Category: Featured

Tobacco Content Up on Social Media

Image: ronstik
Tobacco-related content on social media increased significantly in recent years, according to a new study led by Julia Vassey, a health behavior researcher in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, and Harvard Medical School researcher Chris J. Kennedy.
The researchers used a form of artificial intelligence known as computer vision to track the prevalence of various tobacco-related objects on social media, finding that some content increased as much as 100 percent between 2019 and 2022.
While previous computer vision studies that analyzed e-cigarettes in social media posts looked broadly at e-cigarette-related content (including user-generated and promotional content), the present study is the first to focus specifically on influencer posts on TikTok, Vassey explained in a press note.
Vassey and her colleagues started by building a computer vision model, which uses AI to identify specific features in visual data, such as photos or videos. Using a dataset of 6,999 images from Instagram, they trained the algorithm to recognize objects related to e-cigarette use.
The model was trained to differentiate between objects in eight different categories: mod or pod devices, e-juice containers, packaging boxes, nicotine warning labels, e-juice flavors, e-cigarette brand names and smoke clouds. By training the model to distinguish between various types of tobacco content, the researchers are able to drill down into the specific types of e-cigarette products being promoted.
Once the model was trained to recognize tobacco-related objects, Vassey and her team used it to analyze 14,072 TikTok videos posted from “micro-influencers.” These users have between 1,000 and 100,000 followers and get a high number of likes and comments on their posts.
The researchers found that the prevalence of pod devices increased by 33 percent between 2021 and 2022 while the prevalence of e-juice flavor names and e-cigarette brand names increased by about 100 percent between 2019 and 2022. Nicotine warning labels also increased in prevalence over time, showing up in 3 percent of TikTok videos analyzed from 2019 and 9 percent of videos analyzed from 2022.
December 6, 2023
Young Kiwis Support Generational Ban: Study

Image: Nikolay
Most young New Zealanders support the law to progressively ban smoking, which was recently abandoned, reports RNZ, citing the results of an international study.
The new coalition government plans to repeal changes to the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act that would have barred the sale of cigarettes to anyone born after 2009, among other measures.
A Canadian-based international study shows 79 percent of New Zealanders aged 16 to 29 favored the ban.
A similar share supported a reduction in the number of shops that could sell tobacco while 68 percent wanted manufacturers to have to take nicotine out of cigarettes.
The International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project investigates attitudes to smoking across several countries. The most recent research was supposed to provide a baseline for New Zealand before the law came into effect.
“Our overseas colleagues are incredibly disappointed and devastated as we are because the tobacco research world has been really looking to New Zealand,” said co-author Jude Ball from Otago University.
By contrast, the Coalition of Asia Pacific Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) expressed its support for the decision to repeal the generational tobacco ban.
“CAPHRA applauds the government’s decision to prioritize harm reduction strategies,” said the group’s executive coordinator, Nancy Loucas. “We believe that vaping and other harm reduction tools can play a significant role in helping smokers quit, and we are pleased to see the government recognizing this.”
The organization said it also shares the government’s concerns about the potential for a black market to develop if the sale of tobacco is overly restricted.
“A regulated market is always preferable to an unregulated one, where product safety cannot be guaranteed,” Loucas added.
December 6, 2023
BAT Writes Down Value of Combustibles

Photo: BAT
BAT will write down the value of some of its traditional cigarette brands by £25 billion ($31.5 billion) to reflect the diminishing outlook for combustible tobacco products.
The company said the charge—one of the biggest corporate write-downs in recent years—mainly relates to U.S. brands it acquired, as it assesses their carrying value and economic usefulness in the years to come. The brands being written down include Newport, Pall Mall, Camel and Natural American Spirit.
The decline in U.S. cigarette sales has been driven not only by growing health awareness and mounting regulations but also by economic challenges, with consumers downtrading to cheaper brands or illicit products. These trends prompted BAT to adjust the way some of its U.S. brands are treated on its balance sheet, shifting their value to a finite lifetime of 30 years.
Chief Executive Tadeu Marroco described the move as “accounting catching up with reality.”
While he does not believe cigarettes will disappear in 30 years, he said it was no longer possible to justify an indefinite value for those brands equating to around $80 billion on BAT’s balance sheet.
BAT added that it would start amortizing the remaining value of its U.S. combustibles brands in 2024, making it the first of the major cigarette players to acknowledge that its tobacco brands’ value had an expiry date.

With only 10 percent of the world’s 1 billion smokers currently using ‘new category’ products, the long-term opportunity for growth as we deliver on our transformation is vast.
Tadeu Marroco , CEO, BAT
While preparing for a future with lower cigarette sales, BAT reported strong volume and revenue growth from its “new category” products, such as e-cigarettes. Vuse’s value market share, for example, increased 100 basis points to 36.8 percent in key markets.
On Dec. 6, BAT announced a new ambition to generate 50 percent of its revenues from noncombustibles by 2025. “With only 10 percent of the world’s 1 billion smokers currently using ‘new category’ products, the long-term opportunity for growth as we deliver on our transformation is vast,” said Marroco in a statement.
The company expects its business from such “new categories” to break even in 2023, a year ahead of its current projection.
BAT expects its full-year revenue growth to be at the lower end of its 3 percent to 5 percent range. It also expects low single-digit growth in revenue and adjusted profit from operations in 2024.
“We will continue to reward shareholders through our strong cash returns, including our progressive dividend, and, once the middle of our leverage range is reached, we will evaluate all opportunities to return excess cash to our shareholders,” Marroco said.
“I am confident that the choices we are making today will drive our long-term success and deliver sustainable value for all of our stakeholders.”
December 6, 2023
BAT Took Big Hit on Russian Sale: CEO

Photo: Matvey Salivanchuk
BAT took a big hit from the sale of its Russian and Belarussian assets, according to CEO Tadeu Marroco, reports Reuters.
During a Dec. 6 trading update, Marroco said that the proceeds received by BAT represent only a fraction of the Russian and Belarussian businesses’ true value
In September, BAT sold the assets to a consortium led by its Russian local management team, ending an 18-month long process to exit the world’s fourth-largest cigarette market following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
At the time, BAT did not disclose the sale price or whether the deal included a clause allowing the company to buy back the businesses at a later date.
Marroco noted that the company was unlikely to exercise the sales contract’s buyback option because Russian authorities restricted this to two years.
The company had already recognized £629 million pounds ($792.35 million) in impairments and associated costs related to the sale by the time the deal was announced
December 6, 2023
Court Urged to Permit U.S. Graphic Warnings

Image: FDA
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration urged a federal appeals court to let a regulation requiring graphic health warnings on tobacco packaging and promotions take effect, a year after it was blocked by a lower court, reports Reuters.
On Dec. 5, FDA representative Lindsey Powell told the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the images on the proposed labels are necessary because text-only warnings failed to deter teenagers from starting to smoke. The labels would include 11 graphic images, such as diseased feet with amputated toes, to illustrate the risks of smoking.
The tobacco companies that challenged the regulation have argued that the graphic labels violate their right to free speech under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by compelling them to make emotionally charged, controversial statements rather than mere facts like existing written labels stating that smoking can cause cancer.
The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009 instructs the FDA to create visual health warnings, but the D.C. Circuit in 2012 blocked the agency’s first attempt, saying that regulators had not convincingly demonstrated that the warnings would actually reduce smoking.
In March 2020, the FDA released the final rule requiring new graphic warnings for cigarettes that feature some of the lesser known but still serious health risks of smoking, such as diabetes, on the top half of the front and back of cigarette packages and at least 20 percent of the area on the top of cigarette advertisements.
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., ITG Brands and Liggett Group filed a First Amendment challenge in April 2020. The rule was set to take effect in November 2023 after it was repeatedly pushed back by court.
In a lengthy opinion issued Dec. 7, 2022, U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas vacated the FDA’s rule after finding that the required label statements and graphic images are not narrowly tailored to the agency’s interest in promoting public awareness of the health risks of smoking.
December 6, 2023
Adult Vapers Rely on Flavors: Research
Photo: Atlas
New industry figures, collected by online vape retailers representing around 43 percent of the U.K. market, have revealed that significant numbers of older adults are users of disposable and flavored vapes, which are the focus of a government consultation to address the issue of youth vaping that will close on Dec. 6.
The industry warns that any moves to ban single use vapes and flavors, which have been key drivers in the decline of smoking to record low levels in the U.K. over the last two years, will have catastrophic consequences for the nation’s public health and will effectively end any chance of creating a smokefree generation in the near future.
The data collected from the last quarter sales by four of the country’s leading online retailers, representing nearly a quarter of the U.K. market, revealed that:
The most popular flavor category amongst middle-aged adults (35-44 and year olds) was “fruit” flavors, followed “treats and desserts”
Highest proportion of tobacco flavor use is in the over-55 age category
Menthol flavors and tobacco flavors are significantly less popular amongst middle-aged adults
The average age of adult disposable users is 39
The latest adult vaping statistics follow a survey conducted by One Poll earlier this year, which revealed that 83 percent of vapers said that flavors helped them quit smoking, with one in three saying that a ban on them would lead them back to conventional cigarettes, which would represent around 1.5 million former smokers.
Why should 4.5 million adults who have spent years trying to kick a habit that kills some 250 people a day, and have managed to do so through vaping, be at risk of having their lifeline taken away?”
John Dunne, director, UKVIA
“These statistics show what we in the industry already know—that the very flavors and single use vapes that are now under scrutiny by the government as it looks to tackle youth vaping are a lifeline for former adult smokers,” said Dan Marchant, co-owner of online retailer Vape Club, which contributed to the demographic sales data.
“The legitimate vaping industry completely recognizes the need to deal with youth vaping but it shouldn’t involve any wholesale bans, as this will affect the adults who depend on them. There is already a ban on vapes for under 18 year olds as it is illegal for retailers to sell devices to minors. That’s why the industry is calling for greater enforcement of the existing law, on-the-spot fines of up to £10,000 ($12,631) per offence and the introduction of a retail licensing scheme to weed out the rogue traders.”
“Why should 4.5 million adults who have spent years trying to kick a habit that kills some 250 people a day, and have managed to do so through vaping, be at risk of having their lifeline taken away?” asked UKVIA’s Director General John Dunne.
“If the government goes down the path of banning single use vapes and/or flavors a return to smoking amongst current vapers will be very much on the cards, bringing with it catastrophic consequences for the public health of the nation and wrecking any chances of the government’s smoke free ambition. The only winners from any potential bans on the vaping industry are the tobacco industry and illicit markets, something that no one in their right mind wants to see.”
December 5, 2023
Poll: Adults Should be Allowed to Buy Tobacco

Image: auremar
Almost three-fifths of people in Britain say that when people are 18 and legally an adult, they should be allowed to purchase cigarettes and other tobacco products, a new poll conducted on behalf of the smokers’ lobby group Forest has found.
Conducted by Yonder Consulting, the survey found that 58 percent of respondents think that if a person can vote, drive a car, buy alcohol or possess a credit card at 18, they should also be allowed to purchase tobacco.
Fewer than a third (32 percent) said they should not be allowed to purchase tobacco products when they are legally an adult at 18, while 10 percent said, “don’t know.”
Excluding “don’t knows,” almost two-thirds (65 percent) think that when people are 18 and legally an adult they should be allowed to purchase cigarettes and other tobacco products.
The poll comes on the final day for submissions to the government consultation on banning the sale of tobacco to future generations of adults born after 2008.
The consultation ends Dec. 6 and Forest is urging the government not to introduce a generational ban on the sale of tobacco but to follow the example of the new center-right government in New Zealand which has announced that it will repeal a similar generational sales ban introduced by that country’s previous Labour government.

Banning the sale of tobacco to future generations of adults is gesture politics by a prime minister who has run out of ideas and is desperate to leave a legacy.
Simon Clark, director, Forest
“As soon as you are legally an adult you should be treated like one and allowed to buy tobacco, if that’s your choice,” said Simon Clark, director of Forest.
“We can’t have a two-tier society in which some adults are permitted to buy cigarettes, and others are denied the same opportunity.
“Banning the sale of tobacco to future generations of adults is gesture politics by a prime minister who has run out of ideas and is desperate to leave a legacy.
“It ignores the consequences for law-abiding retailers, who will have to enforce this absurd policy, and drives a stake into the heart of traditional Conservative values such as freedom of choice and personal responsibility.”
The government consultation has also invited responses to proposals for further regulations on vaping products. Forest is urging the government to not ban disposable vapes, make vapes subject to excise duty, or restrict the promotion and display of vapes in shops.
According to Clark, vaping has been a free-market success story. “Millions of smokers who want to quit have done so by switching voluntarily to e-cigarettes and other reduced risk products, including heated tobacco and nicotine pouches,” he said.
“The issue of children vaping should be addressed not by imposing further restrictions on vapes but by enforcing existing age restrictions and punishing retailers who sell vapes illegally to children.”
December 5, 2023
U.S. Menthol Ban Could Be Pushed to Late 2024

Image: zatevakhin
The expected ban on menthol cigarettes in the U.S. may be pushed to 2024, reports NBC.
The delay could be announced by the Biden administration soon, according to officials from two national public health groups working to remove the products. The groups requested anonymity.
The officials worry that the ban may be pushed as far as after the 2024 November presidential election. One official was “deeply concerned” that the ban wouldn’t be put into effect before the election.
“Everything gets harder to do in an election year because people are distracted and bandwidth is stretched,” the official said.
The White House has not commented on the potential delay.
“The American Lung Association expects the White House to honor President Biden’s commitment to end cancer as we know it through the Cancer Moonshot,” said Erika Sward, assistant vice president for national advocacy at the American Lung Association. Sward said it can’t be achieved until the White House finalizes rules banning menthol products.
“Removing these products from the market is backed by strong scientific evidence and hundreds of thousands of public comments from the public health community nationwide,” said Nancy Brown, chief executive officer for the American Heart Association. “The administration should not delay further in putting these rules into effect.”
The Food and Drug Administration stated that finalizing the rules to ban menthol “remains a top priority.”
“Final rules such as these go through an extensive rulemaking process, including agency review and consideration of public comments, development of the final rule and subsequent review by the Department of Health and Human Services and the White House Office of Management and Budget,” an FDA spokesperson said. The Office of Management and Budget has posted the final rules, which is considered the last step before the bans are finalized, according to NBC.
“People are dying,” one official said. “This will save lives. We have the science and data to prove it. It is long past time to take these products off the market.”
The Biden administration has been holding meetings with the tobacco industry and public health groups to discuss the issue.
December 5, 2023
Smoore Drops ‘Youth-Friendly’ Brands

Photo: Smoore
Smoore will no longer partner with brands that use flavor names, packaging or product designs that are attractive to youth, the company wrote in a statement.
The announcement comes ahead of the Dec. 6 closure of the U.K. government’s consultation on e-cigarettes.
Smoore says it wants to help end the use of flavor names such as Cotton Candy, Gummy Bear, Watermelon Bubblegum and Blueberry Popsicle. Additionally, the company would like to see an end to the manufacturing and sales of “stealth products,” which are vaping products designed to mimic school supplies, toys, soft drinks or cartoon characters.
Smoore has created a list of flavors that it considers youth-friendly and is also creating a vapor flavor detection squad to monitor the market for new flavors that could be considered appealing to youth.

There is absolutely no place for any vaping product to look like a child’s toy, be shaped like a much-loved cartoon character or iconic children’s game or be filled with liquid called ‘Gummy Bear, Cotton Candy, Strawberry Milkshake or Starry Violet.
Rex Zhang, strategy director, Smoore
“The vape industry represents the best chance the world has ever seen to eradicate deadly cigarettes, and we cannot allow this opportunity to be squandered,” Rex Zhang, Smoore’s strategy director, said. “Vaping was invented for this very purpose, and we need to ensure that it is focused on the adult smoking market.
“There is absolutely no place for any vaping product to look like a child’s toy, be shaped like a much-loved cartoon character or iconic children’s game or be filled with liquid called ‘Gummy Bear, Cotton Candy, Strawberry Milkshake or Starry Violet.’”
Every company under Smoore’s umbrella has been ordered to undertake a root and branch review to ensure that none of its products or customers on the OEM and ODM side of its business could be seen as producing youth-appealing products.
The list of flavors so far includes Skittles, Rainbow, Cotton Candy, Donut, Gummy Bear, Bubblegum, Slushy, Starburst, Pink Pop, Ice Cream, Milkshake, Popsicle, Starry Violet, Reindeer, Snow, Christmas, Fruit Smash, Dr. Reptile, Sour Patch, Oreo and Jolly.
If the company finds brand owners with products that Smoore deems to be child-friendly, Smoore will work with the company to take immediate corrective action; however, if no action is taken, Smoore could ultimately discontinue all cooperation with the brand.
Smoore also suggests creating a “no-fly list” to be used by retail and distribution companies around the globe that lists the manufacturers of child-friendly products to prevent their products from being sold.
Smoore is also urging more standardization of product sizes and shapes. The company believes standardization will help create faster “disassembly at waste treatment sites, helping to increase recycling rates of vapes.”
The company is calling for every batch of disposable vapes and pre-filled pods to be randomly sampled for product compliance, with whole batches being rejected if any number of noncompliant products are identified.
December 5, 2023
Haypp Group Confirms Guidance

Photo: Andrii
The Haypp Group, a Swedish online retailer selling reduced-risk products (primarily nicotine pouches and snus in Scandinavia, Europe and the United States), confirmed guidance above consensus during its capital markets day on Nov. 28. The company’s stock was up 12 percent on the day.
The Haypp Group, which has a market capitalization of approximately $140 million, expects to reach net sales of SEK5 billion ($478.54 million) by 2025 in its existing business through organic growth only. Expansion into adjacent categories and new markets will be “on top,” according to the firm.
While Haypp Group will continue to prioritize top-line growth, it expects to reach a high single digit adjusted EBIT margin in the current core and growth markets business in 2025.
To take advantage of its substantial revenue growth opportunities, and after its successful nicotine vaping pilot in the U.K., the Haypp Group plans to enter adjacent markets and reduced-risk product categories in Europe, reinvesting approximately 1 percentage point to 2 percentage points of adjusted EBIT margin through 2025.
As the board and management team look beyond 2025 and the substantial cash generation, Haypp insists it will maintain its prudent custodianship of the group’s resources and return excess cash to shareholders.
“We always put the consumer first,” said Haypp Group CEO Gavin O’Dowd in a statement. “We engage with them every day to understand their needs and desires, and we know them like no other actor in the industry. Our vision to ‘Inspire healthier enjoyment for millions’ motivates our team to provide attractive, materially lower risk nicotine options for consumers whilst simultaneously increasing our global presence.”
The full presentation/webcast is here.
December 5, 2023