Category: Flavors

California Asked to Repeal Flavor Ban

Photo: Denis Hiza from Pixabay
Three e-cigarette advocacy groups are asking California State General Assembly to repeal the state’s ban on flavored vaping products. The group’s leaders say an estimated 900,000 former smokers in California could be forced to switch back to smoking if the bill (CA SB793) is not overturned by referendum or repealed.
Greg Conley
“Unless California lawmakers want to force hundreds of thousands of vapers back to smoking, they need to reconsider this flavor ban,” said Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association (AVA). “While voting for bans may make legislators feel righteous, the reality is that prohibition is failed public policy and never works for adult consumer products.”
The World Vapers’ Alliance, Consumer Choice Center (CCC) and the AVA, which combined represent hundreds of thousands of consumers, sent a letter to members of the California State Assembly members urging them to repeal the flavored tobacco ban bill in California to avoid pushing vapers back to combustible cigarettes.
“Instead of improving public health by reducing the number of smokers, this law will have the opposite effect: more people smoking again,” said Yaël Ossowski, deputy director at the CCC. “Moreover, these measures will push people into the illegal market and will also have a disproportionate impact on people of color, who overwhelmingly prefer flavored products and would suffer the most from criminalization and over-policing in our local communities.”
November 12, 2020
Companies Challenge Flavor Ban

Photo: Michal Kalasek | Dreamstime.com
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., American Snuff Co., R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co., Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co., Philip Morris USA, John Middleton Co., U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co., Helix Innovations, Neighborhood Market Association. and Morija filed a lawsuit seeking to repeal the California flavor ban law on Oct. 9.
The California law bans the sale of menthol cigarettes as well as all other flavored tobacco and vapor products except premium cigars, shisha and loose-leaf tobacco beginning Jan. 1, 2021.
The lawsuit seeks a ruling that “declare[s] that the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act pre-empts the California ban on the sale of all flavored tobacco products, making the law invalid and unenforceable; declare[s] that the law is invalid and unenforceable under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution; [and] issue[s] preliminary and permanent injunctions preventing the enforcement and implementation of the California ban on the sale of all flavored tobacco products,” according to CSP.
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the ban Aug. 28. Opponents filed a petition to put the question to voters in a referendum to overturn it shortly after its passage.
October 26, 2020
Irish Health Body Calls for Flavor Ban

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The Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI) has called for a ban on all flavorings for e-liquids available for purchase in Ireland, reports the Irish Medical Times. The group says its goal is to protect children from the device that simulates tobacco smoking.
The RCPI Policy Group on Tobacco wants to prohibit all liquid flavorings, apart from tobacco flavor. The group is also calling for increased regulation and future taxation on e-cigarettes.
A review into e-cigarette use by Ireland’s Health Research Board found that e-cigarettes were associated with adolescents starting to smoke tobacco cigarettes, which could potentially lead to serious harm.
“These findings have important public health ramifications and do not support recommending e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation tool,” said Des Cox, chair of the RCPI Policy Group on Tobacco.
The board recommended that people use nicotine replacement therapies and/or medications prescribed by their general practitioner instead of e-cigarettes when trying to quit smoking.
October 14, 2020
Researcher Gets $1.3 Million to Study Menthol

Amy Cohn (Photo: University of Oklahoma)
The U.S. National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products have granted Amy Cohn, a researcher at the Stephenson Cancer Center at OU Medicine, $1.3 million to study menthol.
Cohn will investigate the link between menthol and young adults’ smoking habits. According to Cohn, young adults who started smoking with menthol cigarettes expressed a more positive experience than those who started smoking with nonmenthol cigarettes.
“Menthol cigarettes are disproportionately used by several at-risk populations, including African Americans, young people, Hispanics and women,” Cohn said in a press statement.
“There are a lot of hypotheses that a ban on menthol would reduce the public health impact of cigarette smoking, which we know is a very strong risk factor for cancer and other diseases. Our research will help the FDA make decisions in its regulatory efforts.”
October 6, 2020
EU Opposes Danish Flavor Ban

Photo: Sharon Ang from Pixabay
The European Commission has opposed a ban on vaping flavors put forward by the Danish government, according to the U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA).
“It is a victory both for vaping and common sense,” said UKVIA Director John Dunne said in a statement.
John Dunne
Denmark wants to introduce a flavor ban on both nicotine and non-nicotine containing e-liquids, where only tobacco and menthol flavors will be permitted. According to the Danish Vapers Association (DADAFO), the proposed ban would have affected between 85 percent and 90 percent of adult vapers in Denmark with the potential of driving up to 70,000 Danish ex-smokers back to cigarettes. The move would have also forced 90 percent of vape shops to close, DADAFO said.
“Flavors play a hugely important role in encouraging smokers to switch to vaping, a much less harmful product,” said Dunne. “Crucially, vape flavors provide choices for ex-smokers to ensure they do not relapse.”
“The effect of banning flavored liquids on deterring adult vapers from using vape products to help them quit or reduce their smoking was acknowledged by Public Health England earlier this year in its annual vaping evidence review. The review also stated that a ban could also push current adult vapers towards illicit products.”
According to the European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates, the Danish Ministry of Health sent a notification of this to the European Commission on April 17 with a standstill period of three months during which the Commission had to comment whether it believes that the Danish government can legally amend the existing laws as proposed.
October 2, 2020
Menthol Sales up After U.S. Flavor Ban

Photo: Photo: Miriam Doerr | Dreamstime.com
Sales in menthol e-cigarettes have risen since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidance banning flavors has gone into effect, according to an article in Tobacco Control.
Since Juul Labs has taken mint flavors off the market and the FDA has banned flavors other than menthol and tobacco, market shares of menthol-flavored e-cigarettes increased.
After Juul’s actions, there was a 59.4 percent increase in the market share of menthol products after four weeks, and after the FDA guidance, there was a 54.5 percent increase after four weeks and an 82.8 percent increase after eight weeks.
September 25, 2020
Scholars Argue Against Flavor Ban

Jeff Stier
The prohibition of the legal sale of flavored e-cigarettes to adults is unsupported by science, undermined by an analysis of the available data and lacks common sense, according to Jeff Stier, senior fellow at the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, and Henri Miller, senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute.
Writing on Pundicity, the scholars insist the promised benefits of any policy should be weighed against the known risks and possibility of unintended consequences.
Last February, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that would ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes to adults. The bill, sponsored by Representative Frank Pallone Jr., did not advance in the Senate but is likely to resurface in the next Congress, according to the Stier and Miller.
“Federal law already bans the sale of all e-cigarettes to anyone under 21, so the Pallone legislation would only change the legal status of the sale of flavored e-cigarettes to adults,” the authors wrote. “That would harm public health, because the data tell us that adult smokers can significantly reduce their health risks if they switch from smoking to vaping.”
Stier and Miller also refuted anti-flavor advocates’ concern about underage vaping. “Kids vape for lots of reasons, but the availability of flavors isn’t high among them,” they wrote.
September 16, 2020
Florida Governor Vetoes Flavor Ban

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis vetoed a bill to raise the age to buy tobacco products from 18 to 21 because it would have also banned the sale of flavored liquid nicotine products used in vaping.
DeSantis said that hundreds of thousands of Floridians vape as a lower risk alternative to smoking.
“This legislation would almost assuredly lead more people to resume smoking cigarettes and it would drive others to the hazardous black market,” DeSantis wrote, citing lung injury associated with black market products.
Federal law, he pointed out, already raised the age to buy tobacco to 21.
DeSantis said eliminating legal products for adults would not reduce youth vaping. He said it also would devastate small businesses that sell vapor products.
September 10, 2020
Ireland: Call to Strengthen Menthol Ban

Photo: Miriam Doerr | Dreamstime.com
The government of Ireland wants to strengthen the four-month-old EU ban on menthol cigarettes to stop tobacco companies side-stepping it. The Health Service Executive (HSE) is investigating tobacco companies over the issue.

Introduced on May 20, the EU measure aims to prevent “characterizing flavors” in cigarettes to make them less attractive to children and help smokers quit.

Japan Tobacco International (JTI) has admitted it still adds some menthol to products, including a new Silk Cut Choice Green that was among a suite of new brands it introduced into the Irish market after the ban. However, JTI insists it is in full compliance with the ban because, it claims, the additive doesn’t make its new brand taste or smell of menthol.

JTI’s new brands scooped up 5 percent of Ireland’s €1.8 billion ($2.12 billion) cigarette market in their first month, according to industry data.

After complaints from anti-smoking groups and rival tobacco companies that retired their menthol blends, the HSE said in June it would cooperate with European authorities on the issue.
Across Europe, tobacco companies have been introducing alternatives to their discontinued menthol brands. Governments have criticized tobacco companies for trying to get around the ban.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly noted the directive is being reviewed at EU level and said he would strongly support any revisions to the directive that would ensure that the provision in relation to the menthol ban is “robust.”

The market for menthol cigarettes was worth €250 million prior to the ban.
September 8, 2020
Activist Want Say on Flavor Ban

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Opponents of California’s recently enacted ban on the sale of flavored tobacco and vapor products are working to get a referendum on the measure, reports The Los Angeles Times.
If the referendum qualifies with the collection of 623,212 signatures, the sales ban would be placed on hold until voters are given a chance to vote on the issue, possibly in 2022.
The referendum is being pursued by a new political group called the California Coalition for Fairness
“We agree that youth should never have access to any tobacco products, but this can be achieved without imposing a total prohibition on products that millions of adults choose to use,” the group wrote in a statement. “This law goes too far and is unfair, particularly since lawmakers have exempted hookah, expensive cigars and flavored pipe tobacco from the prohibition.”
State Senator Jerry Hill, the author of the bill, denounced the plan to seek a referendum.
“California fought Big Tobacco and won,” Hill was quoted as saying. “This shameless industry is a sore loser and it is relentless. It wants to keep killing people with its candy-, fruit-, mint- and menthol-flavored poison. The adults who are hooked on nicotine aren’t enough for Big Tobacco; it wants our kids too.”
The bill was signed into law by California Governor Gavin Newsom on Aug. 28. The legislation prohibits the sale of tobacco and vapor flavors, including menthol, in the state beginning Jan 1, 2021. The legislation does not make it illegal for someone to purchase, possess or use flavored tobacco or vapor products.
September 4, 2020