Category: News This Week

Court Stays Kathmandu Ban on Plastic Packs

Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive
The Patan High Court on Dec. 15 stayed the Kathmandu Metropolitan City’s decision to ban the sale of tobacco products packed in plastics, reports The Kathmandu Post.
Judges Janak Pandey and Brajesh Pyakurel issued an interim order not to implement the decision while responding to a tobacco company’s petition against the decision of the metropolis.
In early December, the city announced a ban on the sale of tobacco products packed in plastics in the areas under its jurisdiction from Dec. 13. In its ruling, the court argued that tobacco companies are preparing to pack their products in biodegradable packages.
Kathmandu tried to ban tobacco several times before, but failed on each occasion.
December 15, 2023
KT&G Investor Urges Transparent CEO Search
Baek Bok-in
Flashlight Capital Partners (FCP) is urging KT&G to select its next CEO in a more transparent manner.
In a video published ahead of the South Korean tobacco firm’s annual general meeting in March 2024, FCP highlighted what it considered the problems during previous CEO nominations. It lamented the fact that current CEO Beak Bok-in was the only candidate, for example, and criticized the board’s unusually swift 11-day decisionmaking.
FCP also expressed disappointment in the performance of Baek, who has held the position for three consecutive terms. Over nine years, KT&G stock fell by 19 percent while the KOSPI index rose by 26 percent, according to FCP.
The investor questioned management’s “vain pursuit on volume” at the expense of profit, noting a 40 percent revenue growth coupled with a 17 percent decrease in operating profit. FCP pointed to such “lack of profit motive” as a primary cause for the stock’s over 50 percent discount relative to its peers.
To address the shortcomings, Sanghyun Lee, managing partner of Flashlight Capital, suggested allowing sufficient time for a proper candidate evaluation process; considering outsiders with fast-moving consumer goods expertise; and thoroughly documenting the process for the sake of transparency.
“The 11-day CEO nomination is unprecedented in Korea, standing out even among other former government-owned companies,” said Lee in a statement.
In 2022, KT&G rebuffed a request by FCP to spin of its lucrative ginseng business and appoint certain outside directors.
December 15, 2023
U.S. Authorities Seize 1.4 Million Vapes

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in collaboration with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) seized approximately 1.4 million units of unauthorized e-cigarette products with an estimated retail value of more than $18 million.
The seizures were part of a three-day joint operation that resulted in seizure of 41 shipments containing illegal e-cigarettes.
“The FDA is committed to continuing to stem the flow of illegal e-cigarettes into the United States,” said Robert Califf, FDA commissioner, in a statement. “Unscrupulous companies try everything they can to bring unauthorized, youth-appealing tobacco products into the country. The FDA will remain vigilant, and together with our federal partners, stop these imports before they make it into the hands of our nation’s youth.”
“This enforcement action is a prime example of CBP’s commitment to keeping our communities safe by disrupting the importation of illegal goods into our country,” said Troy A. Miller, senior official performing the duties of the commissioner for CBP. “The rise in illicit e-commerce demands that our agencies remain vigilant in intercepting shipments that could pose serious health risks to the public, including youth, while disrupting the supply chains that bring them to our borders.”
Among the seized products were Elf Bar, EB Create, Lost Mary, Funky Republic, Relx Pod and Iplay Max, among other brands. The seized shipments all originated in China. Many of the products were misdeclared as toys or shoes.
“Those shamelessly attempting to smuggle illegal e-cigarettes, particularly those that appeal to youth, into this country should take heed of today’s announcement,” said Brian King, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. “Federal agencies are on to their antics and will not hesitate to take action. The significant value of these seized products is also a sobering reminder to these bad actors that their time and money would be better spend complying with the law.”
According to Reuters, the announcement of the seizure follows reports of Chinese vaping firm Heaven Gifts disregarding U.S. regulations and flooding the market with illicit flavored disposable vapor products, including Elf Bar and Lost Mary. Elf Bar has been identified as one of the most common brands used by youth, according to the National Youth Tobacco Survey.
Anti-tobacco advocates have praised the efforts of the FDA and CBP. “This is the strongest enforcement action the government has taken to clear the market of illegal flavored e-cigarette products that are addicting our kids and endangering their health,” a Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids press statement said. “It represents the coordination needed across government agencies to prevent the importation of illegal e-cigarette products into the U.S. and stop bad actors from continually finding new ways to prey on our kids. We urge the FDA, CBP, the Department of Justice and other relevant agencies to continue to use every enforcement tool at their disposal to take these illegal products off the market.”
The seizure took place at the Los Angeles International Airport in California.
December 15, 2023
FDA Asked to Clarify PMTA Process

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U.S. senators Ted Budd, Rand Paul and Joe Manchin, sent a letter to Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf requesting he explain and clarify the FDA’s approach to nicotine product regulation and urging him to reform the tobacco product application process, according to Vaping360.
“Since 2009, more than 26 million premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs) have been submitted for new tobacco products in the U.S.,” the senators wrote.
“Of those 26 million applications, the CTP [Center for Tobacco Products] has authorized fewer than 50. Remarkably, it has also authorized a total of only 16 modified-risk tobacco products (MRTPs) for only four unique products and their accessories.
“This miniscule authorization rate is not in keeping with the CTP policy acknowledging that tobacco products fall on a continuum of risk. The availability of scientifically substantiated, authorized PMTAs or MRTPs could potentially improve health outcomes for smokers currently using riskier products.”
The Tobacco Control Act requires that the CTP review and decide on PMTAs and MRTPs within 180 days, however, the FDA has not delivered on this timeline.
The senators cited the Reagan-Udall Foundation’s report on the CTP and posed a series of questions to Califf.
The senators are asking Califf to respond to their questions within 30 days.
December 15, 2023
Pyxus Publishes 2023 Sustainability Report

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Pyxus International published its Fiscal Year 2023 Sustainability Report detailing the company’s progress toward its global environmental, social and governance (ESG) targets, contributions to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the measurable impacts of its sustainability initiatives around the globe.
“Fiscal year 2023 marked our 150th year of business, a significant milestone that highlights the strength and sustainability of our company,” said Pyxus President and CEO Pieter Sikkel in a statement. “While we have a long history of driving impactful actions, this year’s report is a testament to our decision to integrate the company’s business and sustainability strategies and the positive results that stem from that decision.”
During FY23, the company surpassed its global target to reduce total water withdrawal by 10 percent by 2030, achieving a reduction of 12.87 percent. This was accomplished despite the expanded scope of the target, which previously encompassed only groundwater consumption.
Pyxus reduced its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 9.39 percent and Scope 3 emissions by 11.17 percent when compared to the prior reporting year. The company planted trees on 48 percent more acreage compared to the prior year, as the company continued its work with stakeholders, including its contracted farmers, to reduce deforestation linked to crop production.

While we have a long history of driving impactful actions, this year’s report is a testament to our decision to integrate the company’s business and sustainability strategies and the positive results that stem from that decision.
Pieter Sikker, president and CEO, Pyxus International.
In its processing operations, Pyxus recycled, reused or repurposed 40.8 percent of waste generated.
The company exceeded its annual community support target by more than four times, benefiting over 600,000 individuals, a total that comes on top of the support the company provides to its contracted growers. Pyxus maintained a lost-time injury (LTI) rate of less than 0.5 per 100 employees over 200,000 hours worked for the second year in a row with an LTI rate of .41.
The company also achieved a 99.5 percent Code of Business Conduct training completion rate among eligible employees.
“I am proud of our teams around the world who contributed to our FY23 results. In addition to surpassing two of our ESG targets—water and community support—we successfully navigated challenges and mitigated risks to deliver stakeholder value while strengthening our position as a forward-thinking company as we chart our path through the next 150 years,” stated Sikkel.
The sustainability report outlines Pyxus’ performance during the period of April 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023.
December 15, 2023
Australia to Mandate Stick Warnings

Image: Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care
Federal laws passed in Australia will require vapes and individual cigarettes to display warning labels beginning April 2024.
The labels will include “toxic addiction,” “poisons in ever puff,” “causes 16 cancers” and “What is this costing you?” according to the Daily Mail.
Proposed new packaging images show cancerous tumors in the mouth and throat and a surgeon removing a voice box. The changes also include incorporating inserts in cigarette packs promoting the benefits of quitting smoking and providing contact information for helpline support to quit.
According to Health Minister Mark Butler, the measures are necessary because consumers have become desensitized to the warnings and images currently printed on packs.
“The most concerning thing over the last 10 years is the advice that the government has received is that the smoking rates, which have been declining steadily for 50 years or so, have started to plateau,” said Butler. “We are not currently on track to achieve the targets that are set our in the National Tobacco Strategy.”
“I am so delighted the Parliament has passed a new generation of laws to take the fight back up to big tobacco and to save more American lives,” Butler said.
Products will have 12 months to comply with the new packaging requirements. Retailers will have an additional three months to update stock.
The import of nontherapeutic and disposable single-use vapes will also be banned.
“Today marks a new era as Australia returns to the forefront of the global fight against smoking,” Butler said. “We cannot stand by and allow another generation of people to be lured into addiction and suffer the enormous health, economic and social consequences.
“The laws that passed today will save lives.”
Current plain packaging laws state that cigarette and other tobacco product packaging must display extreme disease caused by smoking. Point of sale advertising is banned, and cigarettes for retail must be hidden from view at all times. Tobacco is also heavily taxed in Australia, and a pack is set to surpass $50 in 2026.
The sale of illegal tobacco and vapes has increased in the country, and smoking and nicotine-based vaping among 14-year-olds to 17-year-olds has increased 15-fold in the past five years. Illegal tobacco is commonly available and widely socially acceptable.
In August, a requirement for tobacco companies to print warnings on individual cigarettes took effect in Canada.
December 15, 2023
Malaysia Tobacco Law Passes Upper House

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Malaysia’s upper house of Parliament has passed the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Bill 2023, reports The Star. Earlier, the legislation had been approved by the country’s lower house.
The legislation prohibits the sale and purchase of tobacco products, smoking materials of smoking substitute products and providing any smoking-services to minors.
A provision banning the sale of tobacco products to individuals born from Jan. 1, 2007, onwards in an earlier version of the legislation was dropped.
The so-called generational tobacco ban (GEG) was abandoned after the Attorney General’s Chambers suggested it might violate the constitution by creating different rules for different age groups. Critics however blamed tobacco industry pressure for Malasia’s U-turn.
A day earlier, Malaysia’s newly appointed health minister, Dzulkefly Ahmad, expressed his regrets for the GEG exclusion.
He noted that 18 engagement sessions with stakeholders and three roundtable discussions had taken place before the bill was finalized.
“However, human plans, and Allah decides, and fate has placed us here today, where you cannot see or read the GEG provisions in this bill,” said Ahmad. “I apologize sincerely.”
In related news, new figures suggested that vaping has overtaken smoking as the main method of nicotine consumption among young Malaysians. According to the Southeast Asian Tobacco Control (SEATCO) Alliance, e-cigarette use among this age group is about 30 percent, compared with 12.5 percent for smoking.
“Claims of harm reduction are unproven and deceptive,” said SEATCO. “It is more accurate to say this is harm initiation for youths that have never smoked and harm substitution for smokers trying to quit,” it added.
The organization called on Malaysia to follow the example of neighboring countries that have banned e-cigarettes. Vapor products are prohibited in Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore and Thailand.
December 15, 2023
Experts Concerned About Tobacco Control

Photo: Andrey Popov
The Italian publication Formiche recently published a report raising concerns about the WHO’s tobacco control policies and strategies in combating smoking related diseases.
Titled, “Framework Convention on Tobacco Control: Challenges and Prospects for WHO,” the report provides a comprehensive overview of the smoking crisis, the limitations of current tobacco control policies, and the role of harm reduction and non-combustion products. Additionally, it emphasizes the need for innovative strategies and a re-evaluation of the WHO’s approach to effectively combat the global smoking epidemic.
The report highlights how the FCTC has not considered harm reduction efforts which led to a deviation from the original stance of the WHO. Despite the FCTC’s efforts, the number of smokers have remained stable over the last 20 years, with the decrease in smoking rates being countered by the effects of population growth.
It further suggests technology innovations that eliminate combustion, represent significant steps toward harm reduction. However, the FCTC, whilst acknowledging the potential of these innovations, has not adopted them, and discounts the growing body of science evidencing their potential. Experts state that the parties to the treaty have abandoned the core principle of harm reduction and ignored scientific evidence leading to misinformation amongst consumers.
“With 80-90 percent of alternative tobacco products being less toxic in comparison to combustibles, there is clearly a solution to reducing tobacco risk, but the world seems to be completely blindfolded. It is essential for tobacco control policies to respect human rights and consider the integration of the principles of risk reduction by adopting alternatives,” said Riccardo Polosa, professor of internal medicine at the University of Catania, in a statement.

With 80-90 percent of alternative tobacco products being less toxic in comparison to combustibles, there is clearly a solution to reducing tobacco risk, but the world seems to be completely blindfolded.
Riccardo Polosa, professor of internal medicine, University of Catania
“At the moment the biggest issue concerns the misinformation,” said Expressing his concern, Peter Hajek, director of Tobacco Dependence Research Unit of the Wolfson Institute of Public Health at Queen Mary University in London. “The public believes that tobacco alternatives are as dangerous as traditional cigarettes when they are much less dangerous, and people should be encouraged to use those less risky alternatives.”
Outlining an alternative approach, the report highlights the best practices in markets where alternatives have helped to accelerate the decline in smoking. Research suggests that a majority of Italian smokers support state-promoted information campaigns and research on non-combustion tobacco alternatives, according to Formiche. “A notable shift from traditional smoking to alternatives has been observed, with many smokers ceasing the use of cigarettes,” the report notes. “This suggests a strong substitution effect of new alternatives for cigarettes.”
The authors also point out that scientific evidence on alternatives has been evaluated positively by numerous regulatory bodies. In the U.S., for example, the Food and Drug Administration, introduced the “Modified Risk Tobacco Products” category, recognizing products with reduced risks compared to traditional cigarettes.
Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, the Dutch RIVM, France’s Pasteur Institute, Belgium’s Superior Health Council and other European institutions have acknowledged the reduction of emissions and toxic substances in heated tobacco alternatives, albeit with caution about their overall health impact. Sweden’s approach toward smokeless alternatives has significantly reduced its smoking rate, achieving early targets set by the EU’s European Beating Cancer Plan.
The report’s author also worry about the tobacco control policies pursued by many low- and middle-income countries, which are home to 18 percent of the world’s smokers and where policies either ban alternative nicotine solutions entirely, or treat them like cigarettes.
The effect of these approaches, according to the report, is that smokers who do not quit, are not supported in changing to options that could present less risk to them. “The hope is that the forthcoming Conference of the Parties can represent an opportunity for public health but also, in the spirit of the United Nations, a moment of confrontation to guide policy choices based on established scientific evidence”, the report states.
December 15, 2023
Excessive Rains Torment Brazilian Crops

Photo: Ronaldo Almeida
The tobacco-growing areas in southern Brazil have been severely affected by adverse weather, according to a crop update provided by Kohltrade. In addition to hail, tobacco farmers have had to cope with excessive rains this season, causing plant roots to drown and leaves to develop spots.
Farmers were forced to harvest wet fields. Limited curing capacity will likely produce a higher percentage of mahoganies this season.
Despite an increased planted area, the average flue-cured Virginia (FCV) crop yield in the three southern states is estimated to be 20.5 percent lower compared than in a typical year.
Since weather patterns are not expected to change during the Brazilian summer, industry experts expect the total green FCV volume to be around 475 million kg.
The same weather conditions are forcing air cured burley farmers to collect and hang underdeveloped plants. Many farmers are reporting rotting leaves.
The negative impact on green volume is more than 20 percent, and Brazil is expected to produce around 39 million kg of burley this year. Lower yields will likely affect factory performance as well.
Small traders are already purchasing the new crop at inflated prices. The overall quality of the low stalk is poor due to the high inclusion of house-burned and unseparated leaves.
Historically, Brazilian rainy crops result in good-quality upper stalks, however. Alkaloid tests in early areas are showing lower nicotine levels, as expected.
In December, some companies began purchasing FCVs, while others began purchasing burleys as early as November. Farmer associations predict an increase in the cost of green product of more than 10 percent.
December 14, 2023
Indonesia Alarmed by Smoking Rates

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Indonesia’s Ministry of Health is urging stronger tobacco-control measures following news that the country’s smoking prevalence has reached 33.5 percent of the population, reports Antara.
Eva Susanti, director of non-communicable disease prevention and control at the Ministry of Health, attributed the popularity of smoking in part to the affordability of cigarettes and the considerable marketing freedoms enjoyed by tobacco companies in Indonesia.
“Promotional advertisements of tobacco products are still very widespread, and advertising regulations are still weak in terms of protecting Indonesian teenagers and reducing the desire [to smoke], especially among children and teenagers,” she noted.
Susanti called for higher taxes on both tobacco products and vapes, which have also gained popularity in Indonesia. The prevalence of e-cigarette use has grown from 0.3 percent of the population to 3 percent, she noted.
Susanti insisted that revenues earned from tobacco taxes should support efforts to control smoking and optimize stop-smoking services in all districts and cities in Indonesia.
She said that her ministry will collaborate with the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture to monitor cigarette advertisements, implement excise and combat illegal cigarettes.
December 14, 2023