Category: News This Week

  • FDA investigates seizures

    FDA investigates seizures

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is investigating a possible link between vaping and seizures.

    In a statement released on April 3, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb and Principal Deputy Commissioner Amy Abernethy wrote that the agency was aware of 35 reported cases of seizures following the use of e-cigarettes between 2010 and early 2019.

    “While 35 cases may not seem like much compared to the total number of people using e-cigarettes, we are nonetheless concerned by these reported cases,” they said. “We also recognize that not all of the cases may be reported. We believe these 35 cases warrant scientific investigation into whether there is in fact a connection.”

    The regulators stressed that they did not know yet whether there is a direct relationship between the use of e-cigarettes and a risk of seizure.

    “We’re sharing this early information with the public because as a public health agency, it’s our job to communicate about potential safety concerns associated with the products we regulate that are under scientific investigation by the agency.”

    Shares of tobacco manufacturers that have embraced electronic devices declined in the wake of the news. The stock price of Altria Group, which has a large stake in Juul Labs fell nearly 5 percent; Philip Morris International declined by 2.5 percent while British American Tobacco shares slid nearly 3 percent.

  • AR expands in Africa

    AR expands in Africa

    AR Packaging Group will acquire all outstanding shares in Nampak Cartons Nigeria.

    Nampak Cartons Nigeria is one of the leading carton packaging companies in Nigeria. The company serves a broad market of primarily multinational customers in the tobacco and food segments from its production facility in Ibadan, Oyo State.

    Currently, the company employs approximately 200 personnel. Nampak Cartons Nigeria was established in 2004 by a subsidiary of Nampak Limited, a Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed packaging company with more than 45 facilities worldwide.

    “With the acquisition of Nampak Cartons Nigeria, we have taken an important first step towards establishing a footprint in the African market,” says Harald Schulz, president and CEO of AR Packaging.

    “We are very pleased to have found such a competent partner for our global growth ambitions, and we will now be able to serve our multinational customer base on three continents. Together with the highly experienced management team of Nampak Cartons Nigeria, we are convinced that we will be able to deploy true growth opportunities in Nigeria and more broadly in Africa.”

    Completion of the acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including local regulatory approvals.

    Headquartered in Sweden, AR Packaging is one of Europe’s leading companies in the packaging sector with net sales of approximately €600 million ($673.58 million), 3,300 employees and 19 factories in eleven countries.

     

  • Dubious honor

    Dubious honor

    Malaysia has the highest share of illicit cigarettes in the world, according to a study commissioned by the Confederation of Malaysian Tobacco Manufacturers.

    Illicit cigarettes accounted for 58.9 percent, or 12 billion sticks, of the domestic tobacco market in 2018, up 3.3 percent from 2017.

    To determine the size of the illegal tobacco market, researchers collected 153,000 discarded cigarette packs throughout 2018 and analyzed them for local tax stamps and authentic packaging. Of the illegal cigarette packs, 91 percent did not have tax stamps while the remaining share bore fake tax stamps.

  • Plantings down

    Plantings down

    The United States Department of Agriculture published its annual Prospective Planting Report and reported that the estimates for tobacco plantings are expected to total 244,040 acres, down 16 percent from 2018.

    Burley Tobacco Growers Cooperative General Manager Steve Pratt attributes the decline to the trend of fewer people smoking, and the rising popularity of vaping. Pratt explained that some tobacco companies have downsized or canceled contracts to buy the crop this past year, causing some farmers to either quit growing it or switch to other products like livestock or hemp.

  • No gateway

    No gateway

    A study from Cardiff University has found that the rapid spread of e-cigarette use among teenagers, aged 13 to 15 years, has not normalized smoking among the same age group.

    Published in the BMJ journal Thorax, the study found that e-cigarettes are not a gateway drug for tobacco, as it was once thought. Only 27 percent of teens in 2015 said it was “OK to try a cigarette”, compared with 70 percent 15 years earlier.

    The National Institute on Drug Abuse reported last November that 10 percent of teens aged 13-to-14 admitted to vaping within the last month, but less than four percent had lit up a cigarette.

    However, vaping in the United States has jumped by more than 75 percent in 2018 compared with the year before.

  • Preparing for drought

    Preparing for drought

    The Tobacco Research Board (TRB) of Zimbabwe plans to develop drought-resistant tobacco varieties to mitigate effects of climate change, characterized by longer dry spells.

    In its 2017-2018 annual report, the TRB said hot and dry weather conditions prevailing in the country posed a challenge to tobacco growers as the season was characterized by poor rainfall patterns.

    “The season was characterized by poor rainfall distribution and this was particularly pertinent as over 85 percent of the Zimbabwean tobacco grower is a small-scale producer depending on rains,” TRB general manager Dahlia Garwe told The NewsDay.

    The hot and dry conditions gave way to cool wet weather later in the season, leading to an outbreak of potato virus (PVY).

  • PMI providing relief

    PMI providing relief

    Philip Morris International said today that it will provide the Swiss Red Cross with $400,000 to support the relief efforts in Mozambique following Cyclone Idai.

    ‘In the aftermath of one of the worst tropical cyclones on record to affect Africa, and the Southern Hemisphere as whole, two million people have been left affected, and thousands are in immediate need of emergency shelter, food, water, and medical assistance,’ PMI said in a note posted on its website.

    ‘Beyond this, the funds will also support people’s livelihoods in the months ahead, as needs will increase for those who have lost their crops and property.’

    “We are deeply saddened by the impact of Cyclone Idai,” said Nicolas Denis, vice president leaf at PMI. “The devastation is massive, and the local communities are going through a very difficult time. Our thoughts are with everyone affected. We are working with the Swiss Red Cross to contribute to the relief efforts and support the country as it rebuilds.”

    PMI said that it did not have any operations in Mozambique, but that it sourced a significant amount of tobacco from the country.

    ‘Tobacco is an important crop there, representing a significant contribution to the economy,’ it said. ‘According to our farm monitoring data, the livelihoods of some 600,000 people—farmers, their families and tobacco workers—are dependent directly on tobacco.’

  • Where smoking isn’t an issue

    Where smoking isn’t an issue

    For the past forty years, no resident in the village of Skotino in the Hersonissos municipality of Heraklion, Crete, has taken a puff on a cigarette, according to a story by Tasos Kokkinidis for The Greek Reporter.

    Skotino is described as picturesque and a paradise for non-smokers in a country where smoking is prevalent.

    Reportedly, none of the village’s approximately 70 residents remembers how or why Skotino became tobacco-smoking free, but somehow its smoke-free status became part of an unwritten law unique to Greece.

    It is known, however, that the villagers’ decision to embrace a healthier way of life wasn’t based on an anti-smoking campaign imposed from outside or on any legal prohibition.

    “There has been no smoking in this village since the 1970s,” Zaharias Moudatsakis – presumably a resident – reportedly told the local news site Cretapost. “This has passed on to our children, with the result that even the younger generation does not have this bad habit.”

    The residents of Skotino are proud of their successful resistance to smoking but they are perplexed as to why there aren’t many more people who follow their lead.

    “I am very curious to know why people smoke,” said local resident Vasilis Zervakis. “We know how harmful is smoking … Here in Skotino, we prefer to drink a raki or a wine rather than light up a cigarette.”

    Cigarettes are not sold in the village, and even most visitors respect Skotino’s unwritten law.

  • Cigarette sales down

    Cigarette sales down

    Sales of cigarettes in South Korea in February were down 9.8 percent on those of a year earlier, according to a Yonhap News Agency story.

    The fall in sales was attributed to a concerted anti-smoking campaign and higher prices.

    Data compiled by the Ministry of Economics and Finance and published today showed that South Korean smokers bought 235.5 million 20-piece packs during February, down from 261.2 million during February last year.

    The 2019 February figure was down 14.1 percent on that of February 2014.

    Cigarette prices were increased by 80 percent in January 2015, from 2,500 won (US$2.20) per pack to 4,500 won, largely through the imposition of a tax hike.

    And in 2016, the Government mandated that tobacco companies place graphic health warnings on the upper part of cigarette packs.

    However, while combustible-cigarette consumption is falling, the consumption of vapor products is headed in the other direction.

    Sales of heat-not-burn tobacco products reached 29.4 million packs in February, accounting for 12.5 percent of the country’s total tobacco market.

    Such sales accounted for 8.5 percent of the market in February 2018.

  • Armenia’s exports increased

    Armenia’s exports increased

    Cigarettes with a customs value of $266.2 million were exported from Armenia during 2018, 9.3 percent up on the value of cigarette exports the previous year, according to an Arka News Agency story quoting the State Revenue Committee.

    Export volume in 2018 was put at 27 billion pieces, but no comparable figure for the previous year was given.

    The bulk of cigarettes were reportedly exported to countries in the Middle East, in particular to Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Syria.

    Fourteen point five billion cigarettes worth $146.6 million were exported to Iraq in 2018, up from 10.8 billion worth $112.3 million in 2017.

    Cigarette exports to the UAE were said to have fallen in volume by 37 percent to 3.5 billion pieces worth $34 million, while volume exports to Syria increased by 9.1 percent to 6.6 billion pieces worth $55.6 million.

    Exports to Russia increased to 900.6 million pieces worth $9.8 million from 337.4 million pieces worth $4.1 million in 2017.

    According to the National Statistics Committee, the production of cigarettes in 2018, at 31.6, was increased by 11 percent on that of the previous year.

    About 85 percent of cigarettes produced in the country in 2018 were exported.