Philip Morris USA’s cigarette shipment volume during the three months to the end of June, at 30,569 million, was down by 2.9 percent on that of the three months to the end of June 2016, 31,470 million.
Marlboro shipments were down by 2.9 percent to 26,157 million; shipments of other premium brands fell by 6.6 percent to 1,550 million; while shipments of discount brands decreased by 0.5 percent to 2,862 million.
PM USA’s share of the retail cigarette market during the three months to the end of June, at 50.8 percent, was down by 0.4 of a percentage point from that of the three months to the end of June 2016. Marlboro’s share, at 43.5 percent, was down by 0.3 of a percentage point; the share of its other premium brands was down by 0.1 of a percentage point to 2.7 percent; while the share of the company’s discount brands was unchanged at 4.6 per cent.
The Altria Group yesterday published its second-quarter and first-half results for 2016.
Middleton’s cigar shipment volume during the three months to the end of June, at 406 million, was increased by 13.1 percent on that of the three months to the end of June 2016, 359 million. Black & Mild brand shipments were up by 13.6 percent to 402 million, while shipments of other brands fell by 20.0 percent from five million to four million.
USSTC’s smokeless-products shipment-volume during the three months to the end of June, at 221.0 million cans and packs, was up by 1.4 percent on that of the three months to the end of June 2016, 217.9 million.
Shipments of Copenhagen were up by 2.6 percent to 137.5 million; those of Skoal were down by 1.2 percent to 65.8 million; while those of other brands were increased by 2.3 percent to 17.7 million.
USSTC’s share of the US market for smokeless products during the three months to the end of June, at 54.1 percent, was down by 0.8 of a percentage point from that of the three months to the end of June 2016. Copenhagen’s share was up by 0.7 of a percentage point to 34.1 percent; Skoal’s share was down by 1.4 percentage points to 16.7 percent; while the share of other brands was down by 0.1 of a percentage point to 3.3 percent.
Meanwhile, PM USA’s cigarette shipment volume during the six months to the end of June, at 59,296 million, was down by 2.8 percent on that of the six months to the end of June 2016, 61,009 million.
Marlboro shipments fell by 2.8 percent to 50,852 million; shipments of other premium brands fell by 5.5 percent to 3,000 million; while shipments of discount brands were down by 1.8 percent to 5,444 million.
Middleton’s cigar shipment volume during the six months to the end of June, at 773 million, was increased by 12.7 percent on that of the six months to the end of June 2016, 686 million. Black & Mild brand shipments were up by 14.0 percent to 765 million; while shipments of other brands fell by 46.7 percent to eight million.
USSTC’s domestic, smokeless-products shipment-volume during the six months to the end of June, at 416.8 million, was down by 1.7 percent on that of the six months to the end of June 2016, 424.0 million. Copenhagen shipments were up by 1.2 percent to 262.0 million; Skoal shipments were down by 7.4 percent to 121.4 million; while shipments of other brands were down by 2.1 percent to 33.4 million.
Altria’s second-quarter reported diluted earnings per share (EPS) increased by 22.6 percent to $1.03, and its second-quarter adjusted diluted EPS, which excludes the impact of special items, increased by 4.9 percent to $0.85.
Altria’s first-half reported diluted EPS increased by 19.0 percent to $1.75, and its first-half adjusted diluted EPS increased by 3.3 percent to $1.58.
“Based on strong tobacco operating company performance, Altria delivered solid results in the second quarter and first half of 2017,” said Marty Barrington, Altria’s chairman, CEO and president.
“The smokeable products segment generated strong income growth despite a large cigarette excise tax increase in California, and the smokeless products segment has largely rebounded from its first-quarter voluntary product recall.
“We continued to focus on rewarding shareholders, paying out nearly $2.4 billion in dividends and repurchasing $1.6 billion in shares in the first half of 2017. Today we also are announcing a $1 billion expansion of that program.
“Our business fundamentals remain strong. We believe we are well-positioned for the second half of the year and continue to expect adjusted diluted EPS growth to be weighted to the second half. Thus, we are reaffirming our 2017 full-year adjusted diluted EPS growth guidance of 7.5 percent to 9.5 percent.”
Sales at Swedish Match during the second quarter to the end of June, at SEK4,214 million, were increased by eight percent on those of the second quarter of 2016, SEK3,920 million, the company said on Friday in reporting its first-half results. In local currencies, sales increased by four percent.
Operating profit from product areas (excluding larger one-off items and SM’s share of the net profit of the Scandinavian Tobacco Group [STG]) increased by eight percent, from SEK1,008 million to SEK1,091 million, and in local currencies by four percent.
Earnings per share were up from SEK4.01 to SEK4.49, while earnings per share excluding a dividend from STG in 2017 and share of net profit in STG in 2016 were increased from SEK3.72 to SEK4.18.
An Interior Ministry officer in Kuwaiti has been sentenced to 20 days in jail for smoking shisha in café while wearing his uniform, according to a Gulf Digital News story citing a report in the Al Rai newspaper.
The officer was caught on a Smartphone picture as he was relaxing at a café in Al Farwaniya and smoking the shisha in breach of ministry regulations.
His picture was said to have gone viral on social media, triggering the ministry to act immediately.
Inspectors located the shisha café and caught the man red-handed within minutes.
The Assistant Undersecretary for Security Affairs lieutenant-general Ibrahim Al Tarrah was said to have given orders for the officer to be jailed for 20 days as a disciplinary measure.
Hundreds of restaurants and cafés in Jordan will no longer face being fined for allowing people to smoke hubble bubble pipes on their premises following an agreement between the ministries of tourism and health, the Greater Amman Municipality and the Jordan Restaurant Association.
According to what appeared to be an opinion piece in The Jordan Times, the agreement provides these establishments with a grace period to ‘rectify their situation’, which will entail the setting up of distinct smoking and non-smoking areas, the installation of adequate ventilation systems and the imposition of an 18-years age limit for smokers.
The Times commented that it appeared the concerned authorities were missing the point behind a World Health Organization rule against smoking in public places, ‘which Jordan adopted in principle, but never got around to fully respecting’.
‘Smoking, research shows, is bad for health,’ the Times said. ‘It is the reason for a long list of medical conditions and comes with a hefty price tag, both for the country and for individuals.
‘These considerations should override the business concerns of restaurants and cafés…
‘Our authorities seem to be going the opposite way, prioritizing the business of restaurants and cafés, at the expense of health.’
By reducing snus’ notorious sting, a Swedish inventor wants to make it easier for smokers to go smokeless.
By Taco Tuinstra
Bengt Wiberg was devastated. He had just been diagnosed with a third-degree lesion, and the dentist blamed snus. The only way to restore oral health, his dentist insisted, was to quit smokeless tobacco.
“It was the worst day of my life,” says Wiberg.
A snus aficionado and former smoker, Wiberg did not want to stop snusing—and he certainly did not want to revert to smoking. The pain was so intense, however, that he could not even stand to hold snus in his mouth. So, back in his office, Wiberg started pondering his predicament.
The cause of his oral discomfort was clear: Snus has a high pH level, which assists nicotine uptake and delivery time but can also irritate the gum and oral mucus membrane. If the snus is pressed against the same spot of the mouth for a prolonged period—like snusers tend to do—it can cause a lesion. The affected area becomes extremely sensitive, and the spicy juices released by snus can sting like salt in a wound.
That analogy gave Wiberg an idea. “What do you do when you cut your hand?” he asks. “You put on a Band-Aid to keep out the dirt and sweat.” So, he took one from his employer’s first-aid kit, patched one side of a snus pouch and cut away the excess material. He then stuck the pouch in his mouth with the patched side facing his gums. “The pain disappeared immediately,” he says.
Remarkably, the flavor and nicotine absorption were unaffected by his improvised patch. Because nicotine is water soluble and absorbed by all the mouth’s mucous membranes, the snusing experience was as satisfying as before—but without the discomfort.
Wiberg continued snusing, experimenting with different patch materials, such as surgical tapes. After a year, he returned to his dentist, who was astonished to find no evidence of gum or mucosa irritation. Despite Wiberg’s ongoing snus use, the lesion had disappeared, and the color of his gums had changed from swollen red to healthy pink. “My oral health was excellent,” beams Wiberg.
Bengt Wiberg (left) and his dentist, following a satisfactory checkup
Getting started
Convinced that other snusers might benefit from his experience, Wiberg composed a long message to Swedish Match, the world’s largest snus manufacturer. He described his solution in detail, along with the market potential, but just as he was about to click “send,” he stopped himself.
Instead of giving away his idea, he contacted Start-Up Stockholm, a Swedish government-financed nonprofit consultancy for entrepreneurs in the startup and early growth stages of their ventures. Start-Up Stockholm helped secure a sek20,000 ($2,300) government grant to get started. “I am probably the only person in Swedish history to receive government money for a tobacco-related invention,” Wiberg says with a grin.
After due diligence revealed that nobody had claimed credit for a similar technology, Wiberg filed for patent protection in Sweden and, later, in the United States and at the European Patent Office. Sweden granted the patent in early 2017, and Wiberg is confident that the other jurisdictions will follow suit. “My country is quite fussy when it comes to recognizing patent applications,” he notes.
In the meantime, Wiberg kept perfecting his solution. After trying many different patch materials, Wiberg settled on an impermeable, soft and ultrathin (0.025–0.035 mm) membrane that has been approved by Sweden’s national food agency. Harmless and unnoticeable for the snus user, the material also complies with all applicable EU regulations.
In June 2016, Aftonbladet, a leading Swedish newspaper, published a big story about Wiberg’s invention. With 600,000 unique impressions, it became the paper’s most read article that day. In December 2016, the Venture Cup recognized the innovation, labeled “Sting Free Snus,” as one of the best business ideas in Sweden that year.
Harm reduction
While the patch can help prevent oral discomfort for existing snusers, Wiberg believes its real value lies in removing a hurdle to the adoption of snus by cigarette smokers. Snus has already proved to be an effective stop-smoking aid, delivering the enjoyment of nicotine without the disease-causing byproducts of combustion (snus is estimated to be up to 99 percent less unhealthy than smoking). A study by L.M. Ramstrom and J. Foulds revealed that more than 70 percent of snus users in Sweden were former cigarette smokers who had quit smoking permanently.
Wiberg suspects that snus could help even more people quit smoking if it wasn’t for the product’s characteristic sting, which he compares to the “pins and needles” sensation a person may feel after his foot has fallen asleep. This sting is experienced not only by users with compromised mucus membranes but also by the typical, healthy user (the “injured” users just experience it worse). In a consumer survey conducted by Wiberg, four out of 10 respondents said they found the sting unpleasant. A minority considered the sting an attractive feature in the way that some diners enjoy the “pain” associated with spicy foods, while others were indifferent. By dulling the snus sting, Wiberg’s solution could therefore contribute to public health.
The inventor is now working on the commercialization of his creation. Swedish Match has signed up for a nonexclusive licensing agreement for the rights to utilize Sting Free Snus technology for its products. That leaves Wiberg the options to start his own manufacturing operations, contract more licensees or sell the patent to a third party.
According to Wiberg, Sting Free Snus is an attractive business proposition. Incorporating his membrane, he says, adds little to the cost of production, but snus companies would be able to charge a premium for the sting-free varieties of their brands. Tobacco retailers stand to benefit, too. Even if increased snus sales would come at the expense of cigarette sales, they would still gain because retail profit margins (in Sweden, anyway) are almost 100 percent higher for snus than those of cigarettes.
The patch also creates opportunities for new, innovative products. A separate patent covers a two-in-one pouch, with two flavors separated by an impermeable membrane. Depending on his preferences, the user can flip the pouch with his tongue so that the desired flavor faces the lip (snus users taste their snus by striking their tongue over the front-facing side of snus pouch). Wiberg compares it to the popular crushable filter capsules that allow smokers to flavor their cigarette smoke. But whereas the crushable-capsule concept is irreversible—once crushed, there is no way of returning to the original flavor—the two-in-one snus pouch allows the user to keep switching flavors indefinitely. “For example, you can enjoy whiskey flavor and then quickly switch to strong mint before kissing your wife,” he says.
For the time being, the snus market is limited primarily to Scandinavia ($1 billion in annual sales) and the United States. Snus is banned in all EU member states except Sweden, but that may be about to change. The European Court of Justice is set to review a challenge brought by Swedish Match and others, and experts are cautiously optimistic that it will throw out the ban. If that happens, it could make snus available to more than 100 million smokers.
China, too, has approved snus. According to Wiberg, the China National Tobacco Corp. recently launched two flavors: “Black Tea” and “Deep Frozen.” China, of course, is the largest cigarette market in the world. If only a fraction of the country’s 350 million smokers converted to snus, the gains for public health—and snus sellers—would already be immense. And they would be even greater if Chinese smokers would have access to a non-stinging snus variety.
Snus lovers around the world have responded enthusiastically to Wiberg’s invention, describing it as a milestone. Retailers in Sweden report frequent inquiries about the product, which has not even been launched yet. But perhaps the biggest endorsement came from Curt Enzell, a professor of organic chemistry, a retired Swedish Match R&D director and the father of the snus pouch.
Tired of washing from his fingers the brown stains associated with loose snus, Enzell in 1967 placed his snus into an empty tea bag and thus inspired the creation of an entirely new product category. Portioned snus is still regarded as the most significant breakthrough in snus, as it has made the product more user-friendly and increased its consumer base. After evaluating Wiberg’s product, Enzell declared Sting Free Snus the greatest innovation relating to the snus portion since his pouch.
Taco Tuinstra is Tobacco Reporter’s editorial director.Based in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, he coordinates the work of staff writers and contributors.On his watch, Tobacco Reporter has won several awards for editorial excellence.Since joining the magazine in 1997, Taco has visited more than 75 countries to meet industry representatives in their markets and to report tobacco news firsthand.
Manufacturers, aficionados and researchers talk snus in St. Louis.
By Taco Tuinstra
Snus enthusiasts gathered on May 27–28 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, for the first Snus Con, a conference featuring experts from Sweden and the United States. Organized by Chad Jones of the popular snus blog www.snubie.com, the event tackled topics such as tobacco harm reduction, regulation and science. It also highlighted a remarkable innovation—Sting Free Snus—and featured several tasting panels.
Snus represents only a small share of global tobacco sales, but the product has a dedicated following, which became clear during the St. Louis meeting. Attendees passionately discussed their beloved smokeless tobacco, sharing news, tips and experiences. Illustrating the attachment some snusers feel to their product, one prospective participant was detained by U.S. immigration authorities after refusing to surrender a snus can containing Cuban tobacco.
The main snus markets are Sweden, with about $1 billion in annual sales, and the United States, with annual sale of approximately $800 million. The product is also gaining popularity in Norway. Due to a misguided risk assessment, snus is illegal in all EU member states bar Sweden—although that may change soon. The European Court of Justice is set to hear a legal challenge to the ban, and industry representatives are cautiously optimistic it will rule in snus’s favor.
Without the disease-causing byproducts of combustion, smokeless tobacco is considerably less harmful to health than are cigarettes. Unlike smoking, it presents no significant risk for emphysema, heart disease and stroke.
Brad Rodu
Brad Rodu, professor at the department of medicine of the James Graham Brown Cancer Center at the University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky, USA, kicked off the conference by detailing “the Swedish experience.” Sweden has the lowest rates of lung cancer and other smoking-related diseases in Europe, which Rodu attributes to tobacco consumers using snus instead of cigarettes. The country has the highest rate of male smokeless tobacco use and the lowest rate of male smoking in Europe. “If men in other EU member states smoked at the rate of Swedish men, almost 274,000 lives per year would be saved,” said Rodu.
Regrettably, this enviable state of affairs doesn’t extend to Swedish women, who are less likely to obtain nicotine through snus than are their male counterparts. According to Rodu, Swedish women are more likely to smoke. But while snus is still considered a male habit, women under 30 appear less hesitant to pop a pouch underneath their upper lip. If the trend holds, quipped Rodu, “it would be the first time in history that women adopted a healthier behavior from their husbands.”
Joe Ackerman
Joe Ackerman, director of marketing at Swedish Match North America, spoke about his employer’s vision: “a world without cigarettes.” He described a continuum of risk, with cigarettes residing at the very top and smokeless products near the bottom. “We operate at the safer part of the continuum,” he said. Ackerman marveled at the sheer variety of nicotine products, which had come about in response to concerns about the health effects of smoking.
The cigarette remains the ultimate nicotine-delivery device, he noted. “Without the health concerns about smoking, the other categories would not exist.” Ackerman went on to describe one of Swedish Match’s latest offerings, Zyn, which is currently being marketed in the western United States. A smoke-free and spit-free nicotine pouch, Zyn contains nicotine salt derived from tomatoes and tobacco leaves, along with food-grade ingredients, such as pH balancers and sweeteners. Careful to avoid health claims, Swedish Match markets Zyn as a “clean” product.
Swedish Match’s commitment to responsibility became evident also from the fact that Zyn’s child-safety lid—a first in the industry, according to the company—is sufficiently secure to deter even some adults. “I can kill a bear with my hands, but I am unable to open your can,” a burly audience member complained to Ackerman.
Jonas Yden
Jonas Yden, global director of Skruf Snus, told the story of his company’s meteoric rise. Created only in 2003, Skruf has managed to carve out a respectable niche in a business dominated by centenarians. In its first year of operations, the company packed 400,000 cans of snus; this year, it expects to manufacture 94 million.
While such rapid growth is exciting, it also presents challenges. “We are building the rocket ship while flying it,” said Yden. With machines running 24/7, it is difficult to test new innovations. Yden attributed Skruf’s success to its startup culture, which includes “the freedom to screw up,” and the fact that the company offers to snus users “something other than tradition.” Impressed by the company’s performance, Imperial Tobacco (now Imperial Brands) took a minority stake in Skruf in 2005 and purchased the remaining shares in 2008. As Scruf continues to grow and becomes more corporate, Yden said it must take care to retain its entrepreneurial spirit.
Larry Waters
Larry Waters of SnusCentral introduced himself in the way a heavy drinker might present himself at an alcoholics support group meeting. “Hello, I am Larry, and I am a nicotine addict,” he said to an amused audience. A former smoker, Waters credits snus with the fact that he’s alive today. He started snusing with R.J. Reynold’s Camel Snus—a product that was simultaneously scoffed (for its taste) and lauded (for introducing Americans to the category) throughout the St. Louis conference—and quickly “upgraded” to Swedish snus.
Within one week, Waters transitioned from using cigarettes and snus side by side to using only snus—and like a true convert he couldn’t stop telling people about his experience. He started blogging, reviewing products, sharing tips and commenting on industry developments. “I wanted to create a site where Americans could find everything about Swedish snus—a one-stop shop,” said Waters. In 2009, he visited Sweden at the invitation of snus manufacturers, who recognized the potential of the U.S. market. Unable to contain his excitement at being in the “Walhalla of snus,” Waters kissed the tarmac upon arrival.
Lars Rutqvist
A particularly interesting contribution to the St. Louis conference came from Lars Rutqvist, senior vice president for scientific affairs at Swedish Match, who also managed to quit smoking with snus. Prior to joining Swedish Match, Rutqvist led the oncology department of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. Among other projects, he researched the risk factors for head, neck and mouth cancers.
Rutqvist’s studies quickly confirmed the roles of smoking and drinking but not the link with snus use. Because his findings went entirely against conventional wisdom in the 1990s, the department was reluctant to accept them. “In medical school we were taught that snus is a major risk factor for cancer,” said Rutqvist. But even after rechecking the basic data, he got the same results: Snus was not a contributor to any of the researched diseases. As it turned out, many of the prior studies supposedly linking snus to cancer related to powdered snuff instead.
When Sweden joined the EU, it received an exemption on cultural grounds from the bloc’s snus ban but was required to start printing cancer warnings on cans. Confronted with the new science, the EU in 2001 allowed Sweden to replace the warning with a more generic one. Rutqvist is hopeful that the EU will soon take the next step: lifting the snus ban. While the European Court of Justice rejected an earlier legal challenge, many things have changed since 2004, according to Rutqvist. Not only is the science more conclusive today; the European Commission has, under pressure from consumers, also been forced to accept e-cigarettes in its new Tobacco Products Directive. What’s more, leaving the snus ban in place would be discriminatory now that a regulatory route for novel products has been introduced.
Rutqvist was also optimistic about Swedish Match’s modified-risk tobacco products (MRTP) application in the U.S.—to the extent that he felt comfortable to bet a bottle of whiskey on its approval in 2018. In its MRTP application, Swedish Match asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for permission to modify snus health warnings to more accurately reflect the current science. Even though the agency denied Swedish Match’s initial petition, it left the door open by allowing the company to submit an amended application.
Rutqvist noted that the level of scientific expertise at the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products is much higher than that among its EU counterpart, which he said is staffed primarily by career administrators.
During Snus Con, speakers repeatedly stressed the importance of consumers, who are able to interact with authorities in ways that snus manufacturers cannot. Inspired by the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, many lawmakers keep tobacco companies at arm’s length, preventing meaningful discussions and often resulting in ill-informed legislation.
Alex Clark, executive director of the Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association (CASAA), which is best known for its work on behalf of vapers, stressed his organization’s support of snus users in the U.S. “People know us as ‘the vaping people,’” he said, “but CASAA talks about all alternatives to smoking.”
Rutqvist, too, spoke approvingly of consumer involvement. “I once naively thought that science could solve all problems—but politics trump science,” he said. Fortunately, Rutqvist added, politicians in many countries are beholden to consumers, who are also potential voters. The EU exception for snus in Sweden and the European Commission’s capitulation on e-cigarettes can both be attributed to consumer pressures, according to Rutqvist. “So, consumers trump politics,” he said. “That’s why conferences such as Snus Con are so important.”
The next Snus Con will be held in the summer of 2018. The date and location will be announced at www.facebook.com/snuscon.
New data analysis presented on Friday at the annual Global Forum on Nicotine (GFN) meeting demonstrates the potential of the low-risk tobacco product snus for reducing the impact of tobacco-related disease and death in Europe, according to a eurekalert.org story.
The GFN was held at the Marriott Centrum Hotel, Warsaw, Poland, on June 15-17.
The latest evidence, presented by Peter Lee, epidemiologist and medical statistician, indicates that the consumption of snus is at least 95 percent safer than is smoking. And analysis by Lars Ramström, a snus researcher in Sweden, showed that if snus were made available throughout the EU, where it is currently banned outside Sweden, and similar use levels to Sweden were adopted, up to 320,000 premature deaths could be avoided among men every year.
Snus use is more popular than smoking in Sweden. Its availability has led to a reduction in smoking and smoking-related diseases with the 2017 EC EuroBarometer survey showing only five percent of Swedes being daily smokers, compared with the European average of 24 percent.
Correspondingly, Swedish men have Europe’s lowest level of tobacco-related mortality, 152 per 100,000 compared with the European average of 373 per 100,000.
While 46 percent of deaths due to smoking result from respiratory diseases such as lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and pneumonia, there is no evidence that risk of these diseases is increased by using snus. Nor does snus appear to increase the risk of other smoking related diseases including heart disease, stroke and a range of cancers.
In addition, the role of snus in both reducing initiation of smoking and increasing cessation of smoking is a key element in defeating the actual cause of tobacco-related ill-health caused by cigarette consumption.
Due to strong evidence behind snus’ potentially life-saving benefits, the New Nicotine Alliance (NNA), a UK consumer group supporting access to safer nicotine products, is calling for its legalization and has joined legal action case against the banning of snus, which has now been referred to the European Courts of Justice.
In a piece published by Bloomberg, Joe Nocera has described as ‘truly maddening’ the fact that most countries refuse to acknowledge the reduced-harm potential of Swedish snus.
Nocera starts his piece with the ‘astonishing’ fact that the number of daily smokers in Sweden is five percent, when the medical journal, The Lancet, defines as ‘tobacco-free’ a country with a smoking rate of lower than five percent.
He traces the massive switch that has seen Swedish smokers turn to snus and the almost-total risk-reduction that that has implied. When smokers were offered a nicotine fix without the carcinogens that came with smoking those smokers embraced that solution, he said.
What was truly maddening was that despite the powerful evidence provided by Sweden, most countries refused to acknowledge it.
‘Most tobacco-control advocates in the West continue to push the idea that quitting all forms of tobacco and nicotine is the safest policy – which is true, though it is a classic example of the perfect being the enemy of the good,’ he said.
‘And they continue to harbor a deep suspicion of alternative nicotine products.
‘Their understandable animus towards Big Tobacco has clouded their ability to see that replacing one kind of tobacco product (combustible cigarettes) with another (snus) can save lives.’
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…’
According to the UK’s Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association (TMA), new research has shown that even before major changes to the UK tobacco market were due to come into full effect on May 20, people were increasing their purchases of cheap, black market tobacco products.
‘In a series of questions put to consumers over the last five months as the new measures were being phased in, the … TMA has tracked the impact of these regulations on smoker behaviour and found a growth in people buying from non-UK duty paid sources,’ the TMA said.
The key findings of the TMA’s research were:
A 14.5 percent increase in smokers buying packs of 20 cigarettes from illicit sources and abroad during the past five months;
A 91.7 percent increase in smokers buying larger packs of hand-rolling tobacco from illicit sources and abroad;
A 31.6 percent increase in smokers buying online from social media and websites advertising cheap illicit tobacco;
A 22.1 percent increase in smokers buying any tobacco product from abroad, thereby avoiding UK duty.
The survey found, too, that the average price paid for a pack of 20 cigarettes from an illicit supplier was £5.96 – £1.39 less than the £7.35 that the government has used to set the minimum excise tax on a pack of 20 cigarettes.
“It is clear from this research that plain packaging and the small packs ban, measures imposed by Europe and adopted by the UK government, are already having an impact on smokers’ behaviour as they seek out cheaper alternatives from the black market and abroad,” said Giles Roca, director general of the TMA, commenting on the findings. “It’s no surprise that our research points to a rise in the illicit market – this is exactly what happened in Australia when plain packaging was introduced in 2012.
“On banning small packs, which are particularly popular in the UK, independent research confirmed that such a move will cost the treasury £2.1 billion in the first year, costing 11,190 jobs whilst even those in public health agree that it will lead to people smoking more, not less, tobacco.
“On plain packaging, a recent major independent review of 51 studies found no evidence that it acted to prevent youth-uptake – the chief justification why the measure was introduced in the UK. Whilst figures from France, that introduced plain packaging in January 2017, show cigarette consumption actually increased compared to last year when branding was allowed. In March alone the French bought four million packets of cigarettes, over four percent more than during the same period last year.
“These measures were introduced [in the UK] not based on evidence or hard fact but on the dogma of various health lobby groups. Given these measures originated in Brussels, the government should commit to review each and every one of them following Brexit.”
