Category: News This Week

Singapore will require tobacco companies to sell their products in plain standardized packaging featuring enlarged health warnings beginning July 1, 2020, reports The Straits Times citing the health ministry.

The announcement follows an extensive review by the health ministry of local and international reports, research and evidence, and several rounds of public consultations.

The new packaging law will apply to cigarettes, cigarillos, cigars, beedies, ang hoon and other roll-your-own tobacco products whereby the product and brand names will be allowed only in a standardized font style and color. The packaging will not permit the showing of logos, colors, images or other promotional material that is associated with the tobacco product brand.

The graphic health warning will have to cover 75 percent of the tobacco product package, up from the current 50 percent.

First-time violators of the new rules may face a fine of up to SGD10,000 ($7,390) and/or a prison term of up to six months.

“The SP measure for tobacco products will, in conjunction with other tobacco control measures, contribute to achieving broader tobacco control aims such as discouraging nonsmokers from picking up smoking, encouraging smokers to quit, and encouraging Singaporeans to adopt a tobacco-free lifestyle, which will ultimately lead to reduced smoking prevalence,” the health ministry said in a statement.

Shenzhen has banned the use of e-cigarettes in nonsmoking places, reports China News Service.

Lawmakers in the southeastern Chinese city decided to expand the definition of “smoking” to include the use e-cigarettes and heat-not-burn products.

The new rule increases the types of non-smoking sites from seven to nine, including areas within five meters of the entrance to public transportation stations as well as outdoor waiting areas for public transport vehicles. It’s now also forbidden to smoke near the entrance to schools, parks, hospitals and scenic spots.

To further protect minors, “tobacco” products cannot be sold within 50 meters of the gates to middle and elementary schools or activity centers.

Shenzhen is the world’s leading manufacturer of the vapor hardware.

Marlboro is the world’s most valuable tobacco brand, with a value of $33.6 billion, according to the latest report by Brand Finance, an independent brand valuation consultancy.

As cigarette use declines in developed markets, tobacco brands are racing to develop next-generation products to fuel growth. Marlboro has seen success with its IQOS tobacco heating system which uses sophisticated electronics to heat specially designed heated tobacco units up to 350 degrees Celsius, without combustion, fire, ash or smoke.

Philip Morris International-owned Sampoerna brand moved up a notch in the index, with a brand value at $3.2 billion.

The sole new entry into this year’s league table is British American Tobacco’s Grizzly moist snuff brand, with a value of $2.7 billion, making it the world’s ninth most valuable tobacco brand.

“As smoking habits continue to evolve and we see more smokers opting for vapes or e-cigarettes, the tobacco brands have not seen drastic improvements in their brand values since last year,” said David Haigh, CEO of Brand Finance.

“There is now such a huge variety of alternative products that mean less smokers are purchasing packs of cigarettes and instead buying e-cigarettes which are widely available in local supermarkets, online, and in specialist vape shops.”

Aside from calculating overall brand value, Brand Finance also determines the relative strength of brands through a balanced scorecard of metrics evaluating marketing investment, stakeholder equity, and business performance. Along with the level of revenues, brand strength is a crucial driver of brand value.

The strongest brand in the sector belongs to U.S. brand L&M with a Brand Strength Index score of 77.40 out of 100 and a corresponding AAA brand rating. In the brand strength stakes, L&M is followed by Marlboro (77.40 out of 100) and Chesterfield (74.66 out of 100).

Every year, Brand Finance values 5,000 of the world’s biggest brands. The 10 most valuable tobacco brands are included in the Brand Finance Tobacco 10 2019 ranking.

Brand value is understood as the net economic benefit that a brand owner would achieve by licensing the brand in the open market. Brand strength is the efficacy of a brand’s performance on intangible measures relative to its competitors.

SWM International marked the completion of its recent move into a state-of-the-art facility in Prosperity, South Carolina, USA, with a grand opening celebration on June 26, 2019.

Invited guests included community leaders, state business development authorities, and local business leaders, who joined SWM’s employees, SWM CEO Jeffrey Kramer, and members of the SWM board of directors, to note the occasion.

The Prosperity location specializes in a unique printing process for SWM’s patented low-ignition propensity coating technology.

The company previously operated a facility in nearby Newberry, South Carolina.

The new facility has allowed SWM to expand and strengthen its local operations with the addition of production equipment, increasing its operating capacity.

The company employs around 50 individuals at the Prosperity location.

“SWM is a global manufacturing company that brings great jobs and exciting career opportunities to our local residents, actively participates in our community, and contributes to our local economy,” said Wayne Adams, Newberry County administrator.

“They have been a part of our business community since 2007 and we are delighted to see the company settled into this great facility where they can continue to operate and grow here in Prosperity for many years to come.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed support for a ban on tobacco advertising, according to a Xinhua News Agency report.

“If it were up to me, we should ban the advertising of tobacco products,” she was quoted as saying during a question-and-answer session in the Bundestag, the German federal parliament.

The German government had wanted to adopt an advertising ban for tobacco products on billboards and in cinemas from 2020, but the bill failed due to opposition from the CDU-CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag.

A recent poll conducted by the German opinion research institute Forsa found that 69 percent of Germans were in favor of a complete ban on tobacco advertising.

British American Tobacco (BAT) Korea produced more than 300 billion cigarettes to date this year, reaffirming its goal to leverage the Sacheon factory into a global export hub, reports The Korea Times citing company officials.

The Sacheon factory has been serving as BAT’s main production facility in the Asia-Pacific region since it began exporting cigarettes in 2004.

In 2016, the factory reached a cumulative production of 200 billion cigarettes. Last year, it produced 34.2 billion cigarettes, including consumables for tobacco heating products.

The factory ships tobacco products to 15 countries, including Japan, Taiwan and Australia.

Recently, the Korea International Trade Association awarded BAT Korea the “$300 million Export Tower Award.”

“We plan to increase the production capability to produce 50 billion cigarettes in 2021,” said Kang Seung-ho, head of the Sacheon factory.

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden said Tuesday that it is “fully unacceptable” for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to suggest it may take up to five years to issue rules on the lawful marketing of hemp-derived CBD in the food supply, reports The Boston Globe.

In a letter to the heads of the FDA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the senator discussed the “significant economic gains” that hemp producers stand to make since the crop was federally legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill.

The senator said that the FDA should issue “enforcement discretion guidance” by Aug. 1 and follow up on that by issuing an interim final rule as soon as possible while the agency develops permanent final regulations for CBD. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday that it hoped to issue its own regulations on hemp production in August.

Meanwhile, the CBD market is growing rapidly, drug stores are allowing the sale of CBD and Facebook has just announced it is relaxing it’s ban on CBD advertising.

Advertisers are now allowed to run ads for topical hemp across Facebook. Advertisers can run ads that direct to landing pages that feature ingestible hemp and topical CBD, but the ads cannot specifically feature those products.

Additionally, teen apparel retailer Abercrombie & Fitch is expanding its CBD business with Green Growth Brands. The retailer plans to sell the cannabis company’s CDB-infused body care products, including lip balms and sugar scrubs, in more than 160 of its 250-plus stores.

Tobacco growers in Pakistan have lauded the government’s decision to abolish a PKR300 ($4.34) additional tax on tobacco crops and asked the government to impose higher taxation on multinational companies.

Addressing a press briefing at the National Press Club, the tobacco growers also asked the authorities to restore jobs of workers terminated by tobacco companies.

Previously, the Federal Board of Revenue had imposed the tax on the sale of tobacco, which the local farmers termed as granting indirect benefit to the multinational cigarette manufacturers.

The president of the Pakistan Kisan Board, K.P. Rizwanullah, said that elimination of the PKR300 tax from cultivators will increase the sale of tobacco and will improve the financial status of the growers.

A public health expert has called San Francisco’s plan to ban e-cigarettes but not tobacco products “ludicrous,” according to an NBC News report.

“We’re taking the risk of addiction among kids,” said Kenneth Warner, a professor emeritus at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, “and comparing that with the immediate danger of smoking-related illness and death in smokers who have not been able to quit otherwise and who might be able to quit with vaping.”

Warner cited a New England Journal of Medicine study from January 2019 that found among smokers in a smoking cessation clinic trying to quit traditional cigarettes, nearly double the number of people—18 percent versus 9.9 percent—who used vaping over nicotine-replacement products such as gum or patches were able to quit.

“If the board of supervisors were interested in public health, they would prohibit the sale of cigarettes in San Francisco,” said Warner. “That’s a far higher priority than banning vaping from a public health point of view. There really is an irony that now you can buy your marijuana and your cigarettes, but you won’t be able to get vaping products, which are certainly far less dangerous than cigarette smoking. It’s ludicrous.”

A  Florida jury has cleared R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. for the wrongful death of a 36-year-old man during a retrial, reports The Gainesville Sun.

The verdict ends a decade-long battle that initially left the company on the hook for $23.6 billion.

In July 2014, an Escambia County jury awarded Cynthia Robinson $23.6 billion after her husband, Michael Johnson, died from lung cancer in 1996. The verdict was one of the largest damages ever awarded in a wrongful death tobacco case but was later reduced to about $17 million. Attorneys for R.J. Reynolds appealed the ruling and were given a retrial.

In March 2019, the tobacco company also appealed a $14.7 million verdict for the death of a 56-year-old South Florida man. The money was awarded to the family but later reduced by 30 percent after the man was found to also be at fault.