Category: News This Week

Belgium will require tobacco manufacturers to sell their products in plain packaging starting Jan. 1, 2020, reports The Brussels Times. Retailers will have until the end of 2020 to clear stocks of old, noncompliant packaging.

The adoption of neutral packaging for tobacco products was announced earlier, but no starting date was given. The law affects cigarettes, rolling tobacco and tobacco for use in water-pipes, as well as cigarette papers and filters.

According to The Brussels Times, Belgium is the fifth European country to introduce neutral packaging, after France, Norway, the U.K. and Ireland.

The concept debuted in Australia in 2012.

Belgium’s federal health minister, Maggie De Block, says the measure has been a success in those countries.

“In countries where neutral packaging has been introduced, the number of smokers has dropped significantly,” De Block said.

She declined to say what the government’s target for reducing smoking is.

Tobacco companies have in the past questioned the effectiveness of plain packaging and expressed concern about the impact on illicit trade.

The government of the Czech Republic plans to raise taxes on alcohol, tobacco and gambling, citing an increase in its citizens’ purchasing power.

“The average wage growth [in the Czech Republic] between 2009 and 2018 was 45 percent, while consumer tax on alcohol was last increased in 2010 and we will not raise it again until 2020,” Finance Minister Alena Schiller told European Gaming.

As per the proposed tax revision, taxes on hard liquor would increase by 13 percent, cigarettes by 10 percent, sports betting by 2 percent and lotteries and games of chance by 7 percent.

“Both the World Health Organization and the OECD recommend that we do something about alcohol and tobacco consumption, and one of the most effective recommendations is a higher tax burden,” Health Minister Adam Vojtech was quoted as saying.

North Carolina Attorney General Joshua Stein filed a lawsuit on May 15 against Juul Labs, reports The Washington Post.

The suit alleges that Juul caused addiction in consumers by “deceptively downplaying the potency and danger of the nicotine” and employed advertising campaigns that targeted people under the legal smoking age.

Currently the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines restrict the sale of fruit or candy flavors in stores, allowing menthol, tobacco and mint to be sold. North Carolina’s request would take mint off the market, in addition to other popular flavors like mango and cucumber.

North Carolina is also asking the court to apply a marketing and advertising ban that mimics that of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. It would prevent Juul from creating emails, advertising or social media marketing aimed at minors. It would also block Juul from advertising outdoors and near schools or playgrounds, sponsoring “sports, entertainment, or charity events,” offering free or discounted samples, or promoting products with fashion or media outlets that primarily target consumers under 30.

“Addicting a new generation of teenagers is unacceptable, illegal and that’s why I’m taking action,” Stein told The Washington Post. “This is about a company that is selling its product predominantly to [youth]. There has to be some limitation on the way they do business.”

U.S. Judge Paul Grimm has ordered the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin reviewing thousands of e-cigarettes on the U.S. market

According to Grimm, the FDA exceeded its authority when the agency in August 2017 extended the premarket tobacco application (PMTA) deadline for e-cigarettes to August 2022. The decision removes the extension granted to the industry, and essentially renders all e-cigarettes on the market illegal.

The FDA has said that both staff and manufacturers need more time to prepare for regulation.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and other groups filed a federal lawsuit contesting the deadline extension in Maryland last year. The groups say the lack of FDA oversight has led to an explosion in underage vaping by teenagers, threatening to hook a generation of Americans on nicotine.

“It is now the FDA’s responsibility to take immediate action to protect our kids and require manufacturers to apply to the FDA if they want to keep their products on the market,” the groups said in a statement.

Grimm called the FDA’s delay “so extreme as to amount to an abdication of its statutory responsibilities.”

FDA spokesman Michael Felberbaum said in an emailed statement that the agency is reviewing the court decision and “will continue to tackle the troubling epidemic of e-cigarette use among kids.”

The court ordered plaintiffs to suggest a solution to the FDA within the next two weeks. The FDA will have the option of appealing the decision.

Philip Morris International (PMI) today published its fourth Sustainability Report, detailing its progress in key areas across its value chain. A core component of the company’s sustainability ambition and business strategy is to “unsmoke the world,” according to PMI.

“We’re often asked, ‘Can a tobacco company be sustainable?’ Our answer to that is, ‘Absolutely,’ André Calantzopoulos, PMI’s chief executive officer, was quoted as saying by AP Press.

“That is, provided we are taking every step possible to completely replace cigarettes with better alternatives for the adult smokers who would otherwise continue smoking, addressing challenges across our value chain and seizing opportunities to add value to society,” said Calantzopoulos.

“Our most recent Sustainability Report reflects the hard work and dedication of all our employees globally in moving toward our goal of a smoke-free future. It demonstrates that we are on track to achieve this bold ambition and are well positioned to address the challenges ahead.”

The report also documents how PMI is continuing to focus considerable resources to prevent child labor and improve labor conditions throughout its value chain; scaling up its efforts toward improving inclusion and diversity; and reducing its environmental footprint through greener energy, water and litter management and the preservation of biodiversity, land and forests.

A new study from the University of Stirling in the United Kingdom has found that a ban on displaying cigarettes and tobacco at shop counters has reduced the risk of young people taking up smoking, according to a BBC report.

Tobacco products have been hidden from point-of-sale displays across the U.K. for more than four years.

The researchers said their study showed the ban helps safeguard young people. “Our findings help to justify this policy approach in the U.K. and elsewhere,” said lead author Allison Ford.

The study included the following findings:

• The “smoking susceptibility” of children who had never smoked decreased from 28 percent pre-ban to 18 percent post-ban
• A total of 81 percent of those interviewed noticed cigarettes at point-of-sale before the law came into force, compared to 28 percent afterwards
• The average number of cigarette brands recalled by the children declined from 0.97 to 0.69
• After the ban was fully implemented, 90 percent of those who have never smoked supported the display ban
• It made cigarettes seem unappealing, according to 77 percent of those interviewed
• 87 percent said it made smoking seem unacceptable

Ford’s team interviewed 3,791 young people aged 11 to 16 years, including 2,953 who had never smoked, before, during and after the law was introduced.

Philip Morris International (PMI) has suspended a global social media marketing campaign in response to inquiries into the company’s use of young personalities to sell IQOS, PMI’s new “heated tobacco” device.

The company’s internal marketing standards prohibit it from promoting tobacco products with youth-oriented celebrities or “models who are or appear to be under the age of 25.”

Reuters sent several photographs, including one from an influencer in Moscow who lists her age as 21, to PMI early last week for a comment. In response PMI launched an internal investigation into the posts and photographs in question and subsequently suspended their campaign.

“We have taken the decision to suspend all of our product-related digital influencer actions globally,” PMI told Reuters. “Whilst the influencer in question is a legal age adult smoker, she is under 25 and our guidance called for influencers to be 25+ years of age. This was a clear breach of that guidance … No laws were broken. However, we set high standards for ourselves and these facts do not excuse our failure to meet those standards in this instance.”

WeChat has suspended apps running on its platform selling e-cigarettes, reports The National Business Daily.

WeChat said the mini-programs touting e-cigarettes violated tobacco sales regulations. A mini-program for e-cigarette brand MOTI was allowed to reopen after corrections in mid-April.

WeChat is China’s most popular messaging app.

Its move is closely watched by the industry as many brands sell their products through WeChat.

Swedish Match is about to inaugurate a $100 million expansion of its smokeless tobacco factory in Owensboro, Kentucky, USA, reports The Messenger-Inquirer.

On Monday, the company will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Scheduled to attend are senior company officials, along with U.S. Representative Brett Guthrie, State Representative Suzanne Miles, State Senator Matt Castlen, Mayor Tom Watson, Judge-Executive Al Mattingly and Timothy Gillam-Field, a representative for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The core of the expansion was a 16,000-square-foot production area for the company’s new tobacco-free nicotine pouch, Zyn.

The company said in 2017 that the plant would also be expanded by 34,000 square feet.

Prior to the national launch of Zyn on April 1, Zyn was first introduced in a limited number of retail stores in Colorado, and later expanded to 11 Western states.

Swedish Match’s snus and nicotine pouches segment outside Scandinavia “reached profitability in 2018 on the back of ‘extraordinary’ Zyn volume growth and significantly lower marketing spend on snus in the United States.”

The Owensboro plant also produces Timber Wolf, Longhorn and Red Man brands of moist snuff and Red Man, Southern Pride, J.D.’s Blend and Granger Select chewing tobacco.

Norway’s newly appointed health minister, Sylvi Listhaug, has said that people should be informed about the risks of certain behaviors, but not be told what to do.

“My starting point for this with public health is very simple. I do not plan to be the moral police, and will not tell people how to live their lives, but I intend to help people get information that forms the basis for making choices,” Listhaug told Norwegian broadcaster NRK in an interview on Monday.

“People should be allowed to smoke, drink and eat as much red meat as much as they want,” Listhaug said. “The authorities may like to inform, but people know pretty much what is healthy and what is not healthy … Many smokers feel like pariahs. So they almost feel they have to hide away, and I think that’s stupid. Although smoking is not good, because it is harmful, adults have to decide for themselves what they do.”

Anne Lise Ryel, secretary general of the Norwegian Cancer Society, said Listhaug’s comments were potentially harmful to public health.