Category: Flavors

  • Illicit Trade Up In Massachusetts

    Illicit Trade Up In Massachusetts

    Photo: spiritofamerica

    Massachusetts law enforcement officials seized nearly 213,000 smuggled electronic nicotine-delivery system products in 2021, according to a report by the Multi-Agency Illegal Tobacco Task Force.

    The seizures of vaping products reportedly dwarfed those of untaxed cigarettes, cigars and smokeless tobacco products. Massachusetts banned the sale of flavored cigarettes and vaping products more than two years ago, but those products are still getting into the state through the black market. The law imposed a 75 percent excise tax on the wholesale cost of vaping products.

    The task force, which is overseen by the Department of Revenue, has partnered with federal officials to dismantle cross-border smuggling operations and recover millions of dollars in unpaid tobacco and vaping product excise taxes. Under the new law, anyone caught bringing untaxed e-cigarettes or vaping products into the state can be fined $5,000 for a first offense and up to $25,000 for multiple violations.

    The provisions also allow police to seize untaxed vaping products as well as vehicles, boats and airplanes. The state collected more than $370 million in cigarette taxes alone in its last budget year, a 23 percent decline over the previous fiscal year, according to the Department of Revenue. The state collected more than $13 million in taxes on vaping products.

    While many anti-nicotine groups have praised Massachusetts’ ban of flavored tobacco products, the ban is not the success its proponents make it out to be, according to Ulrik Boesen of the Tax Foundation. While a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that the sale of flavored tobacco in Massachusetts decreased more than in 27 control states in the wake of the state ban, the authors failed to consider the impact of cross-border trade.

    According to Boesen, increased sales in neighboring New Hampshire and Rhode Island almost completely made up for the decrease in Massachusetts. “The end result of the ban, in fact, is that Massachusetts is stuck with the societal costs associated with consumption while the revenue from taxing flavored tobacco products is being raised in neighboring states,” Boesen wrote on the Tax Foundation’s website.

  • Sweden Wants to Prohibit Flavored Vapes

    Sweden Wants to Prohibit Flavored Vapes

    The Swedish government has proposed a ban on nontobacco-flavored vapes, including menthol, according to Vaping360.

    The proposed law includes nicotine and non-nicotine e-liquid and regulates all synthetic nicotine products, setting the purchase age to 18. If the law is passed, the sale of flavored vape products will be banned effective Jan. 1, 2023.

    The bill is currently being reviewed by the Council on Legislation, which considers the legal validity of proposed bills before they are considered by legislators. Parliament will vote on the bill as early as March 22.

    If the bill is passed, Sweden will be the eighth European country to prohibit flavors, following Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ukraine, Denmark, Lithuania and the Netherlands.

  • Tobacco Technology Appoints New President

    Tobacco Technology Appoints New President

    Photo: Jacub Jirsak

    Tobacco Technology has appointed David Johnson as president and chief scientific officer of the company and its wholly owned subsidiaries, E-LiquiTech and Emerald Green Technology. He will be replacing Richard Howell, who retired earlier this month after 43 years of service.

    Johnson joined Tobacco Technology as the director of regulatory affairs in 2021. He brings more than 30 years of scientific, regulatory and management experience, including over 20 years in the tobacco industry, to the Tobacco Technology family of companies.

    He received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Mississippi, specializing in physical analytical chemistry. In addition, he completed postdoctoral training at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in the mass spectrometry group of Maurice Bursey.

    Johnson acquired much of his tobacco experience at Swedish Match North America, where he was the director of analytical, and at Turning Point Brands, where he was the senior director of scientific and regulatory affairs. Johnson also has a wealth of sales, marketing and Six Sigma experience from his years working with DuPont.

  • FDA Submits Menthol Ban for Review

    FDA Submits Menthol Ban for Review

    Photo: chocolatefather

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is a step closer to a complete ban on menthol-flavored cigarettes and cigars.

    The ban is not expected to impact vaping products, although many experts predict a menthol combustible ban could possibly transition some menthol smokers to e-cigarettes. It is predicted to be similar to what happened in the U.K. when it banned menthol cigarettes in 2020.

    Thursday, the agency submitted its proposal to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB), according to news reports.

    In 2020, the regulatory agency enacted a “flavor ban” on e-cigarettes because they targeted middle and high school students. Now, public health officials argue banning menthol, the last allowable nontobacco flavor in cigarettes, will save lives.

    In its proposal, the FDA provides evidence that menthol tobacco products are heavily marketed to racial minorities. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports more than 85 percent of menthol smokers are Black, taking a disproportionate toll on their health.

  • Trade Group: Flavor Ban Study is Misleading

    Trade Group: Flavor Ban Study is Misleading

    Photo: kurgu128

    The conclusion from a recent study that flavor ban-induced sales declines also reduce youth vaping is unwarranted, according to the Canadian Vaping Association (CVA).

    A recent CDC Foundation analysis examining the change in vape product sales in Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island and Washington after flavor bans found that statewide restrictions on nontobacco-flavored sales were associated with reductions of 25.01 percent to 31.26 percent in total unit sales compared with total sales in states without restrictions.

    However, the “hasty” conclusion that the reduction in total sales has also reduced youth vaping prevalence does not hold up, according to the CVA, because the authors were unable to assess the age of purchasers.

    Darryl Tempest

    According to the CVA, the most common way for youth to access vaping products is through social sourcing. “Even if the age of the purchasers could be verified, a reduction in youth vaping could only be determined through additional studies,” the CVA wrote in press note.

    “The problem with taking a micro view to regulation and forming policy based on individual studies is [that] the bigger picture is neglected,” said Darryl Tempest, government relations council to the CVA Board. “If we take this study at face value and assume the conclusion is accurate and less youth are vaping, on the surface it seems like this type of regulation is logical. Yet, we know from reviewing the full scope of evidence that flavor restrictions result in smoking-related illness and death.”

  • Flavor Ban Pushes Sales Next Door

    Flavor Ban Pushes Sales Next Door

    Photo: Borgwaldt Flavor

    Massachusetts’ ban of flavored tobacco products is not the success its proponents make it out to be, according to Ulrik Boesen of the Tax Foundation.

    While a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that the sale of flavored tobacco in Massachusetts decreased more than in 27 control states in the wake of the state ban, the authors failed to consider the impact of cross-border trade.

    According to Boesen, increased sales in neighboring New Hampshire and Rhode Island almost completely made up for the decrease in Massachusetts.

    “The end result of the ban, in fact, is that Massachusetts is stuck with the societal costs associated with consumption, while the revenue from taxing flavored tobacco products is being raised in neighboring states,” Boesen wrote on the Tax Foundation’s website.

    Looking at the New England region as a whole confirms that the flavor ban did not work as intended, according to Boesen. “Sales moved around rather than disappeared, and the ban evidently did not impact consumption,” he wrote. “Total sales for the region decreased by slightly more than 1 percent comparing the 12 months preceding the ban to the 12 months following the ban—largely comparable to the national sales trends.”

    As the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other states consider Massachusetts’ example, Boesen urges lawmakers to think twice before banning flavored tobacco products. “The experience out of Massachusetts has not been a success story and other states should be wary of conducting their own expensive experiments,” he wrote.

  • FDA Webinar on Pending Product Standards

    FDA Webinar on Pending Product Standards

    Photo: Postmodern Studio

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) will hold a live webinar, titled “FDA’s Rulemaking Process and Upcoming Tobacco Product Standards,” on Feb. 10 from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern Time.

    The webinar will address the FDA’s planned tobacco product standards to prohibit menthol as a characterizing flavor in cigarettes and to prohibit characterizing nontobacco flavors in cigars; the FDA’s rulemaking process and how stakeholders can submit comments on proposed rules; and available cessation resources and tools.

    The webinar will feature a presentation from the FDA’s Office of Minority Health and Health Equity, the CTP’s Office of Health Communication and Education, and the CTP’s Office of Regulations. There will also be a question-and-answer session.

    The FDA will respond only to questions submitted by Feb. 4. To submit a question, please register for the webinar and complete the appropriate field on the registration form.

    The FDA stresses this webinar is not intended to communicate contents of the proposed rules or details about the timeline for their release.

    The webinar is live and free of charge, but prior registration is required by Feb. 9.

  • FDA Menthol Cigs and Flavored Cigars Plans on Track

    FDA Menthol Cigs and Flavored Cigars Plans on Track

    Photo: Yulia Usikava

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is on track to propose rules prohibiting menthol as a characterizing flavor in cigarettes and prohibiting all characterizing flavors (including menthol) in cigars by spring.

    The FDA’s actions “are an important opportunity to achieve significant, meaningful public health gains and advance health equity,” said FDA Center for Tobacco Products Director Mitch Zeller in a statement. “For far too long, specific populations have been targeted and disproportionately impacted by tobacco use, especially when it comes to characterizing flavors that entice them to start and keep smoking.”

    In April 2021, the FDA announced its commitment to advancing these two tobacco product standards. Then in November, attorneys for the FDA appeared in court as anti-tobacco groups accused the agency of failing to implement a ban on menthol cigarettes.

    The National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) cautioned that banning menthol in cigarettes and all characterizing flavors in cigars would boost black market sales.

    “Menthol makes up more than 37 percent of the tobacco market,” Lyle Beckwith, NACS senior vice president of government relations, said in an article published on the association’s website. “That demand will not go away due to a ban. NACS is on record opposing menthol bans as we believe illicit vendors will quickly source and begin selling foreign and counterfeit menthol cigarettes. Illicit vendors do not verify age, do not collect and remit taxes, and they sell other illegal products beyond just menthol cigarettes.”

    In the convenience retailing channel, cigarettes contributed 27.79 percent of in-store sales in 2020, according to the NACS State of the Industry Report of 2020 Data. Other tobacco products, a category which includes cigars, accounted for 6.9 percent of in-store sales in 2020.

    After reviewing and considering comments to its proposed rules, the FDA could then proceed to issue final product standards, which would become enforceable once in effect.

  • FDA Urged to Act on Remaining Applications

    FDA Urged to Act on Remaining Applications

    Photo: New Africa

    Several anti-tobacco groups have sent a letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration urging the agency to act on the outstanding premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs) and pushing for the denial of all flavored e-cigarette products.

    It’s been more than four months since the FDA was supposed to decide which e-cigarette products can remain on the market, but the agency still hasn’t completed some of the reviews, including some of the bestselling e-cigarettes.

    “We write to urge the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to expedite decisions on the premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs) still pending before the agency involving the flavored e-cigarette products, including those with menthol flavoring and, based on the best available scientific evidence, deny the pending applications for all nontobacco flavored e-cigarettes in order to protect the nation’s young people from the health harms of these products,” the letter said.

    The letter was signed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Heart Association and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, among others.

    “Every day that FDA delays action, more of our kids remain at risk,” said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “While the FDA has ruled on applications from a lot of small companies, it hasn’t ruled on the applications from the large companies whose products are being used by a majority of kids.”

    American Vaping Association President Gregory Conley pointed to data showing that youth vaping has been declining. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), use of e-cigarettes went down among middle school and high school students from 2019 to 2020.

    But even with the drop, the CDC said it “estimated that more than 2 million U.S. middle [school] and high school students reported currently using e-cigarettes in 2021.”

  • Lithuania Bans Flavored E-Cigarettes

    Lithuania Bans Flavored E-Cigarettes

    Photo: MNStudio

    Lithuania will ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes and e-liquid cartridges starting in July, reports LRT. Tobacco flavors will remain legal.

    The move is aimed at reducing sales of e-cigarettes that are growing increasingly popular in Lithuania.

    On Jan. 18, Lithuanian lawmakers adopted amendments to the Law on Control of Tobacco, Tobacco Products and Related Products with 92 votes in favor, nine against and nine abstentions.

    Lithuania already bans e-cigarettes and e-liquid cartridges containing vitamins and other additives that create an impression that they are good or do less damage to health.

    The country also prohibits imports of e-cigarettes and e-liquid cartridges containing caffeine and other stimulating compounds linked to energy and vitality.