Blog - Tobacco Reporter

Institute: Pouches Safer Than Smoking

In the statement published on Oct. 7, 2022, the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) confirmed that tobacco-free nicotine pouches can reduce health risks compared to smoking. To protect consumers, the BfR recommends regulation of the manufacture, presentation and sale of nicotine pouches.

In a detailed study on the material composition of tobacco-free nicotine pouches performed in August 2022, BfR scientists found that aside from nicotine, the pouches contain no substances presenting health concerns. In some samples, however, they detected traces of tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNA) similar to those found in medical nicotine-replacement products.

The BfR scientists did express concern about inadequate labeling and missing warnings on some products.

“These critical comments can be resolved in principle,” said Jan Muecke, CEO of the German Association of the Tobacco Industry and Novel Products (BVTE), in a statement. “It would make a lot of sense to set appropriate limits for nicotine and TSNAs and to introduce binding regulations on warnings and labeling obligations. A high level of consumer protection must be guaranteed.”

Muecke said the BVTE would welcome regulation of nicotine pouches under tobacco laws. Contrary to their counterparts, other European countries, German regulators treat nicotine pouches as food products. As a result, they are illegal in Germany.

Muecke said he hoped the BfR assessment would prompt regulators to rethink. “We want tobacco-free nicotine pouches to provide consumers of tobacco and nicotine products with another potentially less harmful alternative,” he said.

October 13, 2022

Thirdhand Smoke Linked to Skin Diseases

Thirdhand smoke (THS) can trigger skin diseases, according to new research.

THS comprises the residual pollutants from tobacco smoke that remain on surfaces and in dust after tobacco has been smoked. It can remain on indoor surfaces indefinitely.

A team led by researchers at the University of California, Riverside has found that acute exposure of the skin to THS elevates biomarkers associated with the initiation of skin diseases, such as contact dermatitis and psoriasis.

“We found exposure of human skin to THS initiates mechanisms of inflammatory skin disease and elevates urinary biomarkers of oxidative harm, which could lead to other diseases, such as cancer, heart disease and atherosclerosis,” said Shane Sakamaki-Ching, a specialist in cell, molecular and developmental biology, in a statement. “Alarmingly, acute dermal exposure to THS mimics the harmful effects of cigarette smoking.”

Published in eBioMedicine, the study is the first to be performed on humans exposed dermally to THS.

The clinical investigation, which took place at the University of California San Francisco, involved the participation of 10 healthy nonsmokers who were 22 years old to 45 years old. For three hours, each participant wore clothing impregnated with THS and either walked or ran on a treadmill for at least 15 minutes each hour to induce perspiration and increase uptake of THS through the skin. The participants did not know the clothing had THS. Blood and urine samples were then collected from the participants at regular intervals to identify protein changes and markers of oxidative stress induced by the THS. Control exposure participants wore clean clothing.

“We found acute THS exposure caused elevation of urinary biomarkers of oxidative damage to DNA, lipids and proteins, and these biomarkers remained high after the exposure stopped,” said Sakamaki-Ching, now a research scientist at Kite Pharma in California, where he leads a stem cell team. “Cigarette smokers show the same elevation in these biomarkers. Our findings can help physicians in diagnosing patients exposed to THS and help develop regulatory policies dealing with remediation of indoor environments contaminated with THS.”

The study was supported by grants to Talbot and Schick from the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program of California.

October 13, 2022

‘U.K. Unlikely to Act on Khan Report’

The U.K. government is unlikely to enact the actions recommended by Javed Khan in his recent report on smoking, according to an article in The Guardian citing insiders.

The British government has committed to make the country “smoke-free” by 2030. This is defined as getting the proportion of adults who smoke down from 14.1 percent to just 5 percent.

Published in June, Khan’s report says that ministers need to accelerate the reduction in smoking by 40 percent if they want to hit the 2030 target. Among other actions, he recommended raising the legal age of buying tobacco by a year every year and imposing a new “polluter pays” levy on tobacco firms and requiring sellers of tobacco products to have a license.

According to The Guardian, U.K. Health Secretary Therese Coffey also intends to break her predecessor’s promise to publish an action plan to tackle smoking.

The paper writes that Coffey has previously accepted hospitality from the tobacco industry. Since becoming a Member of Parliament in 2010, she has voted in the House of Commons against an array of measures to restrict smoking, including the ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces, the outlawing of smoking in cars containing children and forcing cigarettes to be sold in plain packs.

The Department of Health and Social Care said it was “inaccurate” to suggest that the tobacco control plan was being dropped—but did not say if or when it would publish it.

Labour and anti-smoking campaigners voiced alarm at the potential U-turn over the tobacco control plan. It follows a Treasury-ordered review of measures to tackle obesity and Coffey scrapping a promised white paper on health inequalities.

October 13, 2022

‘Bill Will Destroy South African Vapor Industry’

South Africa’s new tobacco bill will destroy the vapor industry if it becomes law, the Vapour Products Association of South Africa (VPASA) warned.

Among other provisions, the Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill opens an avenue for the government to ban the sale of flavored e-liquids, which tobacco harm advocates insist are key to entice smokers away from cigarettes.

VPASA contends that the government neglected to consult the industry about its proposed legislation, which mistakenly conflates vaping with smoking, according to the industry group.

“While the Cabinet statement announcing the adoption of the bill noted that the Department of Health had conducted extensive consultations, it conveniently failed to state that other than anti-tobacco campaigners, no other stakeholders had seen a copy of the revised bill before it was gazetted on Sept. 29,” VPASA CEO Asanda Gcoyi was quoted as saying by The Saturday Star. “This is despite numerous requests for a copy made by industry stakeholders.”

VPASA also believes the proposals on the table are not based on science or empirical evidence, treating vaping and smoking as if they are one and the same thing. “Vaping requires a separate set of guidelines recognizing that it is not the same as smoking and therefore cannot be regulated in the same manner,” said Gcoyi.

October 11, 2022

Strom Nicotine Pouch Debuts in U.K.

Scandinavian Tobacco Group has launched its Strom nicotine pouch in the U.K., reports Convenience Store.

Strom will be available in three flavors—fresh mint, minty orange and juicy berry—to retailers across Manchester for a six-month trial period between October and March before being rolled out to other cities across the U.K. throughout 2023 and beyond.

“Nicotine pouch sales are really gathering pace, and that’s why we’re really excited to pilot our Strom brand in Manchester before rolling out the product to the rest of the U.K.,” said Alastair Williams, STG’s U.K. country director. “Retailers would be forgiven for thinking that the nicotine pouch category is already quite crowded, but we’re coming to the market with something more authentic, premium and sophisticated than what is already out there.

“Strom offers a prolonged taste delivery, which enables an extended flavor sensation for your mouth and throat as well as providing an equal nicotine release for a consistent and smooth experience. We’re also excited to be putting a huge marketing spend behind our regional ad campaign to raise consumer awareness and drive sales.”

October 11, 2022

Record Seizure of Illegal Cigarettes at Hull Port

British Customs authorities reported the largest-ever seizure of illegal tobacco in the United Kingdom when a sniffer dog found 99 million illicit cigarettes in the Port of Hull, reports BBC News.

The illegal products were in eight shipping containers said to have been shipped through the United Arab Emirates. The cigarettes were worth about £44 million ($48.56 million) in unpaid taxes, according to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

Import documents falsely labeled the shipping containers as carrying birchwood logs.

“This is the single largest seizure of cigarettes ever made at a U.K. port,” said Anthony Usher, deputy director of HMRC’s fraud investigation service. “Our streets would have been flooded with them had they not been discovered.

“Cheap cigarettes come at a cost as they often fund organized crime and other illegal activity that causes real harm to our communities, such as drugs, guns and human trafficking.”

October 10, 2022

Customs Chief Quits Over Cigarette Theft

Rade Milosevic, head of Montenegro’s Customs Office, resigned after an investigation launched by the Special State Prosecution into the tobacco theft in the town of Niksic, reports Balkan Insight.

Milosevic was questioned by police after €1 million ($971,805) worth of tobacco was stolen from a factory in Niksic, where it was supposed to be destroyed.

“I decided to take this action in order to relieve the government, the Customs Office and myself personally of the pressure. I am convinced that my work did not violate the law, but the media and a political hunt were aimed at discrediting me,” Milosevic said.

“It [the hunt] was designed and instructed by certain interest groups threatened by my conscientious and professional work,” he added.

The Special State Prosecutor’s Office stated that Customs officials, without adequate security measures, took over a truck of cigarettes intended for destruction. The truck never made it to its destination at the Mai-rai factory. Police later found the truck hidden in Podgorica, the capital. Customs officers Elvir Adrovic and Milutin Pejovic were arrested.

“I would be very unpleasantly surprised if Milosevic made this kind of oversight,” said outgoing Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic. “He explained to me how the system works, but the authorities will investigate whether there is anything else there.”

Opposition and civic organizations called for Milosevic’s dismissal, but Abazovic urged prosecution to fully investigate the matter first.

Earlier this year, Abozovic suggested tobacco smuggling groups contributed to the no-confidence vote that brought him down in mid-August.

October 10, 2022

Karnataka Gears up for Selling Season

Karnataka will start auctioning its flue-cured Virginia tobacco crop in October 2022, the Tobacco Board of India announced.

The board expects a crop of approximately 64 million kg of good quality with a comparatively high share of bright grades.

In a letter to customers, the Tobacco Board said it is promoting various sustainable tobacco production practices, including the promotion of integrated pest management, natural farming practices, NTRM-free tobacco production, fuel conservation measures and tree planting programs to ensure product integrity and compliance with buyer requirements.

The Tobacco Board urged leaf buyers to communicate their requirements well in advance.

“I would request you to plan your requirements for the 2022–23 Karnataka crop well in advance for timely liquidation of the produce and early conclusion of auction sales, thereby avoiding leaf quality deterioration as well as weight loss, which could be beneficial to the farmers as well as the traders,” wrote Tobacco Board Executive Director A. Sridhar Babu.

October 9, 2022

VTA Questions FDA’s Youth Vaping Analysis

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration misrepresents the latest data on youth vaping, according to Vapor Technology Association (VTA) Executive Director Tony Abboud.

On Oct. 6, the FDA and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new data from the 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) on e-cigarette use among U.S. youth.

“The FDA represents the NYTS data to show that youth vaping ‘remains high,’ yet a deeper dive into the data show[s] only a small uptick in experimental or infrequent use while regular use remains flat or is slightly down,” said Abboud in a statement.

Abboud notes that since 2019, according to the CDC, the number of high school students who have tried vaping (one time in the last 30 days) has dropped by 50 percent, and the number of middle school students has plummeted by 70 percent. During that same time period, the number of high school students who “frequently” vape dropped by 37 percent, and the number of middle school students dropped by 65 percent.

“FDA’s near single-minded focus on youth who experiment with vaping versus those who are frequent users ignores what clearly is a consistent trend of youth away from vaping products. Rather than focusing on removing products from the market in an attempt to impact youth vaping, the FDA should instead support common sense regulatory reforms that would better restrict access to products instead,” said Abboud. “Simply removing products from the market is not the answer when those products are also proven to help adult smokers quit.”

According to Abboud, it is well documented that flavored vapor products help adult smokers switch to less harmful vaping and “study after study after study” has confirmed the data. Since 2010, when e-cigarettes became widely available in the U.S., smoking rates have declined by more than half, he noted.

“Tobacco use is down. Youth vaping is down. These are both good things and are not in dispute. Unfortunately, there are still 40 million Americans addicted to cigarettes,” Abboud said. “Every year, 500,000 die from smoking-related diseases and yet less than 3 percent of our kids are using vapes on a regular basis. The FDA’s failure to acknowledge this reality ignores the role vaping plays in harm reduction and smoking cessation and puts more lives at risk.”

October 9, 2022

The Evolution of Sustainability

Panel Discussion: The Evolution of Sustainability

The “pace of change is accelerating” for environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, which requires companies to invest in policies and actions that encourage responsible behavior. “ESG is a driver of choice,” a GTNF speaker said.

Due to the nature of its business, tobacco companies can make the greatest ESG gains by reducing the health impact of their products. Moving to a smoke-free future is the single best thing the industry can do in order to maintain its license to operate and create long-term sustainability. “We think that’s right for our consumers,” said a representative of a leading tobacco firm. “We believe it’s right for our employees. We believe it’s right for society broadly.”

Innovation creates value. Sustainability creates value. And those two things are not in conflict, according to one speaker. They are instead reinforcing ideas. Companies cannot innovate alone. They need to innovate alongside their consumer base. The speakers agreed that everyone needs to be involved in innovation with a shared goal of sustainability.

“We believe [one way] we can create positive change is to address the harm of our products. And so that gets more to our vision, which is moving beyond smoking,” a speaker noted, adding that some of the challenges in ESG are knowing what expectations are, especially from consumers and shareholders. “You take the time to understand what they expect, you identify where are the areas of your business where you can align those expectations into your business practices and then measure and communicate the progress that you’re making.”

ESG used to exist on an island. Today, it’s a core part of how leadership drives the long-term success of a business. The speakers noted that changes brought about through ESG initiatives will determine the long-term success of companies. A company must address its “most pressing issues” that stakeholders care about.

“We talk about transforming people’s lives so that together we can grow better. It’s frankly something that all our employees around the world can really get behind. But it’s not just the talk; it’s the walk, right?” a speaker asked. “It’s measuring what you have and setting real targets of what we want to achieve and reporting on those in a very public way. I think this industry is way too shy about talking about some of the positive achievements that it’s had and it’s made and continues to make around the globe.”

The best practice is to intertwine sustainability and business strategies—where the board and the executive team are acting as the coaches of the company’s sustainability goals. “It is about being standardized, being transparent, basing your numbers on actual science and facts, and being [able to implement these policies throughout] the full value chain,” one speaker explained. “One of the key takeaways is that perhaps ESG/sustainability efforts at some point were seen as optional. But the reality is that this is not the case now. It is no longer optional. And I think we’re all committed to trying to do the right thing.”

ESG can be driven by governmental regulation too. Those regulations can become game changers for companies, according to several speakers. For example, the European Union has launched the “European Standards for Sustainability Report.” The report essentially outlines what companies have done over the past 20 years to move toward a more sustainable future. The report also shows that ESG isn’t easy. It also offers a potential blueprint for companies struggling for innovative sustainability ideas.

“[The meaning of] ultimate sustainability is really sort of combatting climate change and decreasing emissions, saving water … minimizing pollution and waste, looking at diversity and quantity, having zero corruption, looking at almost everything from tax clarity to human rights and supply chains,” one speaker said. “It’s a lot of work and you don’t want to invest in that work if you’re not going to get the value to actually build a more successful, sustainable company.”

In the end, sustainability, ESG and tobacco harm reduction go hand in hand. One speaker explained it as a three-legged stool. When you think about the products themselves, you have to have products that are satisfactory to the adult tobacco consumer. It’s a product that’s going to be commercially successful. Consumers will enjoy it, and they will transition to authorized smoke-free products.

“We also know that there are consumers who want to entirely quit using tobacco products, and so we think supporting adult tobacco consumers who have made the decision to quit [and are] able to do so successfully is also an important element of harm reduction.”

“And then we absolutely have to make sure that underage use is not an issue,” one speaker explained. “We’ve heard the conversation about innovative reduced-risk products cannot be an offramp for the adult tobacco consumer and an on-ramp for youth, and so there has to continue to be a lot of attention to those three pillars of the stool to make sure that underage use [is limited], especially as we start thinking about new-to-market products.”

October 9, 2022