Category: News This Week

Children from deprived areas are six times more likely to be exposed to tobacco retailers than children from less deprived areas, reports Edinburgh Live, citing a study conducted by the University of Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow in Scotland.

Researchers used GPS trackers to follow a sample group of approximately 700 children aged 10 and 11 across the country to study their exposure to tobacco. They found that children from the most deprived areas were exposed to tobacco retailing (coming within 10 meters of a shop selling tobacco) around 149 times per week—higher than the 23 times that those from the least deprived areas were exposed to tobacco retailing.

“If you live in a deprived area, you are three times more likely to die from lung cancer in Scotland,” said Joseph Carter of the British Lung Foundation. “Clearly tobacco availability is playing a significant role in driving the stark inequality in deaths from smoking-related lung disease. We simply can’t accept a situation where children living in the most deprived areas should be exposed to these harmful products.”

The Egyptian Parliament’s industry committee has urged the cabinet of Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly not to sell the Eastern Tobacco Co., according to report by Ahram Online.

Led by Member of Parliament Farag Amer, the committee said the state-owned company serves the strategic interests of the Egyptian economy.

The government recently implemented a program to sell stakes in publicly owned Egyptian companies. The program started by offering 4.5 percent of the Eastern Tobacco Company’s shares on the stock market.

“The tobacco market in Egypt is a very big and profitable one, and the sale of the company could make it fall at the hands of a handful of monopolizers,” said MP Tarek Metwalli.

Austria will ban smoking in pubs and restaurants effective Nov. 1, reports the Austria Press Agency.

One of the last countries in Europe to do so, Austria had earlier resolved to ban pub and restaurant smoking in May.

However, the then new conservative coalition government overturned the decision largely due to the wishes of the right-wing populist Freedom Party.

Following the recent collapse of that coalition government, and amidst continued pressure from medical and civil interest groups, the ban appeared on the agenda again, and has now been realized.

Only the Freedom Party voted against the ban in parliament.

The ban covers smoking at any public places where food and drink are prepared, served and consumed, including at halls, festival tents, and multi-purpose rooms. It includes the use of e-cigarettes and shisha tobaccos.

Guests will still be able to smoke in some pub and restaurant gardens.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has published a consumer update addressing health-related claims about cannabidiol (CBD) and issued a warning to consumers.

“Other than one prescription drug product to treat rare, severe forms of epilepsy, the FDA has not approved any other CBD products, and there is very limited available information about CBD, including about its effects on the body,” the statement said.

The statement suggests that the effects of CBD could be toxic to the liver and dispels misleading health claims that CBD could cure cancer or other diseases.

“The FDA continues to believe the drug approval process represents the best way to help ensure that safe and effective new medicines, including any drugs derived from cannabis, are available to patients in need of appropriate medical therapy,” the statement says. “The agency is committed to supporting the development of new drugs, including cannabis and cannabis-derived drugs, through the investigational new drug and drug approval process.”

Imperial Brands will drop its 10 percent dividend growth target from next year to focus on developing its e-cigarette portfolio, reports Reuters.

The company plans to buy back shares worth up to £200 million ($251 million).

Imperial’s full-year revenue growth target is at risk as Juul Labs has taken nearly half of the U.S. vapor market in the past three years.

“This is something investors have been asking for—to abandon a restrictive dividend policy,” said Alicia Forry, an analyst at Investec.

Imperial Brand’s stock rose 2.7 percent after the announcement. Shares in the company have lost half their value since their peak in 2016 and are trading near an eight-year low.

Imperial said the new dividend policy would allow investment in both organic growth and M&A opportunities in tobacco and vapor products and would help it reduce debt.

An article in The New England Journal of Medicine says that vaping among teens in the United States is increasing at an alarming rate, flinging the country back into a potential tobacco/nicotine epidemic.

“We fear that the creation of a generation of nicotine-addicted teenagers will lead to a resurgence in the use of combustible tobacco in the decades to come,” the article says. “Even if these adolescents do not switch to regular cigarettes, creation of a large cohort of nicotine-addicted adults has consequences beyond the adverse physiological effects of nicotine.”

Harold Farber, a professor of pediatric pulmonology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, USA, predicts the rate of teenage e-cigarette use will continue to climb as it has since 2001. According to the article, the only time overall nicotine use among youth stayed stagnant was in 2016 because the FDA ruled that e-cigarettes couldn’t be sold to people under the age of 18.

“Up until 2010, we had been conquering the tobacco epidemic,” Farber said. “This is huge.”

R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. (RJRVC) is expanding its “modern oral” portfolio with Velo, a line of tobacco leaf-free and spit-free nicotine pouches.

Velo is a tobacco-derived nicotine product that comes in the form of nicotine pouches. Apart from the nicotine extracted from the tobacco plant, Velo contains no tobacco leaf or other tobacco plant matter. Unlike traditional moist tobacco products, Velo requires no spitting.

“At RJRVC, our teams are working hard to expand our range of nicotine products to provide ATCs [adult tobacco consumers] with a diverse set of choices,” says Shay Mustafa, senior vice president of the company’s Oral Business Unit.

“The current expansion of Velo, and the expansion of our dissolvable nicotine lozenge product Revel earlier this year, are both evidence that we are serious about accelerating transformation in the modern oral space. These products are examples of the innovation and technology-driven options we will continue to provide in the tobacco industry to meet changing preferences.”

Velo will be available in more than 70,000 U.S. outlets over the next few months. The product is initially offered in two flavors—mint and citrus—and two nicotine strengths, 2 mg and 4 mg.

Rob Norris, head of Altadis USA, has accepted a transfer to Fontem Ventures as general manager of Canada effective Aug. 1.

Altadis USA is a unit of Tabacalera USA, Imperial Brands’ premium cigar division in the United States. Fontem Ventures is another, separate Imperial Brands company.

“Rob has been with Imperial Brands for more than 20 years and has held a variety of increasingly responsible leadership positions,” said Javier Estades, President & CEO of Tabacalera USA.

“Given his tenure here, the move to Canada is an important next step for Rob’s professional career. Rob joined our Altadis USA unit as national sales and trade marketing director in 2011. He’s also led our JR Cigars as CEO and currently serves as the head of Altadis USA.”

With the Norris transfer, Altadis also has announced reporting line changes. Reporting directly to Tabacalera USA’s President and CEO Javier Estades, will be Paul Waller, head of sales for Altadis and Oliver Hyams, head of trade marketing for Altadis.

China Tobacco International has been the best performing company on the Hong Kong stock exchange since its initial public offering last month, according to Bloomberg.

As of July 3, the company’s share price was up 293 percent from its IPO price of HKD4.88 ($0.63).

While some analysts and fund managers say China Tobacco deserves a premium, others warn the stock’s runup is overdone.

China Tobacco International accounts for a tiny portion of China Tobacco’s overall business, which has a bigger market share than the next five global tobacco companies combined. The unit is primarily responsible for procuring overseas tobacco leaf from countries like Brazil and Canada for the cigarette giant.

Investors are piling into the stock even as pressure increases on the government to curb smoking. China is the largest tobacco-consuming and -manufacturing country in the world, and critics contend the government isn’t doing enough to prevent the spread of smoking.

Implementation of an excise tax has caused Abu Dhabi’s trade in raw tobacco and manufactured tobacco products to decline sharply in 2017-2018, according to the Emirates News Agency.

In October 2017, the UAE began applying excise tax on a selection of unhealthy products. Tobacco was subjected to a 100 percent excise tax while carbonated drinks and energy drinks received 50 percent and 100 percent, respectively.

The value of Abu Dhabi’s tobacco trade dropped to around AED62.4 million in 2018, compared with AED410 million in 2017, according Statistics Center-Abu Dhabi.

Re-exports, valued at around AED57.5 million in 2018, represented 92 percent of the total trade in tobacco products.

During the same year, imports of tobacco products were value at around AED2.5 million while the value of exports amounted to only AED2.4 million.

The final quarter of 2018 witnessed a decline in Abu Dhabi’s trade in tobacco and its derivatives by 53.4 percent.