Category: News This Week

Health experts and consumer groups are questioning what they see as the Indonesian government’s tardiness in issuing a tobacco regulation, according to a report in The Jakarta Post.

The government is required by a law issued in 2009 to impose regulations on tobacco products, but it has not yet done so.

The process had become too political, said Tulus Abadi, of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) in Jakarta.
Tulus said progress was slow despite the fact that the relevant ministries had already agreed to the contents of a draft regulation.

The time frame for finalizing the regulation remained unclear, he added.

The Indian state government of Andhra Pradesh has increased the input subsidy for a number of crops, including tobacco, affected by recent flooding, according to a story in the latest issue of the BBM Bommidala Group newsletter.

Chief minister, N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, said in a statement to the Legislative Council that funding for tobacco would be increased from Rs6,000 to Rs10,000 per ha.

Imperial Tobacco’s legal team in Poland has been named as one of the country’s best in-house legal operations.

Companies were asked to rank their legal teams against set criteria with the scores independently verified by the Polish Society of In-House Lawyers and the Association of Corporate Counsel.

Imperial was ranked third nationally.

The legal team worked closely with their corporate affairs colleagues to support the development of legislation to end the sale of untaxed raw tobacco leaf, which is due to come into effect next month.

“I’m delighted our legal team was ranked so highly and the fact that Imperial has been recognised as a great employer in this way is also very satisfying,” said Elżbieta Kurasińska, legal affairs manager, who accepted the company’s award at a ceremony inWarsaw.

“This external recognition from other lawyers has added extra impetus to our work and we will strive to maintain our standards going forward.”

A lot of comments have been made already on the European Commission’s proposed revisions to the tobacco products directive and a lot more will follow, but none has cut to the heart of the matter as incisively as one by Naomi McAuliffe.

Writing on the Guardian’s Comment is free page, McAuliffe asks a question about a hitherto neglected but vital aspect of the Commission’s attack on menthol cigarettes: ‘They may not be cool, and they may even kill, but how would I meet my nutritional needs if the EU bans such minty goodness?’

And it gets better at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/20/brussels-borg-menthol-cigarettes

Forest’s Christmas card this year combines its usual festive cheer with a light-hearted, seasonal dig at the proponents of plain packaging.

The card shows a pile of wrapped presents roasting round an open fire, two of which bear the message ‘Hands off our presents’, a warning that echoes the organization’s high-profile ‘Hands off our packs’ campaign.

And the back of the card shows a Christmas cracker with a message that could have been read straight from a cracker joke: ‘Plain packaging?’; ‘They must be crackers’. Come on, altogether: “Groan”.

The European Commission seems once again to have come down in favour of a quit-or-die approach to tobacco consumption, rather than a harm reduction approach.

Its proposed tobacco products directive revisions, issued yesterday, leave snus banned outside of Sweden and seek to discourage the use of electronic cigarettes.

Many people, including some tobacco control advocates, believe that snus and electronic cigarettes are far less harmful than are cigarettes. And they believe that many cigarette smokers could be persuaded to switch to these products, given the right circumstances.

At the same time, at least one tobacco analyst has commented that the revisions seem unlikely to have more than a marginal effect on traditional cigarette consumption.

And other commentators have made the point that revisions banning products with characterising flavors, including menthol, are likely to encourage further the trade in illicit products.

The Commission’s legislative proposal will now go before the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament, the institutions responsible for adopting binding legislation.

Ideally, the Commission would like to see the new directive adopted by no later than 2014 and to come into effect from 2015-2016.

Under the proposals, nicotine delivery products such as electronic cigarettes containing less than 2 mg of nicotine would be allowed on the market, but they would have to carry health warnings. As was described in a report here yesterday, most electronic cigarettes contain more than 2 mg of nicotine and these would be allowed onto the market only after exhaustive pharmaceutical-type testing.

The ban on snus outside ofSwedenwould be maintained and all smokeless tobacco products would have to carry health warnings.

New types of tobacco products would have to comply with the directive and would require prior notification before being placed on the market.

The Commission’s proposals would include a ban on cigarettes, roll-your-own and smokeless tobacco products with characterising flavors, including menthol, and a ban on products with additives that increase toxicity and ‘addictiveness’.

Swedenhas already suggested that there would be a problem if the revisions kept the ban on snus outside of that country but tried to dictate the product’s ingredients.

Pipe tobacco, cigars and cigarillos would be the subject of less stringent rules. There would be no ban on characterizing flavors and no requirements for graphic health warnings in respect of these products.

On the other hand, all cigarette and roll-your-own packs would have to carry health warnings that included a graphic element, and those warnings would be increased in size so as to cover 75 per cent of the front and back surfaces. Certain aspects of the packs would be standardized, but the revisions propose leaving decisions about plain packaging to individual countries.

It is estimated that about 30 per cent of a pack’s total surface would remain for branding.

The revisions include also requirements for retailers engaging in cross-border distance sales and they ‘foresee’ a tracking and tracing system and security features for cigarette packs.

Philip Morris International yesterday welcomed the publication of the proposals though not some of the detail.

“PMI is pleased that the Commission has finally issued its proposed Tobacco Products Directive so that it now may be reviewed and debated in an open, transparent, objective and constructive manner by all concerned in the coming months,” said the company’s vice president, communications, Julie Soderlund.

“An initial reading of the proposal suggests that many of the recommended measures will not achieve the Commission’s public health goals and will result in numerous unintended adverse consequences which appear to have been disregarded by its authors.

“The proposed Directive explicitly prohibits products that account for approximately 10 per cent of the European Union cigarette market, and in some member states more than 30 per cent of the market, despite the fact that there is no credible scientific evidence that these products are more harmful than others or that taking them off the market will reduce smoking rates. At a time when Europe can least afford it, the Commission’s proposal ignores the massive black market for tobacco products which already costs member states 10 billion euros annually, but advocates measures that will undoubtedly fuel its further growth.

“In addition, the proposal would significantly limit consumer access to, and information about, products that have the very real potential to reduce the harm caused by conventional tobacco products. In doing this the Commission has chosen not only to stifle innovation but also to ignore the potential these products have to improve public health.

“We trust that the hostility of some towards our industry will not blind them to the important economic, legal and societal issues that this proposed Directive raises. We believe that its numerous flaws need to be addressed to ensure that the EU implements a regulatory framework for tobacco products in Europe that is fair, science-based and effective in reducing the harm caused by smoking without imposing unnecessary burden on the economy. Europe deserves nothing less.”

British American Tobacco said today that it had acquired CN Creative Ltd, a UK based start-up company that specialises in the development of e-cigarette technologies intended to offer smokers a less risky alternative to cigarettes.

BAT says that CN Creative, which has its own research and development facilities, currently has several e-cigarettes on the market and new, innovative e-cigarette technologies in the development pipeline.

“Our core business is, and will remain in, tobacco but we’ve always made it clear that our goal is to provide those adult smokers who are seeking safer alternatives to cigarettes with a range of reduced-risk products that will meet their varying needs,” said Kingsley Wheaton, director of corporate and regulatory affairs at BAT.

“And we believe the innovative e-cigarette technologies that CN Creative has been developing over the past few years will help us move closer to achieving this goal.”

The acquisition of CN Creative, BAT says, is a natural extension of its approach to tobacco harm reduction that has been evolving over a number of years.

Initiatives by Reynolds American Inc. and its operating companies to reduce youth tobacco use and access attracted strong support from delegates at the recent annual conference of the National Foundation For Women Legislators (NFWL) in Atlanta.

‘A team led by Pamela Gorman, a senior manager in RAI public affairs, attended the four-day conference and hosted an exhibit featuring R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company’s Right Decisions Right Now (RDRN) evidence-based youth tobacco prevention program,’ according to a note posted on RAI’s website.

‘Gorman also led a round-table discussion entitled “21st Century Tools To Reduce Youth Tobacco Use: Is Your State Equipped?” and gave a presentation on the need to expand educational and legislative efforts to further reduce youth tobacco use and access.

‘NFWL’s policy committee adopted a resolution on youth tobacco prevention, and committed to continuing the dialogue on this issue with its members.

‘The resolution encouraged “every state to declare that evidence-based youth tobacco prevention education is an important part of meaningful health education for every student.”

‘NFWL thanked the RAI team for their participation in the conference, which was attended by elected women from across the country representing all levels of government.’

“We are eager to work with you on the issues you care about because as we’ve seen from how well the issue forums at this year’s conference were received – our elected women care about the very same issues,” NFWL said in a letter to Gorman.

“This was a great opportunity to highlight our youth tobacco prevention efforts and we’ll be following up with legislators who expressed interest in helping us to accelerate the decline in youth tobacco use,” Gorman said.

“It was encouraging to hear that some of the legislators were even interested in personally teaching the RDRN curriculum in their schools.”

If the European Commission’s revisions to the tobacco products directive are adopted, traditional cigarette sales will be protected from competition by electronic cigarettes.

Professor Michael Siegel, of Boston University’s School of Public Health, said in a blog relayed by the TMA that according to a draft copy of the revisions obtained by the author and historian, Christopher Snowdon, ‘nicotine-containing products [with] a nicotine level exceeding 2 mg, a nicotine concentration exceeding 4 mg per ml, or whose intended use results in a mean maximum peak plasma concentration exceeding 4 mg per ml, may be placed on the market only if they have been authorised as medicinal products on the basis of their quality, safety and efficacy’.

Siegel said that such a revision would prevent smokers from having access to electronic cigarettes because most of these devices contain more than 2 mg of nicotine.

Companies wishing to market products with more than 2 mg of nicotine would be required to conduct a long series of clinical trials, which would cost tens of millions of dollars and an average of eight years to complete.

Siegel questioned what the purpose of this aspect of the directive was, and said the effect would be to protect cigarette sales in Europe at the expense of public health.

R. J. Reynolds Tobacco, Philip Morris USA and Lorillard have reached an agreement with 17 USstates, the District of Columbia andPuerto Rico to settle 10 years of claims related to the Non-Participating Manufacturer (NPM) adjustment provisions of the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA).

Under the agreement, Reynolds will receive credits currently estimated to be worth more than $1 billion for its claims relating to 2003 through 2012. The credits will be applied to the company’s MSA payments during the next five years.

The agreement includes a mechanism that allows additional states to join under certain conditions. If additional states join the settlement, the amount R.J. Reynolds and the other participating manufacturers will recover under the settlement will increase, and the cost of the settlement to participating states could decrease.

PM USA’s credit is estimated to total about $450 million. ‘This estimate is subject to change depending on a variety of factors related to the calculation of the credit,’ the company said in a note posted on its website. ‘The agreement is also subject to approval by an arbitration panel. ‘Upon final determination of the amount and approval of the arbitration panel, PM USA is expected to record a corresponding increase in its reported pre-tax earnings.

‘The agreement also puts into place revised and streamlined NPM adjustments for future years.’

Lorillard expects to receive credits during the next five years of at least $198 million on its outstanding claims, with the majority of the credits occurring in April next year and the remainder during the following four years.

“We are very pleased to have settled this long-standing dispute with the signatory states and believe that it is an equitable resolution for all parties involved,” said Ronald S. Milstein, executive vice president and general counsel of Lorillard. “Importantly, today’s announcement also puts into place a new method to better determine future adjustments – providing greater clarity for the states and Lorillard.”

The NPM adjustment disputes arose out of the MSA, which the leading cigarette manufacturers entered into with 46 states to resolve the states’ health care cost recovery litigation against the manufacturers. ‘The MSA imposed significant restrictions on how cigarettes are advertised, marketed and sold in the United States and required participating manufacturers to make annual payments to the states in perpetuity,’ PM USA said in its note. ‘So far, states participating in the MSA have received more than $85 billion.

‘The NPM adjustment disputes relate to the state escrow statutes, under which non-participating cigarette manufacturers are required to make escrow payments for volume sold in each MSA state. The MSA allows participating manufacturers to receive downward adjustments in MSA payments if the MSA is a significant factor in market share loss for the participating manufacturers. States that demonstrate that they diligently enforced state escrow statutes during a disputed year can avoid the downward payment adjustment for that year.’

The jurisdictions that have agreed to join are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, District of Columbia, Georgia,Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.