Poorer households in Scotland spend almost a third of their income on tobacco, reports Daily Record, citing a study by Action on Smoking and Health.
Analysis by the health group shows that the country’s lowest income group will spend a whopping 29.4 percent of their income on tobacco products in 2023—about nine times more than the 3.35 percent estimated to be spent by households in the highest income group.
The research also estimates that households in the lowest income group containing at least two smokers will spend more than £6,000 ($7,129), or 73.5 percent of income, on tobacco in 2023.
“Tobacco is a major cause of inequalities, and the projected figures for 2023 we are releasing today spotlight the increasing need for NHS Quit Your Way services in Scotland to be better resourced and promoted to support people to leave tobacco behind, especially in communities facing the greatest challenges,” ASH Scotland CEO Sheila Duffy was quoted as saying.
In response to its findings, ASH Scotland called for increased smoking cessation support in communities experiencing deprivation.
22nd Century Group reported net revenues of $19.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2022, up 141 percent from the comparable 2021 quarter. Revenue from tobacco-related products increased 25.7 percent to $10 million, primarily driven by volume increases in contract manufacturing and initial sales of the company’s VLN brands as part of an early rollout in Illinois and Colorado.
“The fourth quarter and 2022 were transformative for 22nd Century as we launched an aggressive commercial rollout of our FDA-authorized VLN reduced nicotine content cigarettes and accelerated revenue and margin growth opportunities with our hemp/cannabis business unit,” said 22nd Century Group CEO James A. Mish in a statement.
“Following our exceptional pilot results indicating our ability to initially capture a 1 percent share of market, several of the largest convenience store chains in the U.S. are seeking to carry our VLN products on a regional or multi-state basis.”
Looking forward, 22nd Century says it is poised to benefit from growing regulatory appetite to reduce nicotine content and ban mentholated tobacco products. The company’s VLN cigarette is currently the only Food and Drug Administration-authorized combustible cigarette able to meet the reduced nicotine content product standard under the FDA’s Comprehensive Plan requiring that all cigarettes be made “minimally or non-addictive.”
Meanwhile, the FDA’s proposed menthol cigarette ban, which is currently in final rules status, would leave VLN Menthol King as the only combustible menthol cigarette on the market. The company expects its low-nicotine leaf tobacco business to benefit from New Zealand law that will permit only reduced nicotine content cigarettes to be sold starting in early 2025.
22nd Century planted the largest ever VLN tobacco crop in 2022, including the second-generation VLN 2.0 reduced nicotine tobacco plants, which have demonstrated approximately 30 percent higher yields, enhanced quality leaf, improved disease resistance, reduction in nutrient requirements and increased stability across various environments and geographies.
Dutch parliamentarians want e-cigarettes and other vaping products to have a uniform appearance, reports RTL Nieuws.
According to the D66, which will submit the proposal in parliament today, the new rules will make vaping less attractive to teenagers. A majority in parliament supports the plan, RTL Nieuws reports.
“Young people now think it’s cool to have such an accessory with glitter while vaping is extremely unhealthy,” D66 parliamentarian Jeanet van der Laan told the broadcaster. “The vapes resemble a lip gloss or a marker. They are often colorful, and there are vapes full of glitter. Parents often have no idea exactly what the young people are carrying. Super worrying.”
There are even e-cigarettes in circulations that look like airpods, Van der Laan said. “That makes it look like a glamor accessory, while it is just smoking and therefore harmful to health. And young people are tempted by all those frills to start smoking.”
“E-cigarettes should look as neutral and uniform as possible. Preferably they should resemble regular cigarettes. Or else just white or black. Because it’s just smoking,” D66’s MP said. She believes a more boring appearance will make vaping less attractive to young people.
The lower house of the Dutch parliament is discussing smoking on Wednesday. D66’s proposal seems to have majority support, according to RTL.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is proposing new requirements for tobacco product manufacturers regarding the manufacture, design, packing and storage of all tobacco products.
The proposed requirements would help protect public health by, among other things, minimizing or preventing contamination and limiting additional risks by ensuring product consistency, according to an FDA statement.
“While no tobacco product is safe, this proposed rule is intended to minimize or prevent additional risks associated with these products,”
Brian King / Credit: FDA
said Brian King, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. “Once finalized, it would establish requirements for tobacco product manufacturers that will help protect public health.”
The proposed new requirements would help manufacturers comply with the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act by helping minimize or prevent the manufacture and distribution of tobacco products contaminated with foreign substances—such as metal, glass, and plastics—which have been found in tobacco products. T
The proposed rule would also help address issues related to inconsistencies between e-liquid product labeling and the actual concentrations in e-liquids, “Such variability can be misleading to consumers, potentially intensifying addiction and exposure to toxins,” the agency states.
The proposed rule would also establish several requirements related to the identification, tracing and corrective actions for tobacco products that don’t meet specifications or are contaminated, including for tobacco products that have already been distributed.
In the event of an issue, these requirements would require manufacturers to take corrective actions, which may include conducting a recall.
The proposed requirements apply to manufacturers of finished and bulk vaping and other tobacco products. As laid out in the proposed rule, a finished tobacco product is a tobacco product, including any component or part, sealed in final packaging; for example, an e-cigarette, a pack of cigarettes or a can of moist snuff.
A bulk tobacco product is a tobacco product that isn’t sealed in final packaging, but is otherwise suitable for consumer use.
The proposed rule establishes a framework for manufacturers to adhere to, including:
establishing tobacco product design and development controls;
ensuring that finished and bulk tobacco products are manufactured according to established specifications;
minimizing the manufacture and distribution of tobacco products that don’t meet specifications;
requiring manufacturers to take appropriate measures to prevent contamination of tobacco products;
requiring investigation and identification of products that don’t meet specifications to institute appropriate corrective actions, such as a recall; and
establishing the ability to trace all components or parts, ingredients, additives and materials, as well as each batch of finished or bulk tobacco product, to aid in investigations of those that don’t meet specifications.
The FDA will hold a public oral hearing on April 12 to gather additional comments from stakeholders, including industry, the scientific community, advocacy groups, and the public.
The proposed rule also will be available for public comment for 180 days. The agency will review all comments as part of the rulemaking process for this foundational rule.
“We remain committed to transparency and stakeholder engagement, including providing clarity to industry so that they are equipped to comply with the law,” said King. “We encourage all interested individuals and organizations to participate in the rulemaking process. When the public submits a comment based on sound grounds, that can make an important difference in the agency’s decision-making.”
The FDA will also hold a meeting of the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC) on May 18 to seek recommendations from the agency’s outside panel of experts on the requirements laid out in the proposed rule. As part of the TPSAC meeting, the public will have an opportunity to make oral presentations. The FDA intends to make TPSAC meeting materials available on its website no later than 48 hours before the meeting.
Tobacco prices in Zimbabwe fetched $4.35 per kg at the start of the new marketing season today, up from $4.20 last year, reports Reuters.
“It looks like we are going to have a good crop,” said Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) Chairman Patrick Devenish, who credited favorable rainfalls.
The TIMB expects the country to produce 230 million kg of tobacco this year, 8.5 percent more than in 2022.
Tobacco land use grew to 117,000 hectares this year from 110,000 hectares in 2022, according to the TIMB. The industry also saw an increase in the number of tobacco farmers to 148,527 this year from 123,000 in 2022.
The tobacco industry contributes nearly $1 billion to export earnings every year, Zimbabwean Vice President Constantino Chiwenga said on March 8. Government statistics showed it accounted for more than 12 percent of exports in January.
Zimbabwe is currently implementing a “Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan,” which seeks to extract more profit from the sector by processing raw leaf into higher-value products.
“We seek to localize the financing of tobacco. We wish to transform the tobacco sector so we don’t export value,” Agriculture Minister Anxious Masuka said on March 8.
Kaival Brands Innovations Group, the exclusive U.S. distributor of Bidi Vapor products, has entered into agreements representing potential new distribution to approximately 13,500 locations.
Under the terms of the agreements, Bidi Vapor’s Bidi Stick will initially be activated in 700 locations, with another 1,500 locations expected within the next 90 days. All of the new locations meet Kaival Brand’s and Bidi Vapor’s requirements for customer identification verification and youth-access prevention.
“We are excited to announce these significant new distribution agreements, totaling up to 13,500 new locations, as we look to continue the ramp up of marketing and sales activity for Bidi Stick. Since Bidi Vapor succeeded in its merits case against the FDA vacating FDA’s marketing denial order for ENDS products in August 2022, we have seen a resurgence of interested retailers and potential distributors,” said Kaival Brands President and Chief Operating Officer Eric Mosser in a statement.
“While the FDA continues to move slowly in enforcing against bad actors, major retailers are showing their commitment to e-cigarettes as a category and using corporate discretion to select brands that are committed to youth-access prevention and responsible marketing of adult products. We believe our products fit squarely in this category, and we are hopeful that this positioning will lead to greater revenues for Kaival Brands during 2023.”
“We are excited to increase the reach of the Bidi Stick by up to 13,500 new stores,” stated Russell Quick, president of QuikfillRx, which operates under the name Kaival Marketing Services. “These new agreements represent an immediate impact of 700 new locations to start and we believe represents a vote of confidence that retailers have in us and our products.”
Reynolds American Inc. (RAI) has appointed two senior leaders within its operating companies.
Priscilla Samuel, currently senior vice president of scientific regulatory affairs within the Reynolds organization, has been appointed to the role of executive vice president of scientific research and development, succeeding James Murphy. In her new role, Samuel will serve on the RAI management team and report to Reynolds’ president and CEO, Guy Meldrum. Murphy will join the BAT management board as director of research and science, reporting to BAT CEO Jack Bowles.
In her role, Samuel will oversee the Reynolds organization’s scientific research and product development efforts on tobacco harm reduction and “beyond nicotine” as well as regulatory strategies and advocacy efforts, accelerating the delivery of the global BAT Group’s “A Better Tomorrow” corporate purpose in the U.S.
She is an experienced research and development executive, a seasoned business leader and a scientist, with strategic global expertise in scientific and regulatory affairs, product and ingredient innovation, clinical and pre-clinical research and key opinion leader engagement. Before joining Reynolds, Samuel was chief science officer for Blue California, an ingredient company, and before that, she held progressive research and development executive roles with companies across the food, supplement, ingredient and nutrition sectors, including PepsiCo, Mead Johnson/Bristol Myers Squibb, Tate and Lyle, PureCircle Ltd. and Standard Process Inc.
Jonathan Reed
Jonathan Reed, currently group head of combustibles at BAT, will succeed Jorge Araya as executive vice president of marketing and chief commercial officer within the Reynolds organization and join the Reynolds American management team. Araya will transition into the role of area director of South Eastern Europe at BAT.
In his role, Reed will oversee U.S. marketing functions, including consumer, trade and digital marketing, and support the global strategy through a sharp focus on driving U.S. volume share growth as well as increasing U.S. revenue from the group’s U.S. strategic portfolio. Reed’s career with the BAT Group spans over two decades. He has held a variety of senior marketing and general management roles in Europe, Indonesia, the South Pacific, the Middle East and Malaysia.
Altria Group has asked the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to drop its 2020 challenge of the company’s 2018 acquisition of a 35 percent share in Juul Labs, reports Reuters. On March 3, the tobacco giant announced it had exchanged its stake for a license to Juul’s heated tobacco intellectual property rights.
In its legal challenge, the FTC contends that the tobacco giant’s $12.8 billion investment in Juul violates antitrust law because the company acquired the position rather than continuing to compete against Juul in the market for closed-system e-cigarettes.
In February 2022, an administrative law judge dismissed the FTC’s claims, finding that the evidence failed to sustain the alleged violations.
The next step would have been for the full commission to decide whether to accept that decision and dismiss the FTC case.
“There is nothing left of the transaction to be challenged. Altria and JLI respectfully ask the commission to dismiss this matter as moot,” Altria Group and Juul Labs wrote in a filing to the FTC.
Smokers’ rights group Forest is urging the U.K. government to freeze excise duty on tobacco in its March 15 budget after a poll found that almost two thirds of respondents (65 percent) believe the tax on tobacco in the United Kingdom is already “about right” (38 percent) or “too high” (27 percent).
Only one in five (20 percent) of those asked think the tax on tobacco is “too low,” while 15 percent said they “don’t know.”
Conducted on behalf of Forest by Yonder, the poll follows a recent report that the cost of a pack of cigarettes could go up by £1.15 ($1.36) after the Budget, while a 30-gram pouch of hand-rolled tobacco could rise by £2, if Chancellor Jeremy Hunt decides to stick with the annual tobacco escalator of inflation plus 2 percent.
The poll also found that 62 percent of adults think that purchasing tobacco from the black market is an “understandable” response given the high cost of tobacco sold legally in the United Kingdom whereas only 22 percent of respondents believe this is not an “understandable” response. Sixteen percent said they “don’t know.”
The Chancellor should freeze duty on tobacco and give smokers a break.
According to the survey, Brits also believe that the government has more pressing concerns than tackling smoking.
Asked to consider a list of 10 issues for the government to address in 2023, respondents said tackling the rising cost of household utilities such as electricity and gas is the most important priority (54 percent), followed by improving the health service by providing more beds, frontline staff and cutting waiting lists (48 percent), tackling inflation (40 percent), and addressing care for the elderly (32 percent).
Other top priorities included tackling climate change (28 percent), the housing shortage (26 percent), and helping businesses recover from the impact of the pandemic (17 percent).
Tackling smoking was bottom of the list (10 percent), alongside tackling obesity (10 percent), and tackling misuse of alcohol (9 percent).
“The chancellor should freeze duty on tobacco and give smokers a break,” said Forest Director Simon Clark.
“Raising the tax on tobacco not only discriminates against poorer smokers, it will drive more consumers to the unregulated black market.
“This is bad news for legitimate retailers and bad news for the Treasury which could lose billions of pounds in revenue if more consumers buy their tobacco from illicit traders.”
“Significantly, there is very little stigma attached to buying tobacco on the black market. In a cost of living crisis the public understands that many consumers will opt for the cheaper option, even if it’s illegal.”
U.K. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has rejected calls from health officials to introduce a new levy on single use vapes in the government budget due to be presented on March 15, reports the news outlet I.
The Department of Health and Social Care has been pushing for the new tax to crack down on underage vaping. The proposals are expected to be included in the government’s response to the Khan Review on smoking, but treasury sources told I that the new levy will not be included in the March 15 budget.
“Department of Health officials are keen, but it’s not going to happen,” a source told I.
Anti-smoking activists too have been urging the government to start taxing disposable vapes. “Increasing the tax on single use disposable vapes in the March budget would be easy to do and by making them less affordable could reduce both child vaping and the vast quantities of single use vapes being thrown into landfill,” Action of Smoking and Health CEO Deborah Arnott was quoted as saying.
“Adult smokers find vaping useful in helping them quit, and that’s something we support. However, in the light of the recent increase in child vaping, government action is urgently needed to tighten regulation and increase enforcement,” Arnott added.
U.K. ministers are reportedly contemplating a range of measures to discourage underage vaping. Among the plans under consideration are a ban on candy-flavored vaping liquids and a crackdown on colorful marketing that could appeal to youth.
Britain bans sales of vapes to anyone below the age of 18, but national surveys have shown an increasing trend of 11-17 year olds using the devices, with health leaders blaming the rise on the marketing and flavors associated with them.
