Vapor Corp. said on Wednesday that CEO, Kevin Frija, was due to make a presentation at the Second Annual Marcum LLP MicroCap Conference on May 30 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, New York City.
The company’s presentation is scheduled to begin at 16.00 hours Eastern Daylight Time.
More information and registration is available at the conference website: http://www.marcumllp.com/microcap
Researchers in Australia, Canada, the UK and the US have concluded that electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) might have the potential to serve as cessation aids, according to a paper published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
The researchers set out to examine patterns of ENDS awareness, use, and product-associated beliefs among current and former smokers in four countries.
Their data, which was collected between July 2010 and June 2011, and analyzed through June 2012, came from studying 5,939 current and former smokers in Canada (1,581), the US (1,520); the UK (1,325); and Australia (1,513).
‘Overall, 46.6 per cent were aware of ENDS (US: 73 per cent, UK: 54 per cent, Canada: 40 per cent, Australia: 20 per cent); 7.6 per cent had tried ENDS (16 per cent of those aware of ENDS); and 2.9 per cent were current users (39 per cent of triers),’ according the Results section of an abstract of the paper.
‘Awareness of ENDS was higher among younger, non-minority smokers with higher incomes who were heavier smokers.
‘Prevalence of trying ENDS was higher among younger, nondaily smokers with a high income and among those who perceived ENDS as less harmful than traditional cigarettes.
‘Current use was higher among both nondaily and heavy (≥20 cigarettes per day) smokers.
‘In all, 79.8 per cent reported using ENDS because they were considered less harmful than traditional cigarettes; 75.4 per cent stated that they used ENDS to help them reduce their smoking; and 85.1 per cent reported using ENDS to help them quit smoking.’
The researchers concluded that the awareness of ENDS was high, especially in countries where they were legal – the US and UK.
‘Because trial was associated with nondaily smoking and a desire to quit smoking, ENDS may have the potential to serve as a cessation aid,’ they said.
University of Western Australia (UWA) researchers have found that poorer West Australian suburbs have four times the number of tobacco outlets than those found in their affluent neighbors, according to a story on WAtoday.com.au.
The study was published in the Medical Journal of Australia.
It is unlikely that the researchers were surprised by the findings. The lead researcher, UWA’s Centre for the Built Environment and Health associate professor, Lisa Wood, was quoted as saying that people from “lower socio-economic backgrounds” had a higher smoking prevalence than did those from higher socio-economic backgrounds. “…and we already know there’s a whole raft of reasons for that,” she said.
Russian federal investigators have alleged that British American Tobacco’s local units have failed to pay tax amounting to upwards of RUB335 million, according to report by the Russian Legal Information Agency (RLIA) quoting an Izvestia newspaper story.
An investigation was opened in respect of BAT’s St. Petersburg, Saratov, and Moscow units, which are alleged not to have paid their taxes in full for the 2008-2009 period.
BAT Russia was said to have told Izvestia it hadn’t received any information from investigators about criminal cases having been opened.
At the same time, the company confirmed that the tax authorities had found violations in the company’s operations in 2008-2009, but that the conflict had been resolved earlier this month under a procedure set out in the law.
BAT representatives insist that they have been following internationally accepted business practices and believe the Russian tax authorities’ claims are ungrounded.
The RLIA said this was not the first time a large international company had had problems with the Russian tax authorities.
The Jordan Customs Department (JCD) on Monday foiled an attempt to smuggle 203,000 packs of cigarettes into the country, according to a Jordan Times story.
The cigarettes were found in six containers.
The Times said the packs were seized, and were being held by the JCD ‘until’ the would-be smugglers paid their fines, which amount to about JD5 million.
It wasn’t clear what would happen to the cigarettes once the fines were paid.
Local health control people have accused the TobaccoMuseum in Shanghai, China, of being a giant advertisement for the tobacco industry, according to a story in the Global times.
They are demanding that the authorities revoke the museum’s honorary titles that allow the museum to present itself as a venue suitable for students.
The Times story quoted a museum employee as saying that the museum had been under fire since the School of Public Health at FudanUniversity published a video and report last year criticizing the venue.
Imperial Tobacco employees based in Bristol recently gave something back to the company’s local community when they joined thousands of other people across the UK in taking part in Give & Gain Day.
The annual event, run by the Business in the Community organization, is the country’s leading employee volunteering action day.
Company secretary, John Downing, joined people from Imperial’s head office and its UK market team to help spruce up a neglected area in the south of the city.
Working with the city council and a local community group, the volunteers cleared rubbish, planted trees and tended gardens.
“As a responsible business it’s important for us to do our bit and support the communities in which we operate,” said Downing.
“This was a great way for people who work in different parts of our business to come together outside their normal working environment to help others.”
ITC of India reported a net profit of INR19.28 billion ($350.3 million) in the quarter ending March 31, up 19.45 percent from the comparable quarter last year.
The company’s non-tobacco FMCG business contributed a net profit of INR118.7 million during the quarter, compared with a net loss of INR166.8 million in the 2012 quarter.
ITC’s profit for the fiscal year 2013 was INR74.18 billion, up 20.38 percent from INR61.61 billion in 2012, as its full-year net sales increased by 19.39 percent to INR 296.06 billion.
ITC officials said that while the company’s foods business has been profitable for the past few quarters, its nontobacco segment as a whole made a profit for the first time.
Morgan Stanley analysts expect ITC’s earnings growth to continue, pointing to the company’s recent success in the 64 mm segment.
A joint declaration adopted May 17th by Polish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Romanian and Bulgarian agriculture ministers criticizes the European Commission’s draft Tobacco Products Directive, especially the proposed ban on slim and menthol cigarettes, reports Europolitics.
The ministers said that, if approved, the directive would hurt thousands of families that depend on tobacco cultivation for their living. They called on the Commission to “establish support instruments for producers which would compensate for losses incurred due to the implementation of the directive,” and “to guarantee an alternative for those who would like to withdraw from tobacco production.”
The ministers also opposed the proposal for cigarette health warnings to cover 75 percent of the surface area of packaging, saying this requirement would have negative consequences for the rights of brand owners and increase the possibility of fraud.
The Industrial Promotion Board (IPB) in Nepal announced an indefinite moratorium on the registration of new gutka manufacturing units after figures from the Inland Revenue Department showed only 150 of 455 registered gutka factories pay taxes, reports Kantipur Online.
Following India’s April 2011 directive banning the sale of gutka in plastic pouches, Indian gutka producers have shifted their operations to border towns in Nepal’s Terai region.
An IPB task force will investigate the gutka industry and submit recommendations within two months.
According to the customs’ department, local manufacturers exported 361,000 tons of gutka in the first five months of fiscal year 2013, more than three times the amount exported in fiscal year 2012.