Category: Harm Reduction

  • Australia under e-pressure

    Australia under e-pressure

    A major international study into electronic cigarettes has prompted healthcare professionals to encourage Australian smokers to switch to vaping, according to a story by Troy Nankervis for Triple M radio.

    “For those smokers who won’t or can’t quit, the next best thing would be to switch to vaping,” said Hayden McRobbie, professor of public health interventions at Queen Mary University of London, UK.

    McRobbie is a co-author of the Cochrane Review into e-cigarettes, which found that using these devices could help people quit smoking but which conceded the evidence was weak due to limited data.

    “I think Australia is missing a huge public health opportunity in its opposition to e-cigarettes,” McRobbie said.

    “While the long-term risks are not entirely clear, there is broad consensus now that they are much less harmful than tobacco cigarettes.”

    And unlike second-hand smoke, second-hand vapor posed no identified health risks to by-standers, he added.

    After consulting with McRobbie, the New Zealand Ministry of Health is set to legalize and regulate the sale of nicotine-containing e-cigarettes from mid-2018.

    And now, associate professor Colin Mendelsohn of the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of NSW has urged the Australian medical community to follow suit.

    “It [is] good to see New Zealand following the scientific evidence and the lead of the UK, where e-cigarettes have now helped over two million smokers quit,” he said.

    “The sooner these products are legalized in Australia, the more lives will be saved.”

  • Asia’s vapers unite

    Asia’s vapers unite

    Vapers and vaping advocates from Asian countries last week gathered in Jakarta, Indonesia, to call on their governments to allow and regulate the use of electronic cigarettes and heat-not-burn (HNB) devices, according to a story by Roderick T. dela Cruz in the Manila Standard.

    The 1st Asia Harm Reduction Forum was held at the Shangri-La Hotel, Jakarta, on November 8-9.

    Professor Achmad Syawqie Yazid, chief of the Yayasan Pemerhati Kesehatan Publik (Public Health Observer Foundation, YPKP) of Indonesia, which organized the forum, said that almost half of the world’s 1.1 billion smokers lived in Asia, with India and Indonesia having among the biggest populations of smokers globally.

    Thousands died each day in these countries due to complications related to smoking, such as heart disease and cancer.

    One of the major health problems in Indonesia was caused by its extremely high cigarette consumption. In fact, the smoking rate in Indonesia, where more than 57 million people smoked, was one of the highest in the world.

    Despite the best efforts of public health officials in fighting the cigarette smoking epidemic in the region, smoking rates had stopped declining, Yazid says.

    “This condition motivates us, public health observers in Asia, to immediately seek for the most efficient solutions to mitigate the risks of burning tobacco,” he said.  “Countries in Asia need to take actions.”

    Yazid said one of the most efficient solutions was to introduce alternative tobacco products with lower health risks such as nicotine patches, Swedish snus, e-cigarettes and HNB devices.

    “In countries that promote the use of electronic cigarettes and heat-not-burn tobacco products such as Japan and the UK, smoking prevalence has been declining at a record speed,” he said.

    “In the UK for example, 2.2 million smokers have quit smoking within five years.

    “Japan has the world’s fastest decline in cigarette use, since two years ago.

    “The US FDA [Food and Drug Administration] just announced this year that its anti-tobacco regulation will be fully geared towards harm reduction while New Zealand Ministry of Health just endorsed this month the use of electronic cigarettes,” said Yazid.

    The full story is at: http://thestandard.com.ph/business/biz-plus/251492/asians-seek-less-harmful-alternatives-to-smoking.html.

  • E-cigs – what’s not to like?

    Switching from cigarettes to vaping products saves US users an average of about $1,500 a year, according to a story by Laura Kelly for the Washington Times, citing the results of an online poll of daily electronic-cigarette users.

    Packs of cigarettes range in price from around $6 to $14 depending on the state and their taxes, and ‘heavy smokers’ were said to consume a pack a day.

    Users who switched to e-cigarettes reported saving an average of $1,416.60 a year, according to the online poll conducted by LendEDU, an online marketplace that helps students refinance their loans.

    The poll surveyed 1,000 vapers and asked them to gauge how much money they spent on their vaping products and if they saved money by making the switch.

    At least 71 percent responded that switching to vaping had helped them save money, while 19.6 percent said it hadn’t helped them save money and 9.4 percent said they didn’t use traditional tobacco products previously.

    Respondents said they typically spent $80 on a one-time purchase of a vape device and around $60 on vaping consumables per month. On top of these purchases, between $6 and $9 was spent each month on unspecified things related to vaping.

  • England to quit by 2040

    England to quit by 2040

    A new report forecasts that the UK government is on track to meet its smoke-free target for England by about 2040, where smoke-free is defined as a smoking prevalence among adults of five percent or lower.

    This forecast is based on a continuation of above-inflation excise increases and known regulatory interventions.

    The report, Working towards a smoke-free England, was prepared for Philip Morris Ltd by Frontier Economics.

    Frontier forecast, too, that if smoking continued to decline at the same rate after 2040, it would be eliminated by about 2051.

    ‘Smoking is in long-run decline, but since 2012 it has declined at more than twice the rate seen between 1993 and 2011,’ Frontier said in a note posted on its website. ‘Smokers switching to e-cigarettes appear to have made a material contribution to that recent trend.

    ‘We anticipate that the faster decline in smoking since 2012 will not continue indefinitely. In part this is because the growth of e-cigarettes is now slowing. Data from ASH indicates that there were only 100,000 new vapers in 2017, compared with 800,000 in 2014.

    ‘The government’s target of reducing smoking to below five percent could be met as soon as 2029 if the faster rate of decline since 2012 were maintained. If that trend continued further, smoking would be eliminated in England by 2035.

    ‘Meeting this target by 2029 would require an additional 2.5 million smokers to quit over and above those we already expect to quit in our central forecast. This is equivalent to around 210,000 extra quitters each year.

    ‘This would require significant changes, such as:

    • A rapid increase in the number of smokers switching to smoke-free alternatives, including e-cigarettes; and/or
    • Reversing the decline in smokers quitting through NHS Stop Smoking services, which decreased to 40,000 in 2016 from a peak of 100,000 in 2011; and/or
    • Finding other new and effective ways to persuade smokers to quit.’

    The report is at: http://www.frontier-economics.com/documents/2017/11/frontier-report_working-towards-smoke-free-england_nov-2017.pdf

  • FDA calls iQOS meeting

    FDA calls iQOS meeting

    The US Food and Drug Administration has published a Federal Register notice announcing a meeting of the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC) to discuss modified risk tobacco product (MRTP) applications submitted by Philip Morris Products (PMP).

    The meeting, which is scheduled for January 24-25 at the FDA’s White Oak campus, was the subject of a Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) press note.

    The committee is due to discuss scientific issues related to the MRTP applications submitted by PMP for its iQOS system and several Marlboro HeatSticks products, which are currently under scientific review by the FDA.

    Requests for the presentation of oral comments at the TPSAC meeting have to be submitted by December 27.

    Written comments have to be submitted by January 4.

    More information is available at: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/11/09/2017-24379/tobacco-products-scientific-advisory-committee-notice-of-meeting

  • Nicotine a ‘fascinating drug’

    Nicotine a ‘fascinating drug’

    Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is one of 29 sites participating in a US national study to determine whether a daily transdermal nicotine patch will have a positive effect on attention and early memory impairment in older adults diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), according to a medicalxpress.com story.
    More than eight million people in the US are currently diagnosed with MCI, a condition that affects memory or other thinking skills. Recent evidence shows that adults with MCI are at a higher risk for subsequently developing Alzheimer’s disease.
    MCI is diagnosed when memory problems become more apparent than would be expected in normal aging. Symptoms include memory loss, problems with attention, as well as mild difficulties learning and retaining new information.
    People participating in the Memory Improvement Through Nicotine Dosing (MIND) study will participate in 12 visits over a two-year period at one of the 29 sites.
    In an earlier study, adults with MCI who were prescribed the nicotine patch for six months had improved attention and memory, and there were no serious side effects or signs of nicotine withdrawal.
    “These results were encouraging and justify this larger study, funded by the National Institute on Aging,” said VUMC’s Paul Newhouse, MD, Jim Turner professor of cognitive disorders and professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. Newhouse is the national director of the study.
    “I am convinced that we will find a way to help improve early memory loss and make a real difference in people’s lives. In this study, we have an inexpensive, widely available potential treatment.”
    Nicotine, a natural plant alkaloid, was a “fascinating drug with interesting properties,” Newhouse said. “People think of it as a potentially noxious substance, but it’s a plant-derived medication just like a lot of other medications.”
    The medicalxpress.com story is at: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-11-explores-nicotine-patch-mild-cognitive.html.

  • KT&G launches HNB device

    KT&G launches HNB device

    KT&G rolled out its heat-not-burn (HNB) device at a press conference in Seoul yesterday and, in doing so, became the third tobacco manufacturer after Philip Morris Korea (PMK) and British American Tobacco Korea (BATK) to launch such products in South Korea, according to a story in The Korea Herald.

    Competition in the HNB market sector is expected to heat up as Korea’s largest cigarette manufacturer enters the sector offering lil at a lower price than those of its two rivals.

    Lil will sell at retail for 95,000 won ($85). However, customers can apply through KT&G’s website for discount coupons that will bring the price down to 68,000 won at GS25 convenience stores.

    The discounted lil price is lower than that of PMK’s iQOS, whose discounted price is 97,000 won and BATK’s glo, whose discounted price is 70,000 won.

    KT&G has said also that the company is unlikely to increase HNB stick prices even if the government increases the taxes on them.

    “The company is currently not considering price hikes on its tobacco sticks,” said Lim Wang-seop, chief of KT&G’s innovative product department.

    “KT&G will go through discussions and watch the market if the government decides to raise taxes on the sticks. But the company could just keep the current price as a measure to become more aggressive in the market.”

    Each pack of tobacco sticks used with KT&G’s device is priced at 4,300 won, the same price as that of the other HNB sticks. PMI and BAT have each previously said that they might raise the prices of their sticks if the National Assembly increases taxes.

    Meanwhile, the legislation and judiciary committee of the National Assembly on Monday passed a proposal to raise the excise tax on HNB products to a level equal to 90 percent of the tax levied on conventional cigarettes. If the bill passes the floor this month, each 20-piece pack of HNB sticks will be taxed at 529 won, up from the current 126 won.

    Further, the tax for HNB sticks could increase to 1,250 won when bills aimed at increasing the Health Promotion Fund tax and local education tax are also passed at the National Assembly.

    KT&G will start taking orders for lil between November 13 and 16 at GS25 convenience stores in Seoul, and begin commercial sales on November 20, the company said.

    It planned to focus firstly on the domestic market but would come up with plans for selling lil on overseas markets.

  • Health as a broader church

    Health as a broader church

    A leading libertarian writer is due to address a dinner in Brussels next week on the subject: ‘Is health the new religion?’.

    Hosted by the smokers’ group Forest EU on November 14, the event will ask the following questions:

    • Should people be nudged or forced to change their lifestyle in their own best interests and that of the nation, or should they be left alone?
    • What role does government and business have to play in improving our health?
    • Are current regulations on legal but potentially unhealthy consumer products justified, and should they go further?

    Guest speaker Claire Fox is director of the London-based Institute of Ideas and a regular panelist on BBC Radio 4’s The Moral Maze. She convenes the annual Battle of Ideas festival and is author of a recent book on free speech, I Find That Offensive.

    Speaking ahead of the event, Claire Fox said it could sometimes feel as though a new secular religious fervor had taken hold in terms of an obsessive public health agenda.

    “Behavior modification may have changed its form but guilt-inducing campaigns against smoking, drinking and so-called junk food are pursued with missionary zeal, suggesting that health paternalism is the new religion.

    “Sadly this new shift lacks any chance of redemption as it relentlessly pursues evidence-lite policies that too often treat adults as hapless children who need saving from themselves.

    “The nanny state invades even the most intimate aspects of how people live their lives, from what they feed their kids to how they spend their leisure time.”

    Meanwhile, Guillaume Périgois, spokesman for Forest EU, said there was a rigid evangelism about the public health lobby that was moving swiftly from tobacco control to other areas, notably food and drink.

    “People who allegedly abuse their bodies by smoking, drinking or eating the ‘wrong’ type of food are increasingly characterised as sinners compared to those who keep fit, eat healthily and don’t smoke or drink.

    “Many people are concerned at the extent to which government is trying to dictate how we live our lives.”

    It was time for a proper debate on an issue that had serious repercussions for individual freedom, he added.

  • Reduced-risk plan dropped

    Reduced-risk plan dropped

    A proposal that would have allowed the importation and production of reduced-risk alternatives to cigarettes has been withdrawn in Turkey.

    According to a note posted on Friday on the website of the Europe office of the World Health Organization, Turkey’s Minister of Finance, Naci Ağbal, said that plans to allow the importation and production of ‘heat-not-burn tobacco products and electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS)’ in Turkey had been withdrawn.

    Speaking during the Turkish Grand National Assembly Commission on Planning and Budget on October 17, he confirmed that these products would not be produced or sold in the country.

    The announcement was said to have followed ‘strong public reaction to the threats posed by the tobacco industry’s proposals to begin importing and producing heat-not-burn and ENDS products …’.

    The announcement followed also a press conference on October 17 at which WHO representatives, academics and health specialists jointly voiced their condemnation of the tobacco industry’s proposed new strategy.

    The press conference was said to have been called in reaction to an announcement made earlier by Philip Morris International in which it said it intended to support the establishment of a new entity, the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World.

    ‘As part of this initiative, the tobacco industry planned to introduce a new range of harmful products,’ the note said.

    ‘These heat-not-burn and ENDS products pose serious challenges to public health due to their high levels of nicotine.’

    The note said the consumption of e-cigarettes had ‘increased at an alarming rate among youth and young adults’ in recent years, raising the probabilities of higher numbers of cigarette smokers in the future.

    In warning against the risks of loosening tobacco control laws, WHO’s representative to Turkey, Dr. Pavel Ursu, stressed the importance of ‘political commitments’ made under the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Making reference to the intended amendment to the Law on the Organization and Duties of the Tobacco and Alcohol Market Regulatory Authority, he said the proposed amendments contravened the global consensus … “For the continuation of the success of Turkey in tobacco control, we need a firm commitment by all stakeholders rejecting the recent influence of the tobacco industry,” he added.

    During the press conference, Professor Mustafa Necmi İlhan, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Gazi University, said the government should work hand-in-hand with academia and non-governmental organizations in forming national policies.

    Professor Hilal Özcebe, public health specialist and professor at Hacettepe University, said the tobacco industry had tried to hide the real effects that these new products had on health. “The tobacco industry states that electronic products have fewer negative effects on public health but this is a totally false argument,” she said.

    Electronic devices had the same level of nicotine as widely used products and caused similar vascular disorders and cardiovascular diseases, she added.

    The WHO note is at: http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/disease-prevention/tobacco/news/news/2017/10/turkey-withdraws-plans-to-loosen-tobacco-control-laws.

  • PMI issues scientific update

    PMI issues scientific update

    The latest issue of Philip Morris International’s Scientific Update for Smoke-Free Products focuses on PMI’s scientific assessment program as it applies to its Electronically Heated Tobacco Product (EHTP).

    In a press note yesterday announcing the publication of the update, Professor Manuel Peitsch, PMI’s chief scientific officer was quoted as saying that the company had developed a truly world class R&D program to assess scientifically the potential of its smoke-free products to reduce risk.

    “With each progressive step of our assessment of EHTP, we have seen a significant reduction in exposure to a number of harmful chemicals and risk potential compared with cigarettes,” he said.

    “Because transparency is a vital part of our program, we are making our evidence available for others to review.”

    The note said the focus was on PMI’s scientific assessment program as it applied to its EHTP, referred to in the literature as the tobacco heating system (THS).

    ‘PMI established its multi-step assessment program applying internationally accepted scientific and quality standards along the same principles as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) draft guidance (2012),’ the note said.

    ‘The feature article outlines each step of the assessment program and summarizes key results of supporting data. Included is an overview of the more than 30 EHTP-related studies. PMI submitted this evidence to the FDA in the form of a modified risk tobacco product (MRTP) application.

    ‘Beyond the MRTP-related content, the Scientific Update provides an overview of the assessment to date on its smoke-free product portfolio. The issue also covers key presentations at scientific conferences. It is an important complement to PMI’s ongoing efforts to share its latest science, which include a dedicated website…

    ‘PMI’s extensive research and assessment program is inspired by the well-recognized practices of the pharmaceutical industry and in line with guidance of the US FDA for MRTPs. The Company today employs over 400 world-class scientists, engineers and experts who conduct rigorous research, including laboratory and clinical studies, as well as ground-breaking systems toxicology. The assessment program also includes studies on actual product use and correct understanding of product communications, as well as post-market research.’

    The update is at: https://www.pmiscience.com/system/files/publications/pmi_scientific_update_november_2017.pdf.