Category: Harm Reduction

  • Bus stop

    Bus stop

    In an effort to reduce tobacco consumption in Jakarta, Indonesia, the National Commission on Tobacco Control (Komnas PT) has teamed up with the city-owned bus operator PT Transjakarta to inform the public about the cost and dangers of smoking cigarettes, according to a story in The Jakarta Post quoting the Antara News Agency.

    The bodies of some Transjakarta buses will display a message that reads ‘Smoking cigarettes is burning money’.

    “The campaign is meant to remind society that smoking cigarettes is a waste [of money],” said Komnas PT chairman Prijo Sidipratomo.

    He said that members of the public should instead save their money for more important needs, such as their children’s education and nutrition.

    The campaign, he added, was in line with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s order to prioritize the improvement of children’s nutrition over the consumption of cigarettes.

    The Transjakarta president director Budi Kaliwono said that the message would be displayed on 21 buses operating in Corridor 9, which runs between Pinang Ranti and Pluit.

    “Indonesians, particularly Jakartans, should get above the poverty line,” Budi was quoted as saying. “Why would we smoke if it only makes us poorer?”

  • Hybrid device less risky

    Hybrid device less risky

    British American Tobacco has said that new laboratory data has revealed that vapor from its novel hybrid tobacco heating product (THP), iFuse, and two standard THPs produced little or no effect on human cells in biological testing.

    “Our results suggest that these standard THPs and our novel hybrid product have the potential to reduce smoking-related disease risks when compared with cigarette smoking,” Dr. James Murphy, head of reduced risk substantiation at BAT was quoted as saying in a note posted on the company’s website.

    “However, further pre-clinical and clinical research is required to substantiate conclusive risk reduction of these products.”

    ‘A series of lab-based biological studies were used to assess and compare the toxicological and biological effects of exposure to vapor from the hybrid iFuse, two different standard THPs, and smoke from a 3R4F reference cigarette,’ the note said. ‘The tests looked at the general health of the cells, mutations and damage to DNA, tumor promotion, oxidative stress and wound repair, all of which are involved in development of many smoking-related diseases.

    ‘Results show that cigarette smoke tested positive on all counts, whereas the hybrid and standard THPs did not cause mutations or damage to DNA, and showed considerably reduced responses in the other tests. ‘Overall, the novel hybrid tobacco heating product had the least effect, showing little to no biological activity in any of the assays in which it was tested.’

    The results are published today in the Journal of Food and Chemical Toxicology (DOI: 10.1016/j.fct.2017.05.023).

    ‘The hybrid device, iFuse, combines the workings of an e-cigarette with a pod containing tobacco,’ the note said. ‘An e-liquid is heated to produce an aerosol that passes through the tobacco pod. The aerosol cools from around 35°C to 32°C as it passes over the tobacco, heating up the pod sufficiently to extract flavor without any direct heating of the tobacco.

    ‘This device operates at a very different temperature to standard THPs: THPs generally heat tobacco to between 240°C and 350°C, whereas the hybrid product heats tobacco to around 34°C.

    ‘These temperatures are not high enough to burn the tobacco and the resulting vapors contain far fewer and lower levels of toxicants than cigarette smoke, which can reach temperatures of over 900°C during puffing (http://ow.ly/1mag30cbv3x). The vapour produced by iFuse is similar to that produced by Vype ePen.’

    BAT said that Vype ePen had been shown to have significantly reduced levels of toxicants in its vapor and that the current expert estimate was that using e-cigarettes was about 95 percent safer than was smoking cigarettes.

  • BAT ready to ‘glo’ in Korea

    BAT ready to ‘glo’ in Korea

    British American Tobacco said today that the second and third manufacturing facilities at its Sacheon factory had been completed.

    The factory has been expanded to support the sales growth of BAT’s tobacco heating product (THP), glo™, and with the intention of South Korea becoming a key export hub for the company in Asia.

    Part of the new facilities will be used to manufacture the Neostiks™ tobacco sticks that are heated in BAT’s glo device to create a vapor that is said to provide a consumer experience similar to that of cigarette smoke but with reduced risk potential.

    With the completion of the new facilities, BAT Korea has become the only cigarette manufacturer with a manufacturing factory in Korea equipped with facilities to produce tobacco sticks.

    BAT Korea started construction of the Sacheon factory’s second and third manufacturing facilities, which are costing about 200 billion won, in June 2016.

    It has hired more than 200 employees from the Sacheon region.

    Through this expansion, the factory is expected to be able to produce about 40 billion combustible cigarettes a year. It is said to be ‘moving towards becoming the export hub for BAT in Asia, leading both the global and local cigarette and THP markets’.

    The factory almost doubled the proportion of its exports between 2015 and 2017, and BAT Korea is looking to expand the number of its export markets, which currently stand at 13.

    Export volumes to Japan are expected to increase as the factory takes up exclusive responsibility for the production in Asia of Neostiks.

    Glo, which was launched in Sendai, Japan, in December, is said to have captured a regional market share of more than seven percent.

    BAT Japan is expanding sales of glo to other places in Japan, including Tokyo, Osaka and Miyagi, and, by the end of the year, intends to go nation-wide with the product.

    Meanwhile, BAT Korea is preparing for the launch of glo during the second half of this year.

    “BAT Korea’s Sacheon factory is expected to not only take up the role of an export hub of Asia but also a global manufacturing hub of specially designed tobacco Neostiks made exclusively for our THP device glo,” BAT Korea’s CEO Tony Hayward was quoted as saying

    “The BAT Group has high expectations for the expansion of the Sacheon factory, which is already assessed to be one of the best facilities among the group’s manufacturing plants. BAT Korea is committed to launching glo in Korea and offering ‘made in Korea’ products to local adult smokers interested in THPs.”

  • Common ground for low risk

    Common ground for low risk

    Vapers should give some thought to snus, because the fight for snus is the fight for vaping, according to the director of scientific communications at the Consumer Advocates for Smoke Free Alternatives Association (CASAA), Dr. Brian Carter.

    Writing on the CASAA website after attending the first-ever snus convention in the US, at St. Louis, Missouri, Carter said that snus was low risk for much the same reason electronic cigarettes were low risk: its consumption involved no combustion.

    ‘Winning the public’s hearts and minds for one is a win for both,’ he wrote.

    ‘Vapers may grumble about the powerful forces that lie about and seek to destroy the products we credit with saving our lives, but the snus world has been dealing with this for the past several decades. Make no mistake, the playbook that’s been used in an attempt to destroy smokeless tobacco is the very same one being used on e-cigarettes today.

    ‘This is why vapers should respect and seek alliance with our snus using brothers and sisters. Together, we just might form an unstoppable force that politicians will be forced to yield to.

    ‘History is replete with small events involving just a few people getting together and triggering massive changes in culture and politics. Something is brewing, something big, among the lovers of the most popular low-risk tobacco product…’

    Carter’s piece is at: http://casaa.org/news/there-was-a-snus-convention-in-st-louis/.

  • Spend more to save more

    Spend more to save more

    The US state of New Jersey is considering dedicating to anti-smoking initiatives one percent of the roughly $700 million it collects each year from cigarette taxes, according to a story by Michael Symons for WKXM-FM.

    New Jersey apparently spends $10 million a year on smoking programs, money that comes primarily from federal funds, whereas it used to spend $30 million on such programs. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that the state should spend $103 million a year.

    That situation might change a little if a bill that sailed through the Senate budget committee on Thursday makes it into law. The bill would dedicate one percent or $7 million of the state’s annual cigarette-tax revenue to anti-smoking initiatives.

    It was a step in the right direction, said Karen Blumenfeld, executive director of Global Advisors on Smokefree Policy. “Well, $7 million is a lot better than what we have right now,” she said. “Whatever type of funding is available to help people not start and to help those who are exposed to second-hand smoke and to help people quit is invaluable.”

    Brian Shott of the American Cancer Society said the $7 million would eventually lead to 1,100 fewer premature smoking-related deaths and a nearly $68 million decrease in future health expenditures.

    “This bill is a critical first step in ensuring that tobacco users in New Jersey are equipped with the resources that they need to quit their addictions and that others never start,” Shott said.

  • Capacity increase at VTM

    Capacity increase at VTM

    US-based Vapor Tobacco Manufacturing (VTM) is expanding its manufacturing capacity for its heat-not-burn products.

    The company said the increase was necessary to keep up with demand following a year’s test marketing in Indiana of its patented 3T® Organic products.

    In a press note issued through PRNewswire, the company said that in April 2016 it had begun testing its new heat-not-burn products in Indiana.

    After compiling a year’s worth of sales data and consumer comments, it added, it was ‘compelled’ to increase its manufacturing capacity.

    3T® Organic’s rechargeable heat-not-burn product was said to have carved out a new category between traditional cigarettes and electronic products, offering a hybrid alternative.

    The company said that 3T® Organic used the nicotine and patented tobacco flavoring extracted from US-grown organic tobacco leaves, which were heated not burned, ‘unlocking the rich, true tobacco flavor that smokers desire, without burning tobacco’.

    3T® Organic was the first and only electronic-nicotine-delivery-system device with USDA certified organic ingredients.

    It is said to be available in ‘Red, Gold, and Menthol’.

  • Nanoparticles lower toxicity

    Nanoparticles lower toxicity

    Chemists at the Johannes Gutenberg University (JGU) in Mainz, Germany, have developed a technique that reduces the toxic effects of commercially available cigarettes, according to a story at physorg.com.

    ‘Tobacco smoke contains almost 12,000 different constituents,’ the story said. ‘Among these are narcotoxic substances such as nicotine, blood toxins like cyanide and carbon monoxide, not to mention the various carcinogens. Among these are free oxygen radicals, also known as reactive oxygen species. More than 10 quadrillion (1016) of these molecules are inhaled with every puff on a cigarette.’

    The Mainz-based team headed by Professor Wolfgang Tremel said that it had discovered how to lower significantly the levels of these free oxygen radicals and thus markedly reduce the toxicity of cigarette smoke.

    Researchers took the underlying idea behind the concept from natural enzymes. In the presence of an enhanced concentration of reactive oxygen species as a result of, for instance, tobacco smoke, uncontrolled cell division and oxidative cell damage can occur. Nature regulates the concentration of radicals by means of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), which plays a central role in the prevention of pathological processes. The naturally occurring enzyme utilizes metals such as copper-zinc, nickel, iron, and manganese as reactive centers that cause oxygen radicals to decompose so that the organism is protected from their aggressive reactive behavior.

    The story said the team of chemists in Mainz had been collaborating with a group headed by Professor Jürgen Brieger of the Mainz University Medical Center to determine whether it were possible to integrate functionalized copper hydroxide nanoparticles in cigarette filters and thus reduce levels of free radicals in smoke, hence providing smokers with greater protection against their toxic potential.

    Cytotoxicity tests had shown that the cigarette smoke extracts in examined concentrations no longer had a toxic effect on human cells after passing through cigarette filters containing nanoparticles, while there had been increased toxicity in the case of controls in which untreated filters were employed.

    The researchers in Mainz had thus been able to demonstrate that imitating natural defense mechanisms with the help of nanoparticles was possible and that a reduction in the toxic effects of various types of smoke could be achieved.

    The researchers’ report was published in the scientific journal Nanoscale.

    The physorg.com story is at: https://phys.org/news/2017-05-copper-hydroxide-nanoparticles-toxic-oxygen.html

  • JT playing catch up

    JT playing catch up

    Japan Tobacco Inc. plans to spend $500 million to quadruple its production capacity of smokeless-tobacco devices by the end of 2018 as it competes with Philip Morris for a bigger share of the Japanese vaping-products market, according to a story by Taiga Uranaka and Ritsuko Shimizu for Reuters.

    Nicotine-containing e-liquids are banned in Japan under the country’s pharmaceutical regulations; so PM’s heated-tobacco product, iQOS, has created strong demand, while JT’s Ploom Tech device has been beset by delays.

    JT’s CEO, Mitsuomi Koizumi, admitted that he had not foreseen the success of iQOS, which had captured about a 10 percent market share in April, up from 7.6 percent in January.

    With more people shifting to heated-tobacco products such as iQOS, JT’s domestic cigarette sales volume is likely to fall 9.6 percent this year.

    “It’s shocking,” Koizumi was quoted as saying. “I am doing this business for more than 35 years but I have never experienced losing 10 percent in volume in one year.”

    The Reuters story is at: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-tobacco-strategy-idUSKBN18P12F

  • Vapor trial

    Vapor trial

    Chemical analysis has revealed no detectable difference between the vapors produced by an electronic cigarette (Vype ePen) and a novel hybrid device containing tobacco (iFuse), according to a British American Tobacco press note.

    ‘Previous research revealed that the levels of nearly all tested toxicants in Vype ePen vapor are much lower than in cigarette smoke,’ the note said.

    ‘The Royal College of Physicians is among those who say that smokers should switch to e-cigarettes to reduce harm and help them quit smoking. However, some consumers say that they want more tobacco taste.’

    To remedy this, researchers at BAT have created a hybrid device, iFuse, that combines the workings of an e-cigarette with a tobacco component. This device heats tobacco rather than burns it.

    ‘An e-liquid is heated and a vapor is produced that passes through a pod containing tobacco,’ said BAT. ‘Although the tobacco is only gently heated (around 35ºC) by the vapor, this is sufficient to release the tobacco flavour. Consumer testing revealed that this produces a great tasting vapor.

    ‘Analysing the general vapor composition using non-targeted chemical screening, the scientists could find no significant difference between the vapors generated by the novel hybrid tobacco product and the tobacco-free control product (Vype ePen).’

    BAT said also that the iFuse vapor had been assessed for some known cigarette smoke toxicants and substances formed by electronic vaping products, and compared to the control Vype ePen, a reference cigarette (Kentucky 3R4F) and air blanks.

    ‘Of the 113 compounds tested, only 26 were quantified in the vapor from the hybrid tobacco product,’ the press note said. ‘The classes and levels of toxicants generated by the hybrid tobacco product were similar to those from the control e-cigarette, Vype ePen, and were 92 to >99 percent lower on a per-puff basis than those in smoke from the reference cigarette. Many of the analytes quantified in the hybrid tobacco product vapor were at levels comparable to those in air blanks.’

    Dr. James Murphy, head of reduced risk substantiation at BAT was quoted as saying that, overall, the novel hybrid tobacco product provided a great tobacco flavor but maintained a toxicant profile similar to that of Vype ePen with significantly lower levels of some key toxicants compared to cigarette smoke.

    The results were published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicity (DOI: 10.1016/j.fct.2017.05.022)).

  • FDA starts iQOS review

    FDA starts iQOS review

    Philip Morris said yesterday that the US Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products had initiated a substantive scientific review process in respect of its electronically heated tobacco product (EHTP), iQOS.

    On May 24, the FDA had published the executive summary and research summaries supporting PMI’s Modified Risk Tobacco Product (MRTP) application for its EHTP, the company said in a note posted on its website.

    ‘In doing so, the agency announced that it will publish a notice in the Federal Register establishing a formal docket for public comments on PMI’s application at a later date,’ it said.

    ‘PMI submitted the application to the FDA on December 5, 2016.

    ‘Publication of PMI’s summaries initiates a substantive scientific review process by the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products.’

    PMI said the FDA had made the application summaries publicly available and that the agency would publish additional modules of PMI’s MRTP application on a rolling basis.

    The FDA had established a one-year timetable for reviewing MRTP applications, though that timing was non-binding.

    “We welcome FDA and public review of the comprehensive scientific evidence package that we submitted to the agency through its MRTP application process,” said Dr. Moira Gilchrist, PMI vice president corporate affairs of reduced-risk products.

    “PMI’s application demonstrates our commitment to develop innovative, smoke-free technologies that can ultimately replace combustible cigarettes to the benefit of smokers, public health and society at large.”

    Meanwhile, the Altria Group said that it was pleased that the FDA had filed PMI’s MRTP application.

    It said that upon regulatory authorization by the FDA of PMI’s Premarket Tobacco Product application (PMTA), Philip Morris USA, an Altria company, would have an exclusive license to sell the electronically-heated tobacco product in the US.

    PMI submitted the PMTA to the agency on March 31, 2017.

    “PM USA is actively working on commercialization plans and we look forward to bringing this electronically-heated product to the US market,” said Sarah Knakmuhs, vice president heated tobacco products, PM USA.

    “We are excited about the opportunity to add this product to our portfolio for adult tobacco consumers who are looking for an alternative to conventional cigarettes.”