently in dispute in Munich.
March 11, 2021
White Cloud Ends Online Sales Due to Mail Ban

Photo: White Cloud Electronic Cigarettes
White Cloud Electronic Cigarettes, a stalwart in the vaping industry, will end all online sales for U.S. customers after the U.S. Postal Service stops shipping e-cigarettes on March 26. In a post on its Facebook page, the vapor company said that it will continue to fill international orders and will post a list of retail stores that will still carry White Cloud products in the U.S.
“This was not a decision we wanted to make, especially after putting so much effort into submitting our PMTAs to the FDA and ensuring our products never reached the hands of minors,” the company wrote on Facebook. “But, after spending the last couple of months searching for a solution to the vape mail ban, we’ve reached the end of all possible options, and there is simply nothing we can do to continue shipping domestically.
This was not a decision we wanted to make, especially after putting so much effort into submitting our PMTAs to the FDA.
White Cloud Electronic Cigarettes
White Cloud asked vapor industry advocates to send a message to Congress and support the Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association (CASAA) in its efforts to protect consumers’ right to access reduced harm alternatives. CASAA has organized a campaign to fight the U.S. mail ban.
White Cloud is not the first vapor company to suffer from the shipping ban. In March, Logic said it would end online sales of its e-cigarettes to U.S. customers. Securience announced a merger with VapinDirect to better cope with the shipping restrictions. Lizard Juice e-liquids also said it would stop mailing products to consumers.
March 11, 2021
Minton: Mail Ban Will Benefit Cigarettes
The U.S. Postal Service’s pending ban on shipping e-cigarettes, scheduled to take effect at the end of March, will likely drive vapers back to cigarettes, according to Michelle Minton, a senior fellow specializing in consumer policy for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free-market public policy organization based in Washington, D.C.

The real goal is to hurt the legal vaping industry.

Michelle Minton
Writing in the National Review, Minton cautioned against the unintended consequences of the measure. “Supporters of the law seem to think that if they force adults to quit vaping, they will simply quit using nicotine altogether. They’re dead wrong,” she wrote.
Minton also noted that e-cigarette manufacturers cannot simply switch to private carriers, such as FedEx or UPS, because these companies don’t deliver to all addresses, particularly in rural areas. “Private carriers actually rely on USPS to make ‘last mile’ deliveries,” she wrote.
Minton said that there are less extreme approaches to stop underage consumers from illegally purchasing nicotine products online, including ID checks on delivery. But reducing underage access is not the purpose of the law, she suggested. “The real goal is to hurt the legal vaping industry.”
March 11, 2021