Category: News This Week

Banning menthol tobacco products is ineffective as a tool to reduce youth tobacco use, and it eliminates adult choices, according to a “policy tip sheet,” written by Lindsey Stroud, state government relations manager at The Heartland Institute, a free-market think tank.

Due to an uptick in youth use of vapor tobacco products, U.S. policymakers are seeking to ban menthol in all other tobacco products including combustible cigarettes and smokeless and snus products.

Stroud argues that banning menthol would eliminate more than $130 billion in revenue over the next 10 years and create “huge black markets.” According to Stroud, a quarter of menthol smokers say they would find a way to purchase menthol cigarettes, even if it meant doing so illegally.

Because a large proportion of African Americans smoke menthol cigarettes, a menthol ban would likely also create more dubious interactions between police and minorities, according to Stroud.

Nearly one-third of U.S. cigarette smokers smoke menthol cigarettes, and menthol flavors made up 57 percent and 88.5 percent of moist snuff and snus sales, respectively, in 2015.

Youth tobacco use, meanwhile, is at an all-time low. In 2018, only 8.1 percent of high school students reported smoking combustible cigarettes compared to 36.4 percent in 1997.



There is presently inadequate evidence to conclude that e-cigarettes promote smoking cessation, according to a recent report by the U.S. Surgeon General.

“E-cigarettes, a continually changing and heterogeneous group of products, are used in a variety of ways,” the report states. “Consequently, it is difficult to make generalizations about efficacy for cessation based on clinical trials involving a particular e-cigarette, and there is presently inadequate evidence to conclude that e-cigarettes, in general, increase smoking cessation.”

However, during a press conference, Surgeon General Jerome Adams acknowledged anecdotal evidence for the efficacy of e-cigarettes as a quit-smoking aid.

“I’ve heard powerful accounts from individuals who have used e-cigarettes to quit smoking traditional combustible cigarettes, and there are some studies that are actually reviewed in this report documenting that certain types of e-cigarettes may be associated with quitting in some adult smokers,” he told reporters.

“But it’s also important that we use the entire body of available science to guide our current recommendations,” said Adams.

Released on Jan. 23, the new surgeon general report is the first since 1990 to focus solely on quitting smoking, which it says is beneficial at any age.

Behavioral counseling has been found to increase chances of quitting smoking and seven medications have been approved for helping adults quit smoking: five forms of nicotine replacement therapy and two non-nicotine medications, varenicline and bupropion, according to the surgeon general.

Remarkably, two-thirds of smokers who try to quit don’t use such approved medications and counseling, while two-fifths are not routinely told by their physicians to stop smoking.

Cigarette smoking has been on the decline in the United States, reaching an all-time low of 14 percent in 2018.

According to the report, smoking cessation can be increased by raising the price of cigarettes, adopting comprehensive smoke-free policies, implementing mass media campaigns, requiring pictorial health warnings and maintaining comprehensive statewide tobacco control programs.

“All of those are proven interventions that save money and save lives,” Adams said.

Cigarette use continues to fall among New Zealand teenagers, and vaping is not being taken up by non-smoking youth, reports Scoop, citing new research.

University of Auckland researchers assessed data from a survey of 27,083 students aged 14 and 15. They found only 0.8 percent were daily vapers who’d never smoked before, with just 3.1 percent of all respondents saying they vaped daily, and 37.3 percent said they’d tried it.

“Our findings do not support the notion of a so-called vaping epidemic in New Zealand or a large youth population dependent on vaping—a finding consistent with the scarce international evidence,” the researchers said.

New Zealand government officials have indicated they want to restrict marketing and ban certain flavors.

“We’re asking the government to closely review the survey’s findings before it starts meddling with adult smokers’ best chance of quitting cigarettes for good,” said Ben Pryor, spokesperson for the Vaping Trade Association of New Zealand (VTANZ).

“Vaping needs quality manufacturing standards, clear advertising guidelines, and strict R18 enforcement. However, prohibiting flavors won’t make any difference to youth vaping rates. There remains no evidence, here or overseas, that flavors lead to youth vaping and vaping leads to smoking. This latest ASH survey completely reinforces that,” said Pryor.

Charlie’s Chalk Dust has engaged Blackbriar Regulatory Services (BRS) to assist in the preparation and submission of Premarket Tobacco Product Applications (PMTA) to the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for certain of its e-liquid products.

Per section 910 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA), all manufacturers of any newly deemed tobacco products, including e-liquid derived from tobacco, must seek authorization approval to sell such products in the United States.

In July, a U.S. District Court judge issued an order requiring that manufacturers of newly deemed tobacco products submit PMTAs by May 12, 2020. Once submitted, FDA has 180 days to review and respond to timely filed PMTA applications.

“The PMTA process is challenging and complex,” said Ryan Stump, COO of Charlie’s Holdings. “We are fortunate to have a strong relationship with the leadership team at Blackbriar, a result of prior manufacturing agreements with Avail Vapor, their sister company. We are confident that guidance from BRS will further ensure Charlie’s continued compliance with the regulations put forth by FDA, further supporting Charlie’s leadership in the nicotine e-liquid vape space.”

Sales of cigarettes in South Korea fell 0.7 percent in 2019 from a year earlier due to anti-smoking campaigning and higher prices, reports The Korea Herald, citing data compiled by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

Smokers purchased 3.45 billion 20-cigarette packs last year, compared with 3.47 billion packs in 2018.

The figure represents a 20.9 percent drop from 2014, a year before South Korea increased the price of cigarettes by 80 percent, from KRW2,500 ($2.14) per pack to KRW4,500.

In 2016, South Korea also mandated tobacco companies to print graphic health warnings on their products.

The 2018-2019 drop in sales of combustible cigarettes was partially offset by increased sales of heat-not-burn products: Sales of traditional cigarettes fell 2.4 percent on-year to 3.06 billion packs in 2019, while those of heat-not-burn electronic cigarettes rose 9.3 percent to 360 million packs last year.

The government’s cigarette tax collections dropped 6.5 percent, to KRW11 trillion, in 2018-2019.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is spreading “blatant misinformation” about the potential risks and benefits of e-cigarettes, according to two U.K. researchers.

In a document released Monday, the WHO expressed reservations about e-cigarettes. E-cigarettes “are harmful to health and are not safe, but it is too early to provide a clear answer on the long-term impact of using them or being exposed to them,” the WHO stated. “There is not enough evidence to support the use of these products for smoking cessation.”

John Britton, director of the U.K. Centre for Tobacco & Alcohol Studies, countered that e-cigarettes are “clearly less harmful” than combustible cigarettes. “[The] WHO misrepresents the available scientific evidence,” he said.

“The WHO has a history of anti-vaping activism that is damaging their reputation,” said Peter Hajek, director of the Tobacco Dependence Research Unit at Queen Mary University of London. “This document is particularly malign. There is no evidence that vaping is ‘highly addictive.’”

Public Health England maintains that vaping is “at least 95 percent less harmful than smoking cigarettes,” but that claim was disputed earlier this month in the American Journal of Public Health.

Philip Morris International (PMI) has won the 2020 BIG Innovation Award in the Organization category.

The BIG Innovation Awards, presented by the Business Intelligence Group, recognize organizations, products and people who bring new ideas to life. Organizations from around the globe submitted their recent innovations for consideration, and nominations were judged by a select group of business leaders and executives.

“It is gratifying to continue to be recognized by the broader business community for the innovation that is fueling our progress toward a smoke-free future,” said Jacek Olczak, PMI’s chief operating officer.

PMI has invested more than $6 billion in science, research, technology and manufacturing capacity for its smoke-free products, according to the company.