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  • Stick Warnings Take Effect in Canada

    Stick Warnings Take Effect in Canada

    Image: Health Canada

    A new rule requiring warning labels on individual cigarettes in Canada takes effect today, reports The Canadian Press.

    The move, announced earlier this year, makes Canada the first country to take that step to deter smoking.

    Under the new law, cigarette manufacturers will be required to print messages in English and French on the paper around the filter, warning smokers about the risk of damage to organs, impotence and leukemia, among other diseases.

    Manufacturers have until the end of July 2024 to ensure the warnings are on all king-size cigarettes sold, followed by regular-size cigarettes and little cigars with tipping paper and tubes by the end of April 2025.

    Rob Cunningham, a senior policy analyst at the Canadian Cancer Society, believes the labels will dissuade teens leaning toward taking up the habit and encourage nicotine-dependent adults to quit.

    Dozens of studies in Canada and elsewhere show the effectiveness of printing warnings on each cigarette, he noted.

    Tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship are banned in Canada, with warnings on cigarette packs dating back to 1972.

    In 2001, Canada became the first country to require tobacco companies to print pictorial warnings on the outside of cigarette packages and include inserts with health-promoting messages.

    Federal rules ban packaging that includes brand colors or trademarks.

    The tobacco industry has warned against unintended consequences. The National Coalition Against Contraband Tobacco, which is funded by Canada’s leading cigarette manufacturers, warned in June that cheaper, colorful black-market packs free of health warnings attract young smokers and funnel more money to organized crime.

    While acknowledging that big tax hikes or sales bans would indeed benefit the black market, Cunningham believes that gradual price boosts and more strident messaging can bring down smoking rates.

    “The only real reason that they can oppose something is because it’s going to have a reduction in sales— and that is exactly the point,” he said of the manufacturers.

  • UKVIA Announces Annual Forum

    UKVIA Announces Annual Forum

    Photo: UKVIA

    The U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) annual Forum and Industry Recognition Awards Dinner will take place at the QEII Centre in London on Nov. 10, 2023.

    Under the theme, “Accelerating Action to Secure a World Without Smoking,” the event will feature sessions focusing on harm reduction, illicit trade and sustainability, among other topics.

    Secretary General of the China Electronic Chamber of Commerce Ao Weinuo will be giving a keynote presentation on China’s commitment to change. Also included on the conference agenda is a dialogue on the upcoming general election, which will explore how the U.K. industry should prepare for a possible change in government and will ask how to retain the existing “parliamentary momentum” around vaping.

    “We have, and I’m confident will continue to, make significant strides in putting forward the harm reduction benefits of vaping on the political front, but it’s no secret the landscape could soon shift and we need to be prepared,” said UKVIA Director-General John Dunne in a statement.

    Following the forum, the UKVIA will host its  annual Industry Recognition Awards dinner.

    According to Dunne, the awards are an opportunity to recognize the “outstanding contributions and achievements” of individuals and organizations both inside and outside the industry.

    Last year, 500 delegates and guests attended the UKVIA Forum and Awards. This year’s event is expected to attract an equally high number of visitors.

  • More People Protected by Policies: Report

    More People Protected by Policies: Report

    Photo: Maksym Yemelyanov

    Seven out of 10 people worldwide are now protected by at least one “best practice” tobacco control policy—five times more than in 2007, according to a new World Health Organization report supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

    Global smoking rates have fallen over the past 15 years, a development that the WHO attributes in part to its MPOWER tobacco control measures. Without this decline there would be an estimated 300 million more smokers in the world today, according to the global health body.

    Almost 40 percent of countries have completely banned smoking from public indoor places. The report rates country progress in tobacco control and shows that two more countries, Mauritius and the Netherlands, have achieved best-practice level in all MPOWER measures, a feat that only Brazil and Türkiye had accomplished until now.

    “These data show that slowly but surely, more and more people are being protected from the harms of tobacco by WHO’s evidence-based best-practice policies,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a statement. “I congratulate Mauritius on becoming the first country in Africa, and the Netherlands on becoming the first in the European Union to implement the full package of WHO tobacco control policies at the highest level. WHO stands ready to support all countries to follow their example and protect their people from this deadly scourge.”

    “While smoking rates have been going down, tobacco is still the leading cause of preventable death in the world – largely due to relentless marketing campaigns by the tobacco industry,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, WHO global ambassador for noncommunicable diseases and injuries and founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies. “As this report shows, our work is making a big difference, but much more remains to be done. By helping more countries implement smart policies, backed by public opinion and science, we’ll be able to improve public health and save millions of more lives.”

  • Cambodia to Implement Tobacco VAT

    Cambodia to Implement Tobacco VAT

    Photo: mehaniq41

    Companies importing and distributing cigarettes in Cambodia will have to apply value-added tax to these products effective Aug. 1, reports  The Phnom Penh Post.

    The procedure mirrors the application of VAT on other taxed commodities, with a flat rate of 10 percent on all cigarette supplies in Cambodia.

    VAT paid at the point of importation or domestic purchase may be claimed as an income tax credit, deductible with output tax, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

    Furthermore, enterprises importing cigarettes for export purposes will be permitted to pay a one-off value-added fee at the point of importation.

    The Cambodia Movement for Health (CMH) lauded the Ministry of Economy’s guidance as a clear indicator of the government’s commitment to combat the health risks associated with cigarettes and tobacco products.

    Nonetheless, CMH Executive Director Mom Kong urged the government to extend the VAT to include non-cigarette tobacco products, as well.  

    Citing research by the World Health Organization, Kong stated that imposing an additional tax of KHR500 ($0.125) per pack of cigarettes could increase market prices by 15 percent. This, in turn, could potentially reduce the number of smokers by 30,000 in the next year, and prevent 10,000 premature deaths over the next decade or so.

  • Kazakhstan to Ban Vapes

    Kazakhstan to Ban Vapes

    Photo: natatravel

    Lawmakers in Kazakhstan voted on July 29 to ban the sale, import, export and production of e-cigarettes and liquids, reports Atlas News.

    “The harm of vapes is undeniable,” said Deputy Nurgul Tau. “That is why the Ministry of Health has been sharply raising the issue of introducing a ban on the circulation of vapes since 2021. In my request, I proposed a complete ban on the sale of vapes.”

    The legislation has been in the works since May 10 following a ban of the use of e-cigarettes in public spaces. The ban was triggered by concern about increased vaping among minors.

  • Korean Court Overturns PM Tax Refund

    Korean Court Overturns PM Tax Refund

    Photo: mnimage

    The Supreme Court of Korea has overturned a ruling that awarded Philip Morris Korea a tax refund, reports Business Korea. The case has now been sent back to the Suwon High Court.

    The dispute stems from 2014, when fiscal authorities announced new cigarette taxes that caused the price of pack of cigarettes to increase from KRW2,500 ($1.95) to KRW4,500 in January 2015.

    The National Tax Service (NTS) argued that Philip Morris Korea had sold cigarettes stored in purpose-build warehouses to wholesalers at an inflated price after January 2015, but had manipulated the sale to appear earlier in order to evade the additional special consumption tax that followed the price increase.

    When the NTS demanded tax payments of KRW99.7 billion, Philip Morris Korea challenged the decision, first the Tax Tribunal and then in court.

    The lower court accepted the company’s claim that the cigarettes in question were shipped to wholesalers in 2014, before the special consumption tax was applied.

    However, the Supreme Court viewed Philip Morris Korea’s temporary warehouses as a stopgap measure intended to accumulate as much inventory as possible before the price increase, in order to profit from the price differential later on.

    “Even if the computer system shows that the cigarettes were sold in advance before the tax increase, the special consumption tax should be levied based on Jan. 1, 2015, when the cigarettes actually moved from the temporary warehouses to the wholesalers,” the court said in its ruling.

  • A Growing Household

    A Growing Household

    Photos: Annick Vernimmen

    The Vandermarliere Family of Cigars is expanding.

    By Stefanie Rossel

    Cigars are a “gourmet” niche within the tobacco industry, but in the mass market cigar segment, sales keep growing. According to Statista, the global cigar revenues segment will amount to $22.43 billion this year, and the market is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 4.28 percent between 2023 and 2027.

    With a revenue of $12.7 billion in 2023, the U.S. is the world’s largest market for cigars, followed by the U.K., China, Germany and Italy. One reason for the recent growth, Statista analysts say, is the fact that cigars have started gaining popularity among younger adult consumers in many countries, reversing a decades-long downward trend.

    One cigar company that has been growing in line with global market development is VCF of Zwevegem, Belgium. Founded in 1926, the family-owned business has a long tradition as a manufacturer of high-quality cigars and cigarillos. In the 1970s, VCF’s predecessor became the owner of the J. Cortes brand through the acquisition of the Belgian cigar manufacturers Neos Cigar. Chairman Guido Vandermarliere reinvented the brand, with a characteristic deep-blue packaging and select tobacco varieties.

    For many years, the company traded under the name J. Cortes, which turned the firm into a global player in the 1980s. In 2016, it took over U.S.-based Oliva Cigar Co., a family-run manufacturer of hand-rolled cigars with whom the Vandermarliere family had long-standing ties. It then brought J. Cortes and Oliva Cigars together under the umbrella of VCF—the Vandermarliere Family of Cigars.

    Today, Oliva Cigars is the parent company for all of VCF’s handmade cigars whereas J. Cortes is the overarching brand for all of the company’s machine-made products. The takeover of Oliva Cigars turned the United States into VCF’s most important market overnight. VCF now caters to more than 85 markets with both handmade and factory-made cigars.

    “Historically, France has been very important for our family, and the U.S. for the Oliva family,” says VCF CEO Fred Vandermarliere, who leads the company in the third generation. “When looking to Europe, we are strong where we have our own sales teams. This is the case in the Benelux, France, Spain, Germany and Italy.”

    Growing the Business

    VCF grows its own tobaccos to help guarantee a consistent flavor and quality.

    VCF has been expanding its sales and distribution networks in the latter two countries.

    In July 2022, VCF acquired two German cigar companies, Woermann Cigars and Wolfertz—transactions that set the stage for VCF to become one of the leading premium cigar distributors in Germany, which is one of the largest markets for non-Cuban cigars outside the U.S. In addition to selling its own brands, Woermann is also a distributor. Wolfertz, too, is a leading cigar distributor in Germany; the company has been distributing Oliva Cigars since 2010. VCF’s German cigar business, which was operated by four different German distributors before, was transferred to the new organization in January 2023.

    In June 2023, VCF announced a partnership with Cuban American cigar manufacturer EPC, under which VCF will start distributing EPC cigars in Italy.

    “In Italy, we only cover the sales part,” explains Vandermarliere. “Since the early 2000s, we have been investing in a local sales team. Germany is a different story. It’s a big cigar country, and there is no real central distribution. Entering the market there was always rather difficult, so we never really put much effort into it. That changed since Oliva and Olifant joined the family. Suddenly, we had a stronger portfolio and more leverage. It opened our mind to think about alternative solutions. We talked to all our partners, and finally Woermann and Wolfertz decided to join our family, making us stronger to survive the heavy legislation that was coming to us. Concerning sales, we are strongly convinced that keeping focus is important for the company and the sales team. Consistently hitting the same nail over and over again is in my opinion the real key to success, even though it’s not always fun.”

    New Processing Centers

    The takeover of Oliva Cigars turned the United States into VCF’s most important market overnight.

    Regarding its production facilities, VCF hasn’t been idle either. The company, which sources its tobaccos from all over the world, works in three locations: In Sri Lanka, it runs a tobacco processing factory, to which it sends all leaf tobaccos. Once processed, the leaves are sent back to Europe and made into cigars at VCF’s Belgian manufacturing plant in Handzame. Zwevegem is the company’s logistics center, where most of its cigars are packed, stamped for tax purposes and eventually distributed all over the globe.

    In the past two years, VCF’s manufacturing focus has been on hand-rolled cigars. The company invested millions of U.S. dollars in two state-of-the-art processing centers in Nicaragua for its Oliva Cigars division. Las Llantas in Condega and Las Mesitas in Esteli, situated about 40 km apart in the northwest of the central American country, became operational in December 2021 and 2022, respectively.

    The idea behind the ventures was to be able to closely monitor every step of the production so that soil, tobacco and handling reinforce each other to create a first-class product for cigar aficionados. For the same reason, VCF has also purchased farms in Nicaragua and is now growing its own tobaccos.

    “We are strong believers that’s it’s essential,” says Vandermarliere. “If you want to produce a premium cigar, it is necessary to control every part of the process. Having your own fields and growing your own tobaccos are a few of the steps that guarantee a consistent flavor and quality for now and for the future. The fields also provide a certainty of supply and have an ecological benefit. It enables you to test new seeds, new variations, working with less pesticides and water, etc. But this doesn’t exclude the collaboration with local farmers; it enforces it. We start to gain knowledge in our own fields and are then helping the independent farmers as much as possible to follow our tests when they are successful.”

    The new facilities have jointly created jobs for 1,400 local workers. The project has also boosted the local community, an important consideration in the company’s philosophy. In addition to creating the best possible working conditions for its employees, VCF has started a number of initiatives in Nicaragua, such as setting up a preschool with the Oliva Helping Hands Foundation. “Besides that, we have been doing charity for many years and all over the planet, with a focus on youth and the next generation,” says Vandermarliere. “We want people to have a chance at a better life, and it all starts with education. We have supported mobile schools in Sri Lanka and Nicaragua. There’s also the Procigar Initiative, which provides better housing for the local communities that we support every year.”

    Smaller Carbon Footprint

    On the other side of the Atlantic, VCF has reintroduced tobacco farming in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. It’s another move to support the community; with its initiative, VCF hopes to revive knowledge about tobacco cultivation and the seed species that promote biodiversity in the region. But it also contributes to more sustainable production, says Vandermarliere. The main reason, he says, is to shorten the supply chain. “It is true that the crops are quite small and the Belgian soil does not grow every kind of tobacco,” says Vandermarliere. “The leaves have a specific flavor, but blended with other tobacco, you can definitely use them. Moreover, it helps us to secure our stock.” 

    Sustainability plays an essential role in the company’s strategy. In 2022, VCF received its first annual certificate from Voka, Flanders’ chamber of commerce and industry, for having eliminated 100 tons of plastic and 600,000 cardboard outer packagings from its production chain. The company also analyzed its mobility and has started switching to hybrid and electric cars. The measures were only the first in a series; in 2021, VCF signed a sustainability charter and, in consultation with Voka, set itself 20 sustainable action targets linked to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals—all of which it achieved.

    “Sustainability has always been very important to us, even long before it became a marketing asset,” says Vandermarliere. “Everything we do, we do for the next generation(s), so there is no other way than the sustainable way. Our further plan is to make every layer of the business sustainable. It is on top of our agenda because we want people to enjoy our cigars 100 years from now. Sustainability is not only about land but also about people and the market.”

    The new plant in Nicaragua, according to Vandermarliere, is a great example of the company’s vision on sustainability: “First of all, it has a small ecological footprint. Secondly, the working conditions for our people are great. And finally, it’s such a beautiful building, which hopefully helps to ensure the lifespan of the building.”

    With more than 7,500 employees worldwide, VCF manufactures more than 450 million cigars annually. Vandermaliere says he is not expecting radical growth of the cigar market, as the premium cigar market has always been stable. His company, he adds, is a family that sells relaxation. Fittingly, Vandermarliere is similarly relaxed about the future: “In all our history, we never planned any of the great milestones. Things happen as they do, and things seem to cross our path very naturally. This is part of our long-term vision to survive. If we find families with a similar philosophy and values to whom we can bring added value and vice versa, we will consider collaborating. Indeed, a lot happened in the last five years, but it is equally possible that nothing will change in the next five years.”

    Stefanie Rossel is Tobacco Reporter’s editorial contributor. An experienced trade journalist, she combines sharp reporting skills with in-depth knowledge of the tobacco and vapor industries. Prior to joining Tobacco Reporter, Stefanie was editor-in-chief at Tobacco Journal International, where she worked for a decade. Fluent in English, German and French, Stefanie covers tobacco news around the world. She is based in Germany.
  • Correcting The Record

    Correcting The Record

    Photo: Yeti Studio

    Targeting tobacco risk communications

    By Cheryl Olson

    On August 22, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products will take live comments from the public to help develop its five-year strategic plan. One of the strategic goal areas involves improving public health via knowledge: “timely, clear and accessible health communications and education to diverse public audiences.” Along with discouraging youth initiation, the CTP wants to “encourage cessation and to inform adults who smoke about the relative risks of tobacco products.”

    This is welcome news. Misinformation is killing people. For example, U.S. cigarette users who believe nicotine is harmful to health are less likely to try nicotine-replacement therapies (NRTs) or e-cigarettes to help them quit and (no surprise) are less likely to quit successfully.

    “If someone believes that using reduced-risk products is just as bad as smoking, why bother switching?” says Jeffrey S. Smith, a senior fellow in harm reduction at R Street Institute in Washington, D.C.

    Let’s help the CTP get rolling. What tobacco-related misconceptions deserve immediate attention? And which groups are in particularly dire need of lifesaving actionable knowledge due to persistently high smoking rates and low quit rates? I asked several colleagues for their nominations.

    Dangerous Misinformation

    Confusion about tobacco product relative risks is a huge concern. Clifford Douglas, who directs the Tobacco Research Network at the University of Michigan, alerted me to an article he and six distinguished experts wrote recently for the journal Addiction. It responds to the U.S. Surgeon General, who called stopping the spread of trust-destroying health misinformation “a moral and civic imperative.” The article targets two huge myths about e-cigarette risks that federal authorities unfortunately helped promote and failed to correct.

    First is misinformation about e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury (EVALI), which turned out to be linked instead to vaping illicit THC products. The authors contrast the CDC’s approach to EVALI to its handling of food-related illness outbreaks. With lettuce-linked listeria, authorities are quick to share brands, dates and locations of concern, which products are probably safe and when to stop worrying. That hasn’t happened with EVALI. Not even the name has been corrected, perpetuating confusion among researchers, clinicians and the public.

    The second myth is the persistent insistence that youth e-cigarette use is a gateway to smoking. Not only is evidence lacking for a causal link, but studies support the reverse: that vaping reduces youth smoking rates. This information has not been shared by health authorities.

    “I’ve heard researchers tell me that we still don’t know the relative harm of e-cigarettes compared to smoking,” says Bethea (Annie) Kleykamp, assistant professor in psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. “I’ve seen [healthcare] providers very nervous about talking about harm reduction at all. I don’t know if that’s because they’re misinformed or they’re reading information that is different from what I’m reading.”

    Smith, a brain researcher with deep experience in both academia and industry, shares these concerns. “I could understand this error if it was coming from nonscientists,” he says. “But it is in the messaging from academics, policymakers and national health organizations.”

    He is frustrated by the way the link between smoking and nicotine is used to tar all reduced-risk products. “If cigarettes contain nicotine, then any nicotine-containing product must be equally bad,” is how he sums up that mistaken theme.

    As a neuroscientist, Smith sees an additional overlooked benefit from correcting misperceptions of nicotine. “The potential of nicotine to improve health in nonsmokers has really lagged behind due to its association to smoking,” he says. If nicotine could be destigmatized, research may lead to treatments for traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer’s disease and age-related memory loss.

    The Greatest Need

    “Diverse public audiences” who smoke and die at unacceptably high rates should get top priority attention from the FDA. These include people in custody and persons with serious mental illnesses.

    At the University of Maryland, Kleykamp works with a long-established Baltimore addiction clinic. Smoking rates are at 70 percent or higher among people with opioid use disorder (OUD).

    “A little over half of people in addiction treatment will actually die of tobacco-related disease, not other addictions,” she says. People with OUD seldom quit smoking with prescription medicines or NRTs. Preliminary evidence suggests that e-cigarettes may be a more acceptable substitute.

    Kleykamp notes that addiction professionals typically focus on immediate risks: stabilizing patients and making sure they don’t overdose. And for younger patients who smoke, the biggest tobacco dangers are decades down the line. But the pattern is changing.

    “A lot of patients in opioid treatment are aging,” Kleykamp notes. “In our clinic, over 50 percent are over 55 and above. So tobacco harm reduction is becoming equally urgent.”

    Kleykamp’s other research focus is on longtime adult cigarette users. Among Americans over age 65 who smoke, quit rates have been stagnant since the turn of the century.

    “Older adults who smoke are the least informed on relative harms and more likely to think that nicotine is a cause of cancer,” says Kleykamp. “Yet they are the most likely to get the cancer and heart disease.”

    There is little research on how to change the minds and behaviors of longtime smokers. Kleykamp is working to fill that gap. She’s preparing to publish research based on the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health study data from adults aged 55-plus who have smoked for decades. In this sample, more people had tried e-cigarettes than had tried NRT. Based on such findings, Kleykamp speculates that longtime smokers “don’t want to use these medicines. They want something that’s more the look and feel of a cigarette.”

    “It seems to me that if you smoke that long and have difficulty quitting and don’t want to quit, then a product that replaces the nicotine and is pleasurable is your best hope,” she says.

    Wanted: Consistency and Trust

    From studies and expert opinions, one message is clear: We need consistent, clear messaging on the relative risk of smoking. Kleykamp thinks that the FDA is a trusted source of information for researchers and healthcare providers. She would like to see educational interventions geared toward providers on the basics: nicotine’s non-role in cancer, and the tobacco product continuum of risk.

    For the larger public, the FDA may need to work through other avenues. Surveys suggest that many Americans, and particularly people who smoke, don’t trust information from the FDA or the Centers for Disease Control.

    “Aging and tobacco use is correlated with being not white and low socioeconomic status, so you also have a correlation with historic mistrust of providers,” Kleykamp says. “An interaction with a clinician that they trust could help. Maybe in the context of a relationship that’s already been built.”

    Smith also advocates one-to-one education. “I think the medical and public health community could be the source of credible information, but on the local level, not large and expensive national campaigns,” he says. “I feel that there is mistrust everywhere. And without personal connection, it will be hard to drive change.”

    Smith would like to see this consistent message coming from all sources: “Combustion is the problem, not nicotine. Stop smoking—through any means, quit or switch—and your health will improve.”

    Finally, he calls for more communication among researchers. “I would argue today that regardless of source—academic, regulatory or industry—the only way to solve the health problems that exist around smoking is to listen, argue, discuss, agree and disagree as a single scientific community,” says Smith. “Science is what will drive change.”

    Cheryl K. Olson is a California-based public health researcher who specializes in behavioral health issues and consults on tobacco product behaviors via McKinney Regulatory Science Advisors. She spent 15 years on the faculty of Harvard Medical School.
  • Novelties for Novel Products

    Novelties for Novel Products

    Photo: Cerulean

    Cerulean has expanded its range of next-generation nicotine product testing equipment.

    By Stefanie Rossel

    As the nicotine industry and its regulators continue to focus on novel nicotine products, it is no surprise that reduced-risk product testing receives a lot of attention in instrumentation suppliers’ R&D departments.

    “We are still in many ways ignorant of the impact of the aerosol from vapes and heated-tobacco products (HTPs) on respiratory systems, especially when the aerosols are laced with flavors that are safe for ingestion but not necessarily so when dosed to the lung,” explains Ian Tindall, head of innovation and marketing at Cerulean, a U.K.-based supplier of precision test and measurement equipment that belongs to the Coesia group. “This sort of work is needed for regulatory submissions for sure. It is also prudent to be certain that changes in formulation have no unforeseen consequences.” 

    Cerulean has been developing testing equipment for HTPs and e-cigarettes, cannabis vaping and modern oral nicotine recently. For HTPs, Cerulean has a comprehensive suite of products that is either already available or will be released this year. Tindall says Cerulean has launched a couple of new machines specifically for toxicological testing of HTPs this year. “One is a budget model—the CETI5 that produces a constant aerosol from HTPs and includes pre-activation options for HTPs plus puff control, angled use, button pressing and so on,” he says. “Unusually it uses a five-puff engine configuration, which removes the necessity for moving valves and items under test. We think of this as an entry model to the world of aerosol generation for toxicology studies.”

    “CETI” stands for Cerulean E-Cigarette Testing Instrument and is the name of a whole range of products that can be used not only to test HTPs but also to assess e-cigarettes and cannabis vape products. The CETI5’s continuous exhaust is created by synchronizing the puff engines to sequentially exhaust and generate a constant flow of aerosol—a feature highly desirable for toxicological exposure studies. Users can program a puffing routine to establish deliveries from various e-cigarette, cannabis vape and HTP devices. The angled vaping option is meant to mimic human use. In line with recommended regimes for HTPs and vape products, the CETI5’s regimes can be configured for different puff volumes, puff duration and puff interval.

    HTP Assessment

    The CETI CF, meanwhile, features a more conventional rotary-type setup with a moving valve. According to Tindall, it is considerably more sophisticated in terms of the analytical options available, including impingers and electrostatic precipitator traps as well as air-liquid interface exposure systems. “The software is more flexible with a full traceability package, which is quite important for regulatory submissions.”

    The CETI CF is a continuous-flow, five-channel vaping machine that complies with ISO20768:2018. It is designed to run as a continuous aerosol generation device through the use of the dual piston pump situated at the heart of the machine. The pump, which can pull puff volumes of 35 mL to 150 mL, switches between inlet and outlet, creating a continuous aerosol that can be delivered to any target system required. The glass construction of the dual pump and its ease of removal allows for thorough cleaning, thereby minimizing cross-contamination between runs. The CETI CF comes with a fully capable interface that is simple to use, includes security features and can be interfaced with a laboratory information management system.

    In addition to developing new machinery, Cerulean has added to its X-ray measurement a capability that looks inside sticks and measures hidden parameters by offering the facility that the company has on its Quantum Neo test station for 150 mm-long rods X-rayed as part of a suite of measurements. “We have separated this [function] out and come up with a stand-alone X-ray system in the Solo Q device,” says Tindall. “It has all the safety features you would expect as well as a user interface tablet that can be removed from the stack for easier handling.”

    Instrumentation for assessing HTPs is presently most sought after by customers, according to Tindall. “HTPs are simply the big kid on the block,” he says. “The designs are settling down—although if you look at the array of patents being published, you may argue differently. Key quality measurements seem to be those measured after the combiner has done its job. Standard equipment can mostly ensure component manufacture is correct. Hollow acetate tubes have required some different inspection that we introduced last year, but essentially, this is all pretty standard stuff. The combiner is where everything comes together, and here, any defect in construction will impact the consumer experience, so this is where innovation in test equipment is focused. The X-ray system is one example of finding a solution to investigating potential construction faults. Another is the addition of a closed-loop control to the combiner or maker.”

    A Rising Star

    The up-and-coming field in quality assurance (QA) is modern oral. “The principles look simple, but QA testing is still a bit hit-and-miss,” says Tindall. “As these pouches become more sophisticated with different contents, capsules, formats and colors, this is going to be an expanding market.”

    In early 2022, Cerulean launched Orion, the first automated test station for snus, which measures the weight, length and width and the tensile strength of the pouch seams as well as extension against load. “To date, we are very pleased with the impact Orion is making in the marketplace, and we have struggled to get enough machines directly in front of customers,” says Tindall. “One of the bizarre things for us has been [that] when we talk about testing pouched products, we get mixed responses. When we show the equipment, almost universally the interest transforms, and we end up adding a new name to the list of people wanting to trial the equipment.”

    Cerulean has further developed Orion by adding a moisture measurement station. “This was specifically designed for pouches with more than 15 percent moisture, as many of the white snus pouches have,” says Tindall. “It is quick and is part of the automation and so complements standalone systems that may be slower or more suitable for dry pouches. We have some further ideas for quality parameter checking and are developing the fundamental technologies, but these will not reach maturity for 18 months.”

    Cannabis is Cerulean’s third priority, according to Tindall, but a lack of legislative drivers and a volatile market make it difficult to effectively serve a potential customer base. “We published a suite of white papers, available on our website, with our Denver-based partner Kaycha Laboratory, which were all concerned with THC aerosol generation specifically for capture and subsequent metals analysis, as specified by the Colorado state regulators,” he says. “We showed, with Kaycha, that we needed specific conditions to get high THC content liquids into the aerosol phase, and we developed a specialist heater jacket that we made available in our catalogue that keeps the THC oil liquid warm, allowing a low viscosity for analytical experiments. We then worked with Kaycha on a capture system because electrostatic trapping simply does not work. In the end, we sourced low metal content quartz capture pads for Kaycha, and they can now effectively report the limited selection of metals in aerosol that Colorado requires.”

    The company also made improvements to its THP and cannabis testing products. “We have added the heater jacket for cannabis products, which fits on any of our smoking and vaping machines,” says Tindall. “And we have launched the CETI1, a simple single-channel vaping machine for research projects. It retains all the features of more sophisticated machines without the typical high cost.”

    Among the innovations was also an enclosure for the CETI8, an eight-channel vaping instrument, to capture any fugitive emissions. The hood covers only the operational portion of the machine, comes with several filters and allows for a complete air exchange within two minutes. According to Cerulean, the enclosure is effective at stopping unwanted odors from reaching users. Furthermore, it mitigates the ingress of contaminants to laboratory surfaces. “It came about after our portfolio manager, Helen Taylor, and I were working in a cannabis lab and realized that at the end of the day, our heads were singing from low-level exposure to cannabis aerosol,” says Tindall with a smile.

    Cerulean has two big releases planned for the fourth quarter of this year, but Tindall is quick to stress the company’s continued support for exiting equipment. “It’s always fun to talk of new products and market opportunities, but we must not forget that there is a hell of a lot of equipment still in use from years past, and we make a point of supporting the needs of those customers as well,” he says. “That is why, on top of our service team and technical support team, we are actively ensuring that equipment can be modernized through upgrades so that a machine maybe bought 10 years ago can be updated to a current specification with all that implies for the changing face of our industry.”

    Stefanie Rossel is Tobacco Reporter’s editorial contributor. An experienced trade journalist, she combines sharp reporting skills with in-depth knowledge of the tobacco and vapor industries. Prior to joining Tobacco Reporter, Stefanie was editor-in-chief at Tobacco Journal International, where she worked for a decade. Fluent in English, German and French, Stefanie covers tobacco news around the world. She is based in Germany.
  • Technology Titan

    Technology Titan

    Photo: ICCPP

    Since its inception in 2014, ICCPP has had a steady focus on technology and innovation in vaping.

    TR Staff Report

    This year marks 20 years of development in the vaping industry. During this time, the industry has progressed rapidly from early basic products to today’s more technologically advanced systems alongside innovations in manufacturing and standardization. The vaping industry is expected to be valued at $24.61 billion this year. In the world of e-cigarettes, numerous companies have experienced highs and lows. Some survived; many did not. However, ICCPP Group, the parent company of Voopoo, has grown steadily in its mission to offer a “healthier and happier life” through its dedication to technological innovation.

    Today, ICCPP’s products and solutions have been marketed in more than 70 countries worldwide, covering 100,000 brick-and-mortar outlets serving over 36 million consumers. Founded in 2014, ICCPP Group has been deeply committed to scientific and technological innovation. ICCPP leadership says the foundation of its success is adhering to user-centered and talent-driven concepts. Many ICCPP products have gained popularity among consumers over the years, such as its innovative Drag system, the first instant-inhaling vaping product that changed user habits with its 0.025-second igniting speed in 2017.

    The company is also known for its Vinci series, which debuted in 2019, that represented the birth of a new product category: the Pod Mod. ICCPP is neither the largest nor the oldest company in the industry, but it is one of the most advanced. The company has grown from fewer than 50 staff members in 2014 to more than 4,000 employees in 2023. This level of success has the industry asking many questions, such as: How did ICCPP quickly grow from a small company to a key influencer? How did ICCPP become the company responsible for many of the products that influenced the future of the industry? How does ICCPP keep its products competitive?

    Always Adhering to Innovation

    Innovation is nothing new to ICCPP. “Since the day of establishment, innovation has always been the DNA of ICCPP,” explains Everest Zhao, co-founder and CEO of ICCPP Group, who has more than 10 years of experience in the vape industry. In 2014, when ICCPP was just established in China, it mainly provided technical solutions for e-cigarette companies. It then began moving forward with major investments in R&D and the creation of advanced products and vaping systems.

    In 2016, ICCPP proposed a creative solution to one of its customers. It was the predecessor of the Drag, which aimed to completely change the vaper’s habit of “igniting before using.” However, the customer did not accept the changes and insisted on a traditional solution. This incident deeply touched the founding team, according to Zhao. “It is hard for a supplier to ensure the overall quality and the user experience,” he said. “If we don’t solve the user’s pain point, don’t control the trend of technology, don’t break through the bottleneck of the industry, we can’t be seen as a company that really respects the user.”

    In 2017, ICCPP created its own brand, Voopoo. The revolutionary instant-inhaling device Drag swept the global market after its introduction. Additionally, the ignition speed of 0.025 seconds broke the industry’s speed ceiling and received wide praise from global users. The Drag series won the global sales championship for two consecutive years, which had a profound impact on the whole industry, according to Zhao.

    In 2019, ICCPP successfully developed a new product category with the first intelligent electronic atomization device, Vinci, which allowed e-liquid and nicotine salts to be utilized within one device. It successfully filled an industry gap and brought the arrival of Pod Mod, the miniaturized version of the traditional vape Mod. In addition to frequent innovations in open systems, ICCPP was also instrumental in the development of closed system products.

    In 2021, ICCPP’s replaceable product hit the market with an innovative human-computer interactive smart screen and CNC technology design. The disposable product reached the overseas sales mark of 1 million pieces in two weeks after its initial launch. Subsequently, it won not only many industry awards in Britain, the United States and other markets but also the praise of many consumers.

    From the perspective of ICCPP, the company is “a late bird” compared to its peers, according to Zhao. “Our strategy is not to compete for speed in a 500-meter race or for endurance in [a] 3,000-meter race but to compete for completion in a 10,000-meter race. No matter the investment in R&D, or reserve of talents, ICCPP is always at the forefront of the industry,” he said.

    In the early stages of ICCPP’s development, the company owned less than 40 patents. In 2020, the number of patents filed by the company exceeded 400, and in 2021, it exceeded 600. To date, the total number of patents filed by ICCPP has exceeded 2,000. The growth cannot be separated from ICCPP’s dedication to innovative employees. ICCPP Group invests no less than 10 percent of its yearly profits in R&D, according to Zhao.

    In 2019, to improve its own R&D capabilities, ICCPP cooperated with several universities to carry out research on innovative materials and set up a materials research institute, focusing on the development and application of new electronic atomization materials. To achieve a breakthrough of heating materials, ICCPP persevered through 1,000 days of research and 2,000 groups of material formulas, underwent 120 days of cyclic testing, passed more than 1,000 evaluations by global atomization enthusiasts, developed 100,000 pieces of product samples and, in 2021, developed its nano-microcrystalline ceramic core called Gene Tree.

    At the Vaper Expo U.K. 2022, ICCPP launched the industry’s first use of a ceramic core in disposable products and multi-category ceramic core solutions. At present, ICCPP has built four research institutes with more than 500 R&D staff, and the Everest Lab, which has been accredited by the China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment, is becoming one of the few laboratories recognized by national authority in the electronic atomization industry.

    Pioneering ESG Strategy

    Sustainable development and corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategies are becoming an increasingly important issue for the vaping industry. ICCPP plans to release its first ESG report and carbon footprint certification for three products this year. During GTNF 2022, held in Washington, D.C., ICCPP shared on stage a series of their research results in green product innovation and digital transformation. Its environmentally friendly product gained widespread attention.

    As early as 2019, ICCPP started working on environmentally friendly products, and in 2020, it launched the first disposable product made of biodegradable materials, which won a Red Dot Award in 2021. At the Vaper Expo U.K. 2023, the ICCPP ODM+ business made a technological upgrade and launched the world’s first new dual environmentally friendly disposable vape solution called the Cyclo series. It is the first combined concept of detachable parts and biodegradable materials—far ahead of the rest of the vaping industry in achieving portability and recyclability.

    Cyclo, starting from the concept of low carbon and environmental protection, considers the whole life cycle of disposables from the design, production, usage and disposal to recycling, trying its best to use biodegradable materials for the body, a unique lead-less design for assembly and a patented weld-less structure that is fully detachable so all the device’s disposable waste can be easily dismantled, according to ICCPP. This allows for direct disposal with the ability to sort and recycle, thus minimizing the harm to the environment. Many industry experts have commented that Cyclo should be the best choice to meet the environmental challenges in the vaping industry.

    Developing environmentally friendly products is just one small part of ICCPP’s ESG strategy. The company officially launched its Digital Transformation Strategy in May 2022 and became the world’s first electronic atomization enterprise to collaborate with SAP and PwC, leading the industry into the digital transformation stage.

    “In the future, we will create an unprecedented digital closed loop and a new type of digital competitiveness, getting through the complete path of digital R&D, digital manufacturing, digital marketing and so on,” said Zhao. “We will take the lead in driving corporate development through digitalization and realizing new value creation through digitalization.

    “We have always been a firm that advocates and practices within the ‘open industry’ ecology. We are willing to share our resources and achievements with the whole industry. We hope all members of the vaping industry will grow together in a healthy way. We are looking forward to working together with like-minded partners to build an open ecosystem and reshape the future of the industry.”