22nd Century Group has added Creager Mercantile as a distribution partner to expand availability and support for its VLN reduced nicotine content cigarette products in the U.S. state of Colorado.
Operating since 1958, Creager is a well-known wholesale supplier for a wide array of cigarette retailers, including hospital gift shops, gas stations and tobacco shops across the state. The company supports more than 1,000 stores across numerous specialty and retail store brands. Combined with 22nd Century’s previously announced partnership with Eagle Rock Distributing Company, the company now has access to thousands of potential retail sites across the state that could be serviced by its VLN distribution partners.
“We are excited to work with 22nd Century Group to make VLN available to adult smokers in Colorado who are looking for a new way to cut their ties to nicotine,” said Chip Creager, president of Creager Mercantile, in a statement. “Creager supports a diverse array of specialty stores, often advising retailers on the best new products to add to their shelves. We believe that VLN’s uniqueness as the first and only cigarette designed specifically to help smokers smoke less makes it an important and attractive product for adult smokers, and we will be actively working with our retail partners to launch VLN to their stores in the coming months.”
Creager opens up an entire additional channel of specialty retail and tobacco suppliers across the state of Colorado.
“Creager opens up an entire additional channel of specialty retail and tobacco suppliers across the state of Colorado, and its direct role in product recommendations and store support make it an ideal partner for 22nd Century’s VLN rollout,” said John J. Miller, president of 22nd Century’s tobacco business. “We look forward to working directly with Creager to place VLN on as many shelves as possible, making our important new product broadly available in as many locations as possible where traditional combustible cigarettes are sold.”
Despite broad public support for disruptive innovation to address global challenges, issues such as lack of equal access are likely to stall progress, a new international survey released by Philip Morris International reveals. Commissioned by PMI and conducted by independent research agency Povaddo, the survey shows that 89 percent of adults across 14 countries believe that new technologies and innovations can play an important role in improving public health. However, 38 percent feel such innovations are not accessible to all citizens in their countries.
The more than 17,000 survey respondents aged 21 and older believe that the development and adoption of new technologies, innovations and capabilities can enable significant progress against a range of issues over the next 10 years to 20 years, including: encouraging healthier eating habits (78 percent); ensuring quality and affordable healthcare for all (72 percent); reducing smoking rates (65 percent); and eliminating hunger and malnourishment (62 percent).
“Disruptive innovation can drive progress for the world and achieve things few people imagined possible until recently,” said Gregoire Verdeaux, senior vice president of external affairs at PMI, in a statement. “But when the benefits of that disruption are not equally available to all, innovation fails to achieve its full potential. Pragmatic policy frameworks that anticipate innovations are needed so businesses and governments can ensure more equitable outcomes and a lasting impact for all.”
The international survey also highlights the potential of positive disruption in tobacco harm reduction—with 64 percent of respondents stating that new technologies and innovations can play an important role in helping replace cigarettes with less harmful alternatives for those adults who would otherwise continue to smoke.
“Today, with technological advances and scientific validation, we have an unprecedented opportunity to enact a major public health breakthrough—to effectively eradicate smoking faster,” added Verdeaux. “We can make this the tipping point at which millions of adult smokers are given accurate information about and access to innovative smoke-free products that are a much better choice than continued smoking. But for that to happen, all parties—businesses, governments, public health authorities—must work together.”
BAT has published its Low-Carbon Transition Plan, detailing the actions it will take to reach its climate targets. This includes halving absolute emissions across its value chain by 2030, from a 2020 baseline, and to be net-zero across its value chain by 2050 at the latest.
“We’re proud to take this latest step in our sustainability journey,” said Kingsley Wheaton, BAT’s chief growth officer, in a statement. “By outlining the measures we will take to live up to our net-zero targets through our Low-Carbon Transition Plan, we’re demonstrating our continuing commitment to building ‘A Better Tomorrow.’ As a global company, we know minimizing impacts across our value chain is the right thing to do, as well as making sound business sense. That is why we have set stretching science-based climate-related targets and continue to embed sustainability across our business.”
BAT has committed to reduce absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2030 from a 2020 base year.
According to the CDP, tackling Scope 3 emissions, which are indirect emissions from BAT’s value chain, will be the most critical and challenging for the sector, and it constitutes the majority of BAT’s total carbon footprint.
For these Scope 3 emissions, BAT has committed to reduce emissions by 50 percent by 2030 from a 2020 base year by: partnering with suppliers, especially those contributing the most emissions, to ensure sustainability progress; progressively transitioning from air to sea freight as a lower carbon mode of transport on the occasions that products go by air; collaborating with farmers on carbon-smart tobacco leaf farming and other projects; and fostering circularity throughout R&D, designing for end-of-life processes and promoting eco-design principles.
The Independent European Vape Alliance (IEVA) has expressed concerns about the Draft Amendment of the Tobacco and Smoking Products Order for regulation of e-cigarette flavors presented by the Dutch Ministry of Public Health, Welfare and Sports.
According to the statement submitted by the Dutch authorities, the draft amendment intends to ban flavors other than tobacco in e-liquids in order to “reduce the temptation for young people and former smokers to purchase e-cigarettes.” The measure, authorities note, is “justified by the need to protect public health.”
The proposal also suggests that the Netherlands will be more likely to achieve its objective of a smoke-free generation by 2040 if e-cigarettes are rendered less attractive.
According to the IEVA, the proposed flavor ban is neither proportional nor necessary, as it is too strong a measure for the objective it seeks to achieve and fails the EU requirement that member states choose the means that least restricts the free movement of goods.
The IEVA insists that the ban will boost black market activity and jeopardize tens of thousands of jobs while leading to a reduction in government revenues by reducing tax collection.
ITG Brands assumed liability for tobacco settlement payments to Florida when it acquired four Reynolds American brands in 2015, a Delaware judge ruled, according to AP. As a result, ITG must compensate Reynolds American Inc. for losses incurred.
ITG bought the Kool, Winston, Salem and Maverick brands in 2014. Before the sale closed, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. was making payments under a preexisting settlement agreement to reimburse Florida for smoking-related healthcare costs. After the deal closed, Reynolds stopped making payments for the four brands.
The purchase agreement required that ITG use reasonable best efforts to join the Florida settlement and make payments to the state for the brands it acquired from Reynolds. However, ITG has not joined the settlement agreement or made any payments.
Florida sued Reynolds and ITG, which ended with a judgment requiring Reynolds to continue paying on the settlement agreement unless and until ITG joins the agreement.
“That judgment on Reynolds amounts to over $170 million to date and tens of millions of dollars more each year into perpetuity,” noted Vice Chancellor Lori Will. The “unambiguous terms” of the asset purchase agreement support Reynolds’ arguments that ITG agreed to assume the liability imposed by the Florida judgment and must indemnify Reynolds, she concluded.
Philip Morris International has no intention to drop its bid for Swedish Match, CEO Jacek Olczak told Reuters. In fact, he believes the $16 billion offer is “even more attractive” now given that the global macro-economic environment has changed since the original bid.
In May, PMI offered to buy the Stockholm-based company to help accelerate its move to cigarette alternatives. Swedish Match is best known for its oral tobacco products, including snus and the Zyn tobacco-free nicotine pouches that have taken the U.S. market by storm.
By Swedish law, 90 percent of Swedish Match shareholders need to approve the offer before Oct. 21, but some have come out against the $16 billion offer, saying it undervalues the company.
One of the holdouts, Elliot Management Corp., recently increased its stake in Swedish Match to 7.25 percent from 5.5 percent. The activist investor is believed to be planning to oppose the deal under its current terms. Elliott’s increased stake means the offer will fail if another 2.75 percent of shareholders take a similar view.
Shareholder Framtiden Partnerships, which owns 1 percent of Swedish Match also believes PMI’s offer is too low.
Olczak indicated that if fewer than 90 percent of Swedish Match shareholders approve the bid, PMI could simply become a majority shareholder. He said he regularly met with investors of both companies but declined to comment on whether PMI would increase its offer.
The acceptance period for the offer was initially set to expire on Sept. 30, 2022, but was later extended to Oct. 21, 2022, as the bid awaits approval from the European Commission.
The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) should have consulted more with the Food and Drug Administration before banning IQOS imports, lawyers for Philip Morris International argued before an appeals court panel on Oct. 3, according to Reuters.
In September 2021, the ITC upheld an initial determination from May 2021 that PMI’s IQOS device infringes on two patents owned by BAT subsidiary Reynolds American Inc. (RAI). The agency then instituted an import ban and a cease-and-desist order preventing IQOS consumables and devices from being sold in the U.S.
PMI has challenged the import ban in court, arguing among other things that the ban deprives American smokers of nicotine products that are less unhealthy than cigarettes.
The case is part of a global patent dispute between RAI’s parent company BAT and tobacco giant Altria Group, which separated from PMI in 2008 and is the exclusive distributor of IQOS in the United States.
A North Carolina jury awarded Altria $95 million last month on claims that RAI’s Vuse e-cigarettes infringed its patents. In a separate case over RAI’s Vuse line, PMI won more than $10 million from a Virginia jury.
RAI sued Philip Morris at the ITC in 2020. Its related patent case against PMI in Virginia is on hold.
In July 2020, the FDA granted IQOS modified-risk orders, allowing Altria and PMI to tell consumers that the product generates lower levels of harmful chemicals than traditional cigarettes, among other claims.
The U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) welcomed the first vaping evidence review published by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID).
The latest vaping review builds on evidence collected by its predecessor, Public Health England (PHE), and further highlights the role that vaping can play in improving public health.
“It’s good to see that the experts involved in this latest review stand by the estimates that vaping is ‘at least 95 percent less harmful’ than combustible tobacco and that it ‘poses only a small fraction of the risks of smoking,’” said UKVIA Director General John Dunne in a statement.
“This figure was first revealed by the then PHE in 2015 in what was at the time described as a landmark review, and the statement that vaping is substantially less harmful than smoking on the back of this statistic continues to be cited by all the leading public health organizations in the U.K. today.
“Particularly welcoming is the evidence that indicates significantly lower relative exposure from vaping compared to smoking in biomarkers that are associated with the risk of cancer, respiratory conditions, cardiovascular conditions and other health conditions’ which lead to tens of thousands of deaths every year, not to mention the high levels of those suffering from debilitating smoking-related illnesses.”
Dunne also welcomed the review’s focus on youth vaping, which he said is currently at unacceptable levels.
“Our own Youth Access Prevention taskforce is working tirelessly with Trading Standards, the retail sector and brand owners to prevent youth access to vaping. We have recently sent the Department for Health and Social Care a number of recommendations, which are designed to cut the sale of vapes to minors off at the source. These include the introduction of a retail licensing or approved retailer and distributor scheme; increased penalties of at least £10,000 per instance for traders who flout U.K. law; and the introduction of a national test purchasing scheme to ensure all retail operations are performing to high standards when it comes to preventing youth access to e-cigarettes.”
Cigarette paper manufacturers are reconfiguring production processes to reduce their environmental impact.
By Stefanie Rossel
The effect of papermaking on the environment is considerable: According to Wikipedia, the pulp and paper industry is the world’s fifth-largest consumer of energy, accounting for 4 percent of global energy use. The sector uses more water than any other industry; producing 1 ton of paper requires an estimated 300 tons to 400 tons of water. Other issues include deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, harmful chemicals and wastewater.
Driven by greater environmental awareness and stricter regulations, paper manufacturers have been moving toward more sustainable production practices. Tobacco Reporter spoke to leading players in the cigarette paper business about their strategies to reduce the environmental footprint of their operations.
Photo: BMJ
Reduce, Reuse and Innovate
Liem Khe Fung
Based in Indonesia, BMJ is the world’s No. 3 cigarette paper producer, supplying about 10 percent of global requirements. BMJ Innovation Center Director Liem Khe Fung is convinced that without a sustainability strategy, a company won’t survive the next 10 years to 15 years. Therefore, BMJ has adopted a strategy of “reduce, reuse and innovate.”
“First, we reduce energy consumption,” explains Liem. “Second, we reuse or recycle water from the production line to minimize the use of water from the river. We also select the chemicals used in the production carefully to minimize their impacts to the environment. Finally, we intend to replace plastic-based materials with paper/pulp-based materials, for example, replacing plastic[-based] or metalized-based packaging with paper-based packaging that is safe for the environment yet has the same functionalities.”
Paper machines consume huge amounts of energy. To reduce that consumption, BMJ replaced energy-hungry machine parts, such as the motors that drive the rolls, with more efficient parts. By generating and feeding exactly the right amount of steam to the drying drums, BMJ reduced waste. The company also captured part of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from its coal boiler and used them to produce calcium carbonate (CaCO3), a key chemical in papermaking. According to Liem, using CaCO3 in liquid form saves much energy because it eliminates the need to transform the chemical into a powder for transportation.
Such actions have enabled BMJ to reduce its energy consumption by about 15 percent in just a few years.
Papermaking also requires lots of clean water, an increasingly scarce resource. Water accounts for up to 99.9 percent of the material mixture in the web-making process. Water is also used to generate steam to dry the web or paper. To reduce water consumption, BMJ modified its No. 3 paper machine to recycle water back into the production process several times before sending it to wastewater treatment.
Currently, BMJ derives 20 percent of its water requirements from recycled water. The company aims to use 50 percent recycled water by the end of 2023.
Looking ahead, BMJ hopes to install renewable energy systems, such as solar panels, by 2023. “We also would like to replace some of the coal used in our boiler with biomass,” says Liem.
Papermaking requires large amounts of energy and water. (Photo: Jose Luis Stephens)
Own Your Power
Vincent Li
Creating an in-house green energy supply is also at the heart of Hengfeng Paper’s sustainability strategy. With 21 production lines and an annual production of 230,000 tons, the Chinese manufacturer of cigarette paper, plug wrap and tipping base is an industry giant.
The company, which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, recently published a carbon footprint status and emission reduction action plan designed to meet government requirements. In September 2020, President Xi Jinping announced that as part of the country’s 14th five-year plan, China would strive for peak CO2 emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.
Due to its level of development, China’s primary energy demand is expected to increase to 6 billion tons of standard coal by 2030. The government aims to increase the proportion of power generated by clean energy sources to 59 percent by 2030 and 86 percent by 2050 while boosting the proportion of electricity generated by clean energy sources to 48 percent by 2030 and 83 percent by 2050.
To help China meet these objectives, Hengfeng plans to slash its carbon emissions by more than a third in eight years. The company will focus its efforts on improving the efficiency of power and steam acquisition, as a carbon footprint analysis identified these activities as the major contributors to the company’s global warming potential.
Among other initiatives, Hengfeng plans to build a 10 MW photovoltaic power plant. The company has already signed cooperation agreements with partners and is currently preparing for construction, according to Vincent Li, sales manager at Hengfeng Paper’s Export Department II. Upon completion, the facility will generate up to 1,000 kWh, which will be fully used for paper production.
To recover energy, Hengfeng will deploy cogeneration technology, which involves the thermodynamically efficient use of fuel. “In traditional power production, some of the energy must be discarded as waste heat, but in cogeneration, some of this heat is put to use,” explains Li.
“Hengfeng makes full use of low-pressure steam after power generation for paper drying to achieve the purpose of maximizing energy utilization,” he says. The company fully recovers and utilizes the heat of the condensed water generated by the paper web drying process. It also plans to install high efficiency heads on the water pipe for washing. “We will promote high-pressure cleaning of the Fourdrinier* sections, thus improv[ing] the cleaning efficiency and sav[ing] the washing water by mobile spray and increasing the spray pressure,” adds Li.
Hengfeng has also been working on reducing its carbon footprint in CaCO3. “Hengyuan biochemical company, the calcium carbonate supplier [for] Hengfeng, introduced German process technology in 2017 and introduced the flue gas of Hengfeng’s thermal power plant into the reactor through an overhead pipeline,” says Li. “It uses quicklime and carbon dioxide in the flue gas to generate light calcium carbonate, comprehensively utilizes the carbon dioxide in the flue gas and reduces the carbon dioxide emissions. The annual comprehensive utilization of carbon dioxide in the flue gas is about 22,000 tons.”
To reduce fresh water consumption, Hengfeng has expanded the volume of its storage tank and increased the share of recycled water, among other measures. “We also introduce, popularize and apply new water-saving technologies and carry out a water-saving inspection every month to ensure that water-saving targets are achieved,” says Li.
SWM’s Quimperlé facility in Brittany, France. (Photo: SWM)
A ‘Thinner’ Impact
Marc Bettoli
SWM, a provider of engineered fine papers with expertise in natural fiber-based solutions, has launched a new initiative called “Thinpact” that regroups its different actions across its engineered paper division.
The company aims to set an example for the industry by researching and developing sustainable processes and solutions while being authentic and transparent about the process.
For the 2020–2030 period, SWM wants to reduce the CO2 emissions of its engineered papers business unit by 40 percent and its water withdrawal volumes by 25 percent.
“Reducing our impact is a complex process to which SWM is fully committed,” says SWM ESG Manager Marc Bettoli. “We decided to act step by step, starting with energy and waste. The first step for the reduction of carbon emissions is a program launched on Scope 1 and Scope 2—direct and energy-related—emissions. We have designed a sufficiency plan in order to get the right setting on paper machines. For instance, the drying temperature is set differently depending on the reference produced on the machine. We have also developed a plan to run the most efficient assets for the needed usage. For instance, we choose a pump with the best power, yield or technology, or we recover all possible heat from steam. The third step is the use of renewable sources of energy. For instance, we will add renewable electricity in the power mix.”
SWM has reduced its CO2 intensity—that is, the CO2 equivalent emissions per metric ton of goods produced, Scopes 1 and 2—by 11 percent between 2020 and 2021. At its largest site, Quimperle in France, the company has saved 3 percent of energy consumption year to date.
Waste reduction is also on SWM’s agenda. At Quimperle, the company plans to reduce landfill waste by 30 percent in the first year of a pilot program through internal incentives and education, waste assessment and waste valorization.
In addition to Quimperle, SWM has two other paper mills in France. This summer, France experienced the impact of climate change firsthand through a historic drought.
At the time of writing, the company’s French sites had not yet been impacted by water scarcity. “We are monitoring water levels on all sites with environmental managers at the sites, and we are in close contact with administration to [make] decisions if needed, especially in times of crisis,” says Bettoli. “We have implemented water recycling modes that were prepared for a long time. With the specific program on water management in order to reach or exceed our minus 25 percent goal for 2030, we will be prepared for upcoming historic droughts.”
Some of SWM’s energy comes from biomass. In Le Mans, for example, a biomass boiler produces steam. “We have developed a plan to roll out biomass boilers on other papermaking sites by 2030,” says Bettoli. “We are currently studying possibilities to add renewable electricity in our power mix, with the ‘Virtual Power Purchase Agreement’ approach.”
The company has also installed several energy recovery processes in its mills. The Quimperle plant, for example, both produces and burns black liquor, a byproduct of pulp processing, for energy recovery. SWM uses heat exchangers to recover energy losses of air and hot water and heat from production processes to heat its offices and buildings. It has also implemented hood closures and automatic controls to limit losses such as exhausted air.
By reusing excess water from the paper machines for dilution in the stock preparation area, the company reduces water consumption. For that purpose, SWM has implemented a fiber recovery system.
Bettoli says the company is also reshaping product design to support the development of new products that have a lower overall impact. “This approach is included in our R&D processes,” he says. “We have developed an eco-scorecard, and we are looking forward to collaborating with the industry to reduce the impact of our activities together. One recent example is the Evolute filter media product range, which is paper for filters to replace standard acetate within filters.”
*Modern papermaking machines are based on the principles of the Fourdrinier Machine, which uses a moving woven mesh to create a continuous paper web by filtering out the fibers held in a paper stock and producing a continuously moving wet mat of fiber. This is dried in the machine to produce a strong paper web.
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.
Harm reduction activists worry about New Zealand’s plan to phase out tobacco use.
By Stefanie Rossel
Imagine it’s 2039. You’re at one of a few remaining tobacconist stores with a former classmate, both trying to buy some combustible cigarettes. But as it happens, you were born on New Year’s Day 2009 and your friend on New Year’s Eve 2008. An ID check lets him acquire the desired smokes, but you are not allowed to buy the products—for the duration of your life.
This is a situation New Zealanders will soon be facing. In January, New Zealand unveiled its Smoke-Free Aotearoa 2025 Action Plan, an amendment of the country’s Smokefree Environments Act (1990), which seeks to take the country’s already low current smoking prevalence of just under 10 percent down to 5 percent or below within the next three years.
The proposal’s most spectacular element is a generational tobacco ban: Starting in 2023, anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 2009, would be barred for life from purchasing combustible cigarettes under the new rules. Someone aged 14 when the law entered into effect would hence never be able to legally purchase tobacco. In a statement, Ayesha Verrall, the country’s associate health minister, said the government wants to make sure young people never start smoking. While it would still take decades to phase out tobacco products completely, the generation currently at school would feel the effect of the legislation very soon.
In late July, the bill passed the first reading in Parliament. It is now being reviewed by the Parliament’s public health select committee and is expected to be adopted in December. The regulation would be a world first, and implementation is likely; Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Party is governing with an absolute majority.
Nancy Loucas
Reactions to the proposal have been divided, according to Nancy Loucas, co-founder of Aotearoa Vapers Community Advocacy (AVCA). The association agrees with the “smoke-free generation” in principle but remains concerned that it could be an overreach. “Our youth smoking rate is already at 1.3 percent, so many are saying it’s unnecessary and overkill,” she says. “There are concerns [that] an older sibling giving someone from the smoke-free generation [SFG] tobacco may be criminalized, and that is not acceptable. Others are saying it’s a possible human rights violation because if someone from the SFG comes of age and can drink, etc., but not buy tobacco, how can the government prevent a legal adult from a legal consumer product? The reaction has been much more negative than the government expected, I would say.”
Marewa Glover
Marewa Glover, director of the Centre of Research Excellence: Indigenous Sovereignty and Smoking, describes the strategy as “virtue signaling.” “The negative consequences of previous ‘smoke-free’ legislation are already resulting in an uptick in young people committing robberies for tobacco and being charged and imprisoned for such crimes,” she says. “Youth mental health and preventing youth suicide are a higher priority for increased intervention. The negative consequences of the proposed legislation risks will be worsening that crisis. The law will create an unnecessarily larger bureaucracy, increased enforcement activity, and more people will be diverted into the justice system. It also will set a dangerous precedent. Young people are not taking up smoking now. It is no longer considered ‘cool.’ The rationale for preventing the ‘rite of passage,’ as stated by the minister in her interview on June 21, 2022, with the editor of the Tobacco Control journal, is therefore outdated and flawed.”
The proposal not only discriminates against age. Legal experts have indicated that the generational ban will particularly target Maori and Pacific Islanders, among whom smoking prevalence is disproportionately high. According to Health New Zealand, the Maori smoking rate was 31.4 percent in 2019–2020. At 32 percent, Maori women constitute New Zealand’s highest smoking rate. According to critics, the generational tobacco ban could end up stigmatizing certain communities. “That is a very real possibility,” confirms Loucas. “The Maori and Pacifica communities are already disadvantaged, and the last thing they need is more stigma and discrimination.”
Glover, who has been working closely with Maori smokers for years, says New Zealand’s adoption of government Ministry of Health campaigns to encourage people who smoke to quit or switch to vaping is working particularly well for Maori. “There is no need for another drastic punitive law to be passed. The negative consequences already mentioned will worsen other outcomes for Maori, e.g., associated with the increase in black market activity.”
Rapid Withdrawal
Proponents say the goal of a smoke-free generation is achievable and realistic whereas smokers’ rights advocates consider the plan an attack on personal freedoms, a prohibition that will not work. Others fear it might backfire and fuel the already burgeoning illicit cigarette market, which is estimated to account for around 10 percent of New Zealand’s total tobacco market. Loucas believes the illicit market is much higher because the official numbers capture only imports while leaving out the growers and sellers in the country. “The gangs will take over as they have with everything else the government ‘bans’ if the law is punitive,” she says. “Bans don’t work. They never have and never will. The market, especially the gray and black market, will always rise to meet the need.”
The two other components of New Zealand’s Action Plan also have the potential to boost the black market: Starting in 2024, the number of legal retail outlets will be reduced from about 8,000 to fewer than 500. Cigarettes will no longer be available at kiosks, gas stations or supermarkets, with sales limited to licensed tobacco retailers. From 2025, the country will mandate the sale of very low-nicotine cigarettes. Currently, a 90 percent to 95 percent nicotine reduction to nonaddictive levels is being discussed. With a sense of understatement, Glover describes a nicotine yield of below 0.05 mg per gram as “subfunctional.”
Almost overnight, New Zealand’s government will make its citizens quit cold turkey. In contrast to the World Health Organization’s anti-tobacco harm reduction stance, though, the proposed law includes a massive broadening of addiction therapy offers. Vaping, which was regulated in 2020, will remain legal. “Vaping has worked so far in the last year to cut the number of people who smoke down drastically,” says Loucas. “I think we stay the course. What is missing is a public education campaign that was slated to start upon legalization but was sidetracked because of Covid. That education plan needs to be rolled out immediately to stop the disinformation campaign from a select few NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] who are anti-nicotine.”
Having passed the generational tobacco ban upon first reading in July, New Zealand lawmakers are likely to endorse the legislation in December. (Photo: asanojunki0110)
Legal Issues
With its tobacco control plans, New Zealand enters uncharted territory. While the tobacco-free generation was first discussed in 2010, it was never implemented anywhere on a nationwide scale. Bhutan banned tobacco sales and cultivation in 2010, but the measure backfired, with smugglers taking the place of legal vendors. In 2021, the Himalayan kingdom lifted the sales ban.
Mandatory very low-nicotine cigarettes, an objective also pursued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, might run into legal challenges as well, as AVCA points out. Like the generational tobacco ban, such a measure might prove to violate human rights on the basis that adults have the right to make informed choices. Vaping advocates believe there’s insufficient longitudinal research to prove that very low-nicotine cigarettes help people quit smoking. Further, the move could also see New Zealanders heading to the black market or growing their own tobacco.
The question of whether the planned measures are proportional is justified. New Zealand has been a model student as far as the implementation of tobacco control measures is concerned. From the 1970s, the country has used the full range of tobacco control instruments, including smoke-free laws, advertising bans and standardized cigarette packaging. Due to high taxation, New Zealand cigarette prices are the second-highest in the world after Australia’s. A pack of 20 Marlboro cigarettes retails at around nzd37 ($22.69). Smoking rates have dropped drastically over the past decades. With those lighting up accounting for less than 10 percent of the population, the country has roughly 450,000 smokers left.
A Blueprint for Others?
The world is watching as New Zealand embarks on its smoke-free experiment. Shortly after New Zealand had revealed its Action Plan, Singapore’s health authorities started debating whether the city state should follow suit by gradually raising the smoking age until it covers the entire population. However, Singapore is unlikely to copy New Zealand’s embrace of vaping as an alternative to smoking, as vape products are banned in the city state. Singapore has been fiercely anti-tobacco since the 1980s, with measures having become progressively stricter over the years. The country’s smoking prevalence presently stands at 10 percent.
Also in January, Malaysia announced it would ban the use, possession and sale of cigarettes and vape products for those born after 2007. The bill proposes a fine for offenders and also empowers enforcement officers to open without a warrant any baggage or container for inspection. The draft law was met with resistance from several sides. The parliamentary select committee on health called for the plan to be postponed by three years, arguing that the period should be used to study the possible need to enact separate legislation for combustible and noncombustible tobacco products.
In Malaysia, too, there are concerns about black market sales. Critics fear a generational tobacco ban would further invigorate the country’s illicit cigarette market, which is proportionally already the largest in the world, accounting for about 60 percent of the country’s total tobacco market. In August, the bill was sent back to the parliamentary select committee for further scrutiny. The regulation may be further delayed or even abandoned as Malaysia’s Parliament is expected to be dissolved in late October after the tabling of the budget.
Outside the Asia-Pacific region, Denmark said it wanted to introduce New Zealand-style measures, including a generational ban that would prohibit anyone born in or after 2010 to buy tobacco products.
“Bans and prohibition do not work,” Loucas emphasizes. “They create more harm, and that is the last thing any public health promoter wants as their legacy. In countries that are willing to accept tobacco harm reduction on the basis of science and evidence, they can (and should) see similar decreases in smoking relative to population, such as New Zealand has. But it requires risk-proportionate regulations and effective and compassionate enforcement.”
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.
