Authorities are satisfied with Elf Bar’s response to the controversy over the company’s products that did not meet legal requirements, reports ECigIntelligence, and there was no need for a mandatory recall.
Elf Bar worked quickly to recall the product with retailers, and the company has confirmed that it was not subject to any formal recall or withdrawal notice issued by regulators.
The products in question cannot be legally sold, however.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt raised the U.K. tobacco duty in his spring budget, reports The Independent. A 20-pack of cigarettes will now cost more than £14 ($16.86).
The cigarette tax increased by 10.1 percent in line with the retail price index plus an additional 2 percent.
Hand-rolling tobacco will increase by 10.1 percent plus an additional 6 percent.
Smokers-rights activists were aghast.
“Punishing smokers for their habit during a cost-of-living crisis is heartless and cruel,” said Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ campaign group Forest. “It discriminates against poorer smokers and will drive many more consumers to the black market.
“This is bad news for legitimate, law-abiding retailers and bad news for the Treasury, which could lose billions of pounds in revenue if more smokers buy their tobacco from illicit traders.”
The last cigarette price increase was in October 2021.
The price increase is part of the effort to make the U.K. smoke-free by 2030.
Alcohol taxes are also set to increase with inflation.
Three experts from King’s College London and the public health charity Action on Smoking and Health recently addressed health professionals, seeking to dispel what they describe as “myths about e-cigarettes and vaping,” according to the Independent European Vaping Alliance (IEVA).
“E-cigarettes (vapes) are currently the most popular aid used to quit smoking in England and are used by around 4.3 million adults in Great Britain, the majority of whom are ex-smokers,” the authors stated, emphasizing that “… vaping poses only a small fraction of the health risks of smoking and that smokers should be encouraged to use vaping products … for stopping.” The experts fear that myths about vaping “risk undermining the use of these products as cessation aids.”
“The facts about harm reduction are on the table,” said Dustin Dahlmann, president of the IEVA. “If many more smokers who cannot quit by other means were to switch to e-cigarettes, millions of people worldwide could live better and longer lives. Health policy in the U.K. should be a shining example to all policymakers.”
A new bill introduced in the Hawaii Senate would make it illegal for anyone born after 2002 to possess, purchase or use tobacco or vaping products.
S.B. 148 would change the state’s tobacco rules to deny anyone born after Jan. 1, 2003, from purchasing and consuming these products.
Those caught selling or providing tobacco or vaping products to consumers covered by the law would be subject to a $500 fine for a first offense and a fine of between $500 and $2,000 for any offense after that.
In addition, anyone born after 2002 caught violating the law as a consumer would be subject to a $10 fine for the first offense, a $50 fine for a subsequent offense, or the option to do between 48 hours and 72 hours of community service.
If passed, the change would take effect on Jan. 1, 2024. S.B. 148 currently has six sponsors.
The concept of a generational sales ban was introduced in New Zealand in 2021 and was approved by that country’s government late last year. It has also been proposed in Malaysia, California and Nevada.
In 2015, Hawaii became the first U.S. state to increase the minimum age to purchase tobacco products to 21 years old, which has since become the federal standard.
In 2019, Hawaiian lawmakers proposed a bill that would slowly increase the age to purchase tobacco products, starting with raising the minimum age for buying cigarettes from 21 to 30 in 2020.
By 2022, no one under 50 would have been able to buy cigarettes.
Charlotte’s Web Holdings, a supplier of cannabidiol (CBD) hemp extract wellness products, has appointed Jonathan P. Atwood to the company’s board of directors, according to PR Newswire. Atwood is currently the group head of business communications for BAT and is responsible for BAT’s external, internal and corporate brand communications. Atwood was designated as a board nominee by BAT in connection with its November purchase of convertible debenture in Charlotte’s Web.
Atwood held senior management positions at Unilever, most recently leading global supply chain communications. Prior to that, he led sustainability and corporate communications for Unilever North America. Atwood is an advocate of sustainability and has worked closely with B Corps companies.
Charlotte’s Web is the only publicly traded CBD B Corp-certified company.
“We welcome Jonathan as a valuable addition to the board where he can support our international and sustainability ambitions. We look forward to working closely together on our mutually shared interests,” said John Held, chairman of the board of Charlotte’s Web.
Atwood’s appointment brings the total number of directors on the Charlotte’s Web board to six.
Major League Baseball (MLB) players are largely switching from smokeless tobacco products to Zyn nicotine pouches, reports Vaping360.
In 2016, a rule came into effect banning new MLB players from using tobacco products, and many stadiums followed in banning tobacco product use for both viewers and players. Veteran players were allowed to continue using tobacco products, though they had to leave them in the locker room; however, stadiums that banned the products did not offer an exception for players.
Many players have since switched to the tobacco-free Zyn nicotine pouches. Zyn is manufactured by Swedish Match, which was recently bought by Philip Morris International for $16 billion and holds 64.9 percent of the U.S. nicotine pouch volume as of the second quarter of 2022.
Zyn and other nicotine pouches do not fall under the tobacco product rules because they contain no tobacco, and there are no rules against MLB athletes using nicotine products.
The U.S. Congress wants to end a legislative provision that allows manufacturers to claim federal tax deductions for the cost of advertising for e-cigarettes and tobacco products. That includes the ads they buy on the radio.
Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Richard Blumenthal have reintroduced the No Tax Subsidies for E-Cigarette and Tobacco Ads Act (S. 464), which if passed would not make the direct-to-consumer ads illegal but would end the ability for companies to take tax deductions for advertising expenses related to vaping and other tobacco products, according to Insider Radio.
“Tax breaks for tobacco and e-cigarette giants allow the industry to profit from its manipulative marketing,” Blumenthal said. “Our legislation ends these write-offs to protect kids and other consumers from being lured into lifetimes of addiction.”
Radio and television advertising for traditional tobacco products has been banned under federal law since January 1971, and certain other forms of tobacco advertising are restricted under the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. However, none of these restrictions apply to e-cigarettes.
In an update, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it has made determinations on more than 99 percent of the nearly 26 million deemed products for which applications were submitted. To date, the agency has authorized 23 new e-cigarette products.
This includes determination on applications for nearly 6.7 million products received by the Sept. 9, 2020, deadline, more than 18 million products received after the Sept. 9 deadline, and applications for nearly 1 million nontobacco nicotine products submitted by May 14, 2022, in accordance with the new federal law passed in April 2022.
Under a federal court order, manufacturers of deemed new tobacco products that were on the market as of the deeming rule’s effective date (Aug. 8, 2016) were required to submit premarket review applications by Sept. 9, 2020.
On Feb. 21, 2023, the FDA issued a refuse-to-accept (RTA) letter to one applicant notifying the company that their premarket tobacco product applications, which are associated with approximately 17 million individual tobacco products, do not meet the acceptance requirements outlined in the FDA’s regulations. The applications were for a grouped submission of e-liquids in varying size, nicotine strength and flavor combinations, each of which was treated as an individual product application according to existing premarket review processes.
During the acceptance phase of application review, the FDA reviews applications to ensure they meet a minimum threshold for acceptability for FDA scientific review. If required contents for acceptance are missing, the FDA refuses to accept the application. This company was issued an RTA letter because the company’s applications for these products lacked required environmental assessments. The company may submit a new application for these products at any time; however, the products may not be marketed unless the FDA reviews the applications and determines that marketing of the products is appropriate for the protection of the public health.
The latest updates on actions taken on these applications can be viewed on the FDA’s tobacco products marketing orders page.
E-cigarette use among teens in Vietnam is rising, reports The Star. In 2022, 3.5 percent of 13 year-olds to 15 year-olds were reported to use e-cigarettes compared to 2.6 percent in 2019.
Vietnam is ranked third among Southeast Asian countries with the highest smoking prevalence, behind Indonesia and the Philippines.
Low cost has been cited as a motivator; Angela Pratt, a World Health Organization representative, said that prices are so low they do not create a barrier for teens starting to smoke. Pratt suggested raising taxes to help curb smoking.
Vietnam’s tobacco tax rate is 35.6 percent of retail price compared to the world average of 56 percent and the WHO’s recommended 70 percent.
The Ministry of Finance is seeking a public consensus to raise the special consumption tax on tobacco, beer, alcohol and sweetened drinks.
Cuban tobacco farmers are working to recover after Hurricane Ian hit the region six months ago, destroying 80 percent of the country’s tobacco infrastructure, reports AP.
When Hurricane Ian his last September, it destroyed almost everything: “Not a single tobacco house was left standing,” said Hirochi Robaina, one of the most recognized tobacco producers in Cuba. “There were no warehouses; there was no tree left. Everything broke, and at that moment, I did not believe it was possible to plant.”
After the tragedy, Robaina was resigned to planting beans and vegetables instead of tobacco, but he changed his mind “to maintain the family tradition of a century,” and he was able to plant and grow about 2 hectares, which accounts for about 30 percent of what he had in 2022.
Private tobacco producers have been meeting with Cuban authorities since the hurricane to secure commitments for the state to help settle debts and pay for materials to rebuild tobacco drying houses, according to AP. Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic as well as other producers have also stepped in to help Cuba recuperate.
The planned area for tobacco planting this year is down to 9,500 ha from an initial plan of 15,000 ha, according to Enrique Blanco, agricultural director of Tabacuba. Under fabric cover, 2,100 ha of premium leaf will be grown, which Cuba hopes to use to cover export demand.