Category: News This Week

  • Mexico Vape Ban Ruled Unconstitutional

    Mexico Vape Ban Ruled Unconstitutional

    Image: mehaniq41

    Mexico’s ban on the sale of e-cigarettes is unconstitutional, the nation’s top arbiter ruled, according to Reuters. The Second Chamber of the Supreme Court found that the presidential decree that established the prohibition contravenes freedom of commerce.

    The ruling permits only retailers who were parties to the case to sell e-cigarettes, however. If other retailers want to sell e-cigarettes, they must file their own court cases to declare the unconstitutionality of the ban in their specific instances.

    Alberto Gomez Hernandez, policy manager of the World Vapers’ Alliance, welcomed the decision of Mexico’s high court, saying that the decree violates not only the freedom of trade of the companies but also the right to health of Mexican adults. “Mexicans should be free to decide how they consume nicotine,” Gomez said in a statement.

    Although the ruling does not establish jurisprudence, we hope that the government or the judiciary will reverse the ban soon.

    Alberto Gomez Hernandez, policy manager, WVA

    The declaration of unconstitutionality was carried out in an amparo lawsuit—a type of lawsuit in Mexico through which a company can seek legal protection or permission not to abide by regulation that violates its rights.

    The general ban will stay in place since the ruling applies only to that specific case and business.

    “Although the ruling does not establish jurisprudence, we hope that the government or the judiciary will reverse the ban soon,” said Gomez. “The ban has failed; it has aggravated the public health problem of smoking in Mexico and has created a huge black market controlled by mafias.

    “Mexico needs to abandon the ban and adopt a strategy that includes the use of less harmful nicotine products as a smoking cessation tool. It should follow the example of Sweden, which is about to become the first smoke-free country, and the U.K., which promotes the use of vapes to quit smoking.”

  • Firms Recognized for Sustainability

    Firms Recognized for Sustainability

    Image: narawit

    Philip Morris International and Japan Tobacco and British American Tobacco have been recognized for their sustainability efforts.

    Philip Morris International has been included in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index for the first time and for the fourth consecutive year in the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Composite Index.

    The Dow Jones Sustainability World Index measures the sustainability performance of companies as identified by S&P Global through the annual Corporate Sustainability Assessment. The World Index includes the top 10 percent of the largest 2,500 companies in the S&P Global Broad Market Index based on long-term economic, environmental and social criteria.

    “Investors and other financial stakeholders place increasing value on reliable, robust and timely measures of sustainability performance,” said Emmanuel Babeau, chief financial officer at PMI, in a statement.

    “ESG ratings are one part of the input dataset for many institutional investors. Through our annual integrated report, and the ever-strengthening processes and initiatives that underpin it, we aim to provide a holistic and extensive view of our performance across the most material sustainability issues for our business.”

    PMI scored 85 out of 100 in the 2023 S&P Global CSA, reflecting a significant increase of 21 points since it first began engaging with the ranking in 2018. This is the first year PMI has recorded the highest CSA score out of 13 companies assessed in the tobacco industry by S&P.

    Earlier this month, ISS ESG Corporate Rating qualified PMI as “Prime” status according to their rating methodology. Prime status is awarded to companies with an ESG performance above a sector-specific threshold, which means that they fulfill ambitious absolute performance requirements. According to ISS, the Prime rating classification qualifies companies for responsible investment. To date, PMI is the only tobacco company to have received Prime status qualification.

    Japan Tobacco has been included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Asia Pacific Index (DJSI Asia Pacific) for the 10th consecutive year.

    “We are honored that the JT Group has been selected in the DJSI Asia Pacific for the 10th  consecutive year,” said Hisato Imokawa, senior vice president and chief sustainability officer, in a statement.

    “We are very pleased that our sincere and continuous efforts to address social and environmental issues throughout the entire value chain continue to be recognized at the highest level. We remain dedicated to fostering transparent and precise communication of nonfinancial information, a key focus in our recent agenda. We acknowledge the significance of this initiative in promoting engagement and dialogue with stakeholders, recognizing it as a crucial endeavor.”

    The JT Group scored 79/100 in the 2023 S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (based on the score data as of Dec. 9, 2023).

    that BAT was included in 2023 DJSI for the 22nd consecutive year, specifically listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability Europe Index, with a S&P Global CSA score of 80/100 (as of Dec. 8, 2023).

  • The Risk of an Own Goal

    The Risk of an Own Goal

    Image: anekoho

    Making e-cigarettes available only on prescription may be a net negative for public health, writes Neil McKeganey.

    By Neil McKeganey

    In response to the rising level of vaping there have been discussions in the U.K. and elsewhere about making e-cigarettes available on prescription only. Within the U.K. Wes Streeting, shadow secretary for health and social care, recently announced that an in-coming Labour government would consider such a restriction as a way of reducing youth vaping.

    There is now clear evidence that e-cigarettes are both popular among smokers and that they can help smokers to quit. Alongside such positive evidence there is also the downside of rising numbers of young people using these devices irrespective of whether they are smoking.

    Whilst making e-cigarettes available on prescription may seem like an effective way of reducing youth use of these devices, the reality could prove very different. The fact that young people—including some below the legal age of purchase—are vaping underlines the reality that there are more routes to obtaining these devices than legal sale.

     It is entirely possible that even in a situation where e-cigarettes were available on prescription only that some young people would still source these devices through illicit routes. Whatever the impact on youth vaping, making e-cigarettes available only through prescription would reduce adult smokers access to these devices. In the event that such a policy were implemented, some adults would certainly go to their doctor seeking a prescription for these devices. Others, however, would be less inclined to go to their doctor. Some of those might source their e-cigarettes through illicit supply whilst others would simply continue to smoke.

    There is a further reason why making e-cigarettes available on prescription only may have a downside. Research has shown that using e-cigarettes can increase the likelihood of smoking cessation even when the individual had no prior intention of quitting. Analyzing data from the widely respected Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health study in the United States, Professor Karin Kasza and colleagues from the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center found that adult smokers who had no prior interest in quitting smoking still stopped smoking in impressive numbers following their use of an e-cigarette. Such “accidental quitting” has been found in other studies, with Professor Riccardo Polosa and colleagues in Catania, amongst others, showing that simply providing smokers with access to e-cigarettes helps many to quit even where they have expressed no prior interest in quitting.

    As is so often the case when it comes to regulating e-cigarettes, the question is one of how to balance the needs of young people, who ought not to be using these devices, with the needs of adult smokers who may benefit from their use. Whilst making e-cigarettes available on prescription only may reduce some young peoples’ use of these devices, regrettably it may have the same if not greater effect on adult smokers. 

    The public health goal of reducing smoking is too important to implement a policy that may be less effective than one might hope in reducing youth vaping whilst actually reducing adult smokers access to these devices. The challenge facing manufacturers, regulators and health educators is one of finding a way to reduce youth access to these devices whilst at the same time ensuring that any adult smoker wishing to use an e-cigarette can do so with the least possible difficulty. Requiring adult smokers to seek an appointment with their doctor before they can legally access an e-cigarette device is to place a huge barrier in the way of wider e-cigarette use by smokers and wider intended and accidental quitting on the part of those adult smokers. This is a restrictive regulation that needs to be given serious consideration before being implemented.

    Neil McKeganey is the director of the Center for Substance Use Research in Glasgow, Scotland.
  • ‘Kiwi Standing Soiled by Age Ban U-Turn’

    ‘Kiwi Standing Soiled by Age Ban U-Turn’

    Image: Valerii Evlakhov

    The repeal of New Zealand’s generational tobacco ban has tarnished the country’s reputation as a leader in tobacco control, according to Chris Bullen, president of the international Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT), reports Radio New Zealand.

    In November, New Zealand’s new coalition government announced plans to scrap amendments to the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act 1990 and regulations that would have banned anyone from selling or supplying smoked tobacco products to people born on or after Jan. 1, 2009.

    SRNT is the world’s largest scientific society that researches tobacco smoking and nicotine, and its membership includes more than 1,300 scientists from around 40 countries. According to Bullen, many of his international colleagues have expressed dismay about New Zealand’s about-turn.

    Martin McKee from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine told RNZ that reversing the smokefree laws to fix a tax cut funding problem was inexplicable.

    “It just really speaks to the influence of the tobacco industry on our political leadership,” said Bullen.

    Malaysia recently also dropped its generational tobacco ban plan, citing constitutional concerns, though critics blamed tobacco lobbying. Britain is reportedly backpedaling, as well, with reports suggesting it may settle for raising the smoking age to 21 instead.

    Minister of Health Shane Reti has defended New Zealand’s plans to repeal the smokefree legislation. He said his administration was committed to cutting smoking rates and referred to the potential of harm reduction tools such as vaping to help achieve the desired reductions.

  • Pakistan Tobacco Sales Plunge After Tax Hike

    Pakistan Tobacco Sales Plunge After Tax Hike

    Image: Skórzewiak

    Cigarette consumption in Pakistan dropped by 20 billion sticks following an unprecedented increase in the country’s federal excise duty (FED), reports the Associated Press of Pakistan, citing figures from Capital Calling.

    In February 2023, the government hiked the FED by 146 percent, following several years of comparatively small increases.

    In its study, Capital Calling found that the tax hike prompted 14 percent of smokers to quit, which caused cigarette consumption to decline by 11 billion sticks. Ten percent of smokers reduced their intake, which drove consumption down by an additional 9 billion cigarettes, according to the study.

    In 2022, Pakistan’s total cigarette consumption was estimated between 72 billion and 80 billion sticks, a figure that includes officially declared production, smuggled cigarettes, counterfeit products and cigarettes for which duties have not been paid.

    According to the new study, the volume now stands at around 62 to 64 billion sticks.

    Capital Calling expects the Federal Board of Revenue to collect between PKR230 billion ($809.87 million) and PKR240 billion in cigarette duties this year. In 2018, the figure was PKR87 billion.

  • Briefing Explores THR for the Homeless

    Briefing Explores THR for the Homeless

    Image: jaceksphotos

    A new briefing paper from the Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction (GSTHR), a project from U.K.-based public health agency Knowledge Action Change (KAC), examines the significant potential of the approach to help people experiencing homelessness.

    Surveys consistently estimate that between 76 and 85 percent of U.K. homeless people smoke—six or seven times the smoking prevalence seen in the general population, which is now at an historic low of 12.9 percent. On average, U.K. homeless men die at 44 years of age, compared to 76 in the general population and homeless women at 42 years, compared to 81 in the overall population.

    Tobacco harm reduction helps people quit smoking by giving them the choice to switch to safer nicotine products. A 2019 study found that at least two thirds of rough sleepers who smoked would be willing to switch to vaping if a device was freely available, and would take up smoking cessation support offered at their homelessness service.

    Tobacco harm reduction initiatives developed in London, Manchester and Edinburgh included the provision of free vape starter kits to homeless people. As well as the longer term health improvements offered by switching, the leaders of those projects also noticed more immediate benefits; Covid-19 infection risks associated with sharing or smoking discarded cigarettes were reduced, along with the risk of eviction by breaking no smoking policies, and the risk of breaking lockdown to go out and purchase—or look for discarded—cigarettes.

    “Homeless populations have long been disproportionately impacted by smoking, and therefore stand to gain enormously from effective and pragmatic harm reduction routes to quitting tobacco,” said KAC Director David MacKintosh in a statement.

    “The sustainability of this type of intervention must be approached carefully, but there is real potential here and it should be explored. On average, homeless people in the U.K. live half a life compared to the general population. Reducing their high rates of smoking is one way to start addressing this tragedy.”

  • BAT Investigated for Fraud After Write Down

    BAT Investigated for Fraud After Write Down

    Image: BAT

    Investors have asked Pomerantz Law Firm to investigate British American Tobacco for securities fraud after the company announced it would take an impairment charge of approximately $31.5 billion after reassessing the value of certain of the company’s U.S. cigarette brands. On this news, BAT’s stock price fell sharply during intraday trading on Dec. 6, 2023.

    The company said the charge—one of the biggest corporate write-downs in recent years—mainly relates to U.S. brands it acquired, as it assesses their carrying value and economic usefulness in the years to come. The brands being written down include Newport, Pall Mall, Camel and Natural American Spirit.

    The decline in U.S. cigarette sales has been driven not only by growing health awareness and mounting regulations but also by economic challenges, with consumers downtrading to cheaper brands or illicit products. These trends prompted BAT to adjust the way some of its U.S. brands are treated on its balance sheet, shifting their value to a finite lifetime of 30 years.

    Chief Executive Tadeu Marroco described the move as “accounting catching up with reality.”

    While he does not believe cigarettes will disappear in 30 years, he said it was no longer possible to justify an indefinite value for those brands equating to around $80 billion on BAT’s balance sheet.

    BAT added that it would start amortizing the remaining value of its U.S. combustibles brands in 2024, making it the first of the major cigarette players to acknowledge that its tobacco brands’ value had an expiry date.

  • Habanos Debuts ‘El Rey Del Mundo Royal’

    Habanos Debuts ‘El Rey Del Mundo Royal’

    The El Rey del Mundo Royal Series (50 ring gauge x 155 mm length).

    Habanos S.A. released its latest vitola, the El Rey Del Mundo Royal Series, at an event in Cyprus last week. The event was put on one of Habanos’, the Cuban cigar industry’s distribution arms exclusive distributors, Phoenicia T.A.A.

    The Royal Series (50 ring gauge x 155 mm length) will be on sale exclusively at La Casa Del Habano franchise stores.

    The company also unveiled new products such as the Edición Regional Por La Larrañaga Fénix, and the new Cohiba Wide Short (machine-made Cuban cigar).

    The launch of the new vitola shared the spotlight with both companies celebrating 15 years of a “fruitful business partnership,” according to an emailed release.

    The event brought together more than 450 aficionados from Lebanon, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Malta, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, United Kingdom, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Kuwait, Bulgaria, Canada and Bahrain.

    Also in attendance were the co-presidents of Habanos, Maritza Carillo González and Luis Sánchez-Harguindey Pardo de Vera.

  • The Big Issues

    The Big Issues

    Photo courtesy of BAT

    Biodiversity in the tobacco and nicotine industry

    By Eirini Vlanti

    While biodiversity is quickly becoming the new climate change in terms of the growing recognition of and urgency around this topic, it presents significant challenges for companies whose business relies on nature.

    According to the 2023 Global Risks report by the World Economic Forum, biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse are the main risks that will appear in a 10-year horizon. With half the world’s GDP highly dependent on nature, we can now see the same trend of goals, target-setting and regulations that were created to address climate change happening to address nature loss but much faster.

    Because climate change and biodiversity are highly interconnected, it is difficult to address climate change without taking biodiversity into consideration. Any company relying on agricultural production strongly depends on nature resources and ecosystem services. Discussing how to halt and reverse nature loss is key to securing a resilient supply chain.

    Investors are also paying ever greater attention to biodiversity in terms of their assessment of a company’s ESG risks. Investors have different levels of understanding and ambition when it comes to nature. BAT aspires to shape the narrative together with investors, utilizing the available supporting tools, frameworks and data.

    In addition, biodiversity-related reporting requirements are growing, demanding that companies dedicate significant resources to this. In 2023, for example, BAT plans to start disclosures aligned with the Taskforce for Nature Related Disclosure while working through water and land guidance for target-setting aligned with the Science Based Target Network. Both frameworks are important tools to standardize the way companies report and enable companies and investors to have greater insights.

    Both these frameworks are currently voluntary, but they are already starting to feed into standards, and we are seeing the first signs of these approaches being encapsulated in law, for example through the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. The EU has started engaging with the main workstreams around this, and its laws are likely to influence legislation in other jurisdictions.

    The proliferation in sustainability requirements can also contribute to potential ESG reporting “fatigue.” My view is that biodiversity is nothing new; it is a way to address existing climate change commitments and environmental risks. Since the external environment shows biodiversity is an emerging topic to follow, companies need to decide whether they wait for regulations to enter into force or get ahead by exploring and understanding the topic before that happens.

    At BAT, as with any other material topic as identified through our double materiality assessment, we define what “good” looks like, set our ambition and then resource it accordingly. Sustainability is such a wide topic that each company needs to continuously and ruthlessly prioritize its focus area and create a roadmap to deliver against it. Biodiversity is no different.

    We began with assessing the materiality of biodiversity loss by conducting a Biodiversity Footprint Analysis as well as Geospatial Biodiversity Risk Assessment in 2022, combining different aspects of biodiversity to classify the farms of our directly contracted farmers as low risk, medium risk or high risk to biodiversity. This exercise supported us on designing and implementing more than 700 Biodiversity Management Plans together with our farmers for the farms that were classified as high risk. This has been a great educational tool for the farmers and our field technicians, and at the same time it provided guidance, based on data, as to where we should be putting more efforts.

    There are major differences, however, in terms of how we adapt our approach to the varied challenges in each region. Unlike climate change, where the ultimate metric is greenhouse gas emissions, there is no equivalent metric to measure biodiversity. Challenges in nature are location-specific, and an adverse action for biodiversity can have different impacts depending on the location and the significance of the ecosystem. Nature is not only our home but also the home of countless plants, trees, animals and insects.

    When we started looking at biodiversity in this way, it became clear to us the importance of working with local stakeholders, communities and experts to make the most out of every initiative. In the case of forests and biodiversity, we have a long history of community-based afforestation programs. Here, our role has been to transform those initiatives to demonstrate that they are far more than just “corporate engagement.” For example, Bonayan in Bangladesh, a program spanning more than 40 years, supplied over 100 million saplings to the local communities during that period. The program, which currently has 18 afforestation, biodiversity and conservation initiatives in 13 countries, is now moving into Bonayan 2.0 to expand its impact on nature.

    Through our integrated production system, we have been working with the farmers to protect biodiversity and forest resources, training them on sustainable agricultural practices and monitoring the sustainability of the wood used for curing.

    BAT is making progress, though we anticipate much more work ahead to address biodiversity challenges. I predict soil conservation—marked on Dec. 5 each year by the United Nations’ World Soil Day—will become a key area of importance in biodiversity. The millions of organisms that live within soil support habitats for all species and life forms. The mindset that biodiversity is a philanthropic activity needs to change—biodiversity is not a “nice to have”; it is a “must have” to achieve prosperity in the future for the environment and society and to continue supporting our needs in the years to come. Simplification and alignment of metrics is also necessary; we cannot improve something we cannot measure.

    Eirini Vlanti is head of sustainability and business development at BAT and holds a Master of Science degree in supply chain and logistics as well as completed a further business sustainability management course at Cambridge. She is heading the agribusiness sustainability department at BAT that engages with approximately 200,000 farmers annually in about 30 countries.
  • Labour Could Make Vapes Prescription-Only

    Labour Could Make Vapes Prescription-Only

    Image: stokkete

    If the British Labour Party wins the next general election, it could follow Australia’s lead and make vaping products prescription-only, according to Vaping360. The next general election will take place no later than January 2025. The Labour Party has led in the polls for about two years.

    “I’m looking very carefully at what Mark Butler and the Australian Labor government have announced,” said Wes Streeting, the Labour Party’s shadow health secretary. Streeting speaks for the party on health issues and is the likely current choice for health secretary if the party gains a majority in Parliament.

    “Their policy is in part driven by the evidence here in Australia that vaping has become a gateway drug to smoking,” Streeting said. “So, I think we need to look carefully at what the U.K. evidence is on that front.”

    According to Streeting, the vaping industry has “peddled itself as an altruistic smoking cessation service at the same time as addicting a generation of children [to] nicotine.”

    “This whole business model is built on addicting people to one of the most addictive substances known to man or woman,” Streeting said, “so we’re going to go hard on marketing selling to children, but I also want the vaping industry to go back to its roots as a genuine smoking cessation tool.”