Category: Other Tobacco Products

  • New rules seen as infantile

    New rules seen as infantile

    The smokers’ group Forest says that new tobacco regulations coming into force in the UK ‘infantilise’ consumers and will make no difference to public health.

    The new rules, which must be fully implemented by this weekend, include a minimum pack size of 20 cigarettes, a minimum pouch size of 30g of rolling tobacco, a ban on branded packaging for cigarettes and rolling tobacco, and the imposition of larger health warnings.

    “The new regulations treat adults like naughty children, said Simon Clark, the director of Forest, which campaigns for smokers’ rights. “They infantilise consumers by attacking freedom of choice and personal responsibility.

    “Adults and even teenagers are under no illusions about the health risks of smoking. Consumers don’t need larger health warnings to tell them what they already know.

    “Banning smaller packs is a pathetic attempt to target the less well-off in the hope they will be forced to quit, but smokers will soon adapt and buy the larger packs instead.

    “If you’re trying to cut down it will be harder now because the option of buying a smaller number of cigarettes has been taken away.”

    Clark was scathing also about standardized packaging.

    He described as absurd the idea that people smoked because of the packaging and said there was no evidence that plain packaging had any impact on youth smoking rates, and without such evidence there was no justification for the policy.

    “The new regulations are a disgraceful attempt to denormalize both the product and legitimate consumers,” Clark said.

    “There’s no evidence they will have the slightest impact on public health.

    “Politicians and tobacco control campaigners are grasping at straws if they think people will give up something they enjoy just because the packaging has changed.”

    Clark said the new government [the UK is holding a general election next month] should review the measures as soon as the UK has left the European Union.

    “With the exception of plain packaging all these regulations were imposed on the UK by the EU’s Tobacco Products Directive,” he said.

    “Brexit will give the government the chance to review the impact of these policies and, where necessary, amend or repeal regulations that deliberately discriminate against millions of adult consumers.”

  • Interested in water pipes?

    Interested in water pipes?

    The CORESTA Board is carrying out a survey to evaluate what level of interest exists in carrying out a scientific investigation into water pipe tobacco and its emissions during consumption.

    In a press note issued on Friday, CORESTA said that until the 20th century, water pipe smoking was a part of the Asian and Northern African cultures.

    ‘Since then, this type of smoking has spread in Europe and Northern America, becoming more and more trendy worldwide,’ the press note said.

    ‘Whatever the name given to the device – hookah, shisha, nargile – the general perception of such smoking is that since tobacco is not burnt, but heated, and the smoke filtered through water, it is less harmful.

    ‘However, to date, very little scientific work has been produced on either the tobacco mixture itself or the emissions.

    ‘Work started at ISO level in 2010 was stopped in 2016 without a significant output due to the lack of resources.

    ‘The CORESTA Board considered that water pipe users deserve robust scientific facts about their products and is launching a survey to evaluate interest in such research.’

    The survey form, which should be completed before June 16, can be found at: coresta.org.

  • Smokeless – it’s not rocket science

    Smokeless – it’s not rocket science

    It has been known for two decades that, by avoiding smoke, tobacco users – chewers, dippers, and snusers – eliminate about 98 percent of the health risks associated with smoking, according to two public health experts in the US.

    The risks are so small, they say, that even large epidemiologic studies with hundreds of thousands of users cannot provide indisputable evidence that smokeless tobacco causes any disease.

    And yet, the Food and Drug Administration – and, indeed, the EU – seems implacably opposed to allowing tobacco consumers to be informed about this lower risk.

    The question is why?

    In an interview published by the Huffington Post, the psychotherapist, author and TV commentator, Robi Ludwig, Psy.D, tries to get to the bottom of this and other questions by talking with Dr. Brad Rodu, who has studied the science behind tobacco harm-reduction strategies and has been appointed the first holder of the Endowed Chair in Tobacco Harm Reduction Research at the University of Louisville’s James Graham Brown Cancer Center, and Dr. Joel Nitzkin, public health physician, who is board certified in preventive medicine and has been involved in tobacco control activities since the late 1970s.

    The interview is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/two-doctors-on-a-mission-to-set-the-record-straight_us_58f96d42e4b0de26cfeae28c.

  • Smoking plummets in Sweden

    snus photo
    Photo by Risager

    Data released by the Swedish government indicates that the proportion of male smokers between 30 and 44 fell to five percent last year, according to a story by Andy Coghlan for New Scientist magazine.

    Overall, eight percent of Swedish men smoke daily compared with the EU average of just over 25 percent.

    The proportion of Swedish women who smoke is 10 percent.

    Professor Gerry Stimson, chairman of the European consumer group, the New Nicotine Alliance, which promotes tobacco harm-reduction, was quoted as saying that smoking was disappearing in Sweden.

    This was due, he added to the popularity of snus, which had replaced smoking.

    In January, the alliance co-launched legal action at the European Court of Justice aimed at lifting a ban on snus that applies to all the countries of the EU except Sweden.

    “We’re bringing the case because the ban denies access to a product that helps people protect their health,” said Stimson.

    The full story is at:

    https://www.newscientist.com/article/2124671-swedish-men-on-target-to-be-first-to-completely-stub-out-smoking/

  • Age restrictions enforced

    shisha smoking Jordan photo
    Photo by Jan Krömer

    Nineteen cafés were closed down in Amman, Jordan, in January after staff were caught serving argileh (shisha) to minors, according to a story in The Jordan Times citing ‘an informed source’.

    Serving argileh to minors is illegal under the Public Health Law, and the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) is said to be inspecting rigorously facilities serving argileh.

    “Our campaigns are stricter now and based on inspectors’ observations and citizens’ complaints,” said Mervat Mheirat, director of GAM’s health supervision department. “We agree with authorities, including the Health Ministry, that serving argileh to minors… should be eradicated.”

    “This issue was not a priority in the past, but now we are more committed to cracking down on those who sell argileh to young people,” Mheirat added.

    According to the Jordan National Anti-Smoking Society, about 23 per cent of Jordanians between the ages of 13 and 15 smoke argileh.

    In previous remarks, Feras Hawari, director of the cancer control office at the King Hussein Cancer Center, said that a single session of argileh smoking could be as damaging to health as smoking between three and 10 packs of cigarettes.

    The coal used to heat an argileh was “extremely toxic”, releasing up to 100 parts per million carbon monoxide emissions, the physician told the Times, before adding that such emissions could cause asphyxiation among smokers and affect passive smokers.

  • Swedish Match urges caution about snus-diabetes finding

    Swedish Match urges caution about snus-diabetes finding

    In response to a study linking snus to diabetes, Swedish Match issued the following statement:

    “Today, a scientific study was published that has gotten media attention. The study, Smokeless tobacco (snus) is associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes: results from five pooled cohorts, says that snus consumption [increases the risk] for diabetes (type 2).

    The study says that among those who consumed fewer than five cans of snus per week there was no increased risk, but among those who consumed five-six cans per week there was an increased risk of 40 percent, a risk that increased to 70 percent with a consumption level of seven cans or more per week.

    “The collective scientific documentation regarding snus and diabetes shows that there are six recently published studies that [don’t] show an increased risk, but in this one study, there is an increased risk for those using more than five cans of snus each week.

    “The latter study is based on material from the county of Västerbotten, and it is unclear why that particular study [differs] from all the rest in its conclusions. It is possible that the difference exists because [the study] hasn’t [adjusted] for other known factors, such as food consumption, lifestyle habits and obesity.

    ‘When six studies say one thing and there comes a seventh saying something different, I think that you should be cautious in drawing any conclusions,’ says, Lars-Erik Rutqvist, head of scientific affairs, Swedish Match.”

    ‘The only study that shows a correlation is from Västerbotten and it only represents one cohort (group of people), and I would leave open for the possibility that there may be other explanations to diabetes than consumption of snus. This study does not change [my] or Swedish Match’s current assessment of the collected scientific research which has been done on this subject.’”

     

  • Old School, Modern Market

    Old School, Modern Market

    Photo: Medwakh

    A traditional Arabic tobacco that has been cultivated and smoked in the Middle East for more than half a century, dokha is making a global comeback.

    By Timothy S. Donahue

    Its origins are as mysterious as the Middle East itself. Some claim coastal Arabs invented both the small pipe, called a medwakh, as well as the traditional dokha tobacco smoked in it. The Iranians, who occupy modern-day Persia, believe they were the first to use the pipes and the original herbal (nontobacco) smoking mix. The truth is, it’s hard to say where dokha got its start, as dokha has never really been sold commercially until the past two centuries.

    “People used to grow dokha for their own consumption and smoke it through the bones of small animals,” says Behzod Jamolov, business development executive for the Bin Khumery Group (BKG) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). “However, dokha only began to be considered a trade item about 200 years ago in the territory of the country that is now called Oman.”

    By most accounts, dokha originated in the Gilaki area of northern Iran in the 1400s or earlier. The medwakh was ideal for sailors to use while at sea, and the pipe gradually made its way up and down the Caspian Sea. As tobacco was introduced into the Middle East in the 1500s, the Iranian nontobacco smoking mixture was fortified and eventually replaced with various blends of dokha tobacco.

    During the next few hundred years, the Ottoman Empire attempted to outlaw tobacco smoking, which ironically increased the popularity of dokha tobacco and the use of the medwakh among Arabs. The small, inexpensive pipe and potent, easily cured dokha tobacco became the ideal covert smoking method. Strong spices conceal the smell of the tobacco. Such a small amount is smoked at a time that very little secondhand smoke is produced, allowing users to avoid unwanted attention. In an emergency, the inexpensive pipe and small amount of tobacco could simply be dropped and walked away from without incurring much loss.

    As the prevailing views on tobacco gradually relaxed, hookah smoking became the preferred method for consumption in the Middle East. The popularity of dokha waned, except with the sailors who found it impractical to smoke a hookah at sea. The medwakh and dokha also remained popular in the coastal areas where the sailors traded and eventually settled. This is why these days dokha is found almost exclusively in the UAE, home to the Middle Eastern sea trade and Arab sailors for the past 1,500 years or more.

    Today’s dokha is 100 percent tobacco, with no chemical additives, preservatives, pesticides or herbicides, according to Bassem Chahine, owner of the U.S.-based Medwakh.com, the first company to bring the ancient smoke to the Americas.

    Dokha is a Nicotiana rustica strain found only in the Middle East Gulf region (Photo: BKG)

    A unique blend

    Dokha is a Nicotiana rustica strain found only in the Middle East Gulf region. It is extremely high in nicotine. Dokha is not harvested and cured like Virginia tobaccos, but is instead cut, transported, set to dry in the sun and processed into various blends—all in a span of mere days, or, at most, weeks, according to Chahine. “This expedited process is possible, of course, because dokha is cured and processed in areas where the daily temperature can easily reach over 135 degrees Fahrenheit with a humidity of less than 7 percent,” he says. “This proprietary drying process arrests any fermentation, freezes ammonia levels and is what imparts the unique dokha flavor and the major laf raas [literally: head spin] to dokha tobacco.”

    Unlike hookah tobacco, dokha is not cured with molasses or honey. Behzod says cultivation is a time- and effort-consuming process. “Dokha seeds are planted into the high-quality field that is irrigated with only fresh water,” he says. “It’s an annual crop, which is usually harvested by hand.”

    According to Behzod, dokha was previously made of one type of tobacco that was separated into cold and hot categories. Now, however, BKG is using more than five types of tobaccos from its plantations in Oman, Iran and the UAE. “All these tobaccos were grown under different sunlight conditions that make the flavor of the particular blend unique. Also, when tobacco is grown, there are top leaves that gain more sunlight and middle and bottom leaves that gain less sunlight, each of them are separated and used for a particular flavor,” he says. “As result, we are gaining more than 50 blends of dokha.”

    Dokha comes in two types, the traditional nonflavored and the modern flavored blends. The flavored blends fall into two general categories, savory and sweet/fruit. The traditional flavored dokha blends are mostly savory, though they are flavored lightly with a wide variety of spices, herbs and dried flowers—all used to enhance the very distinct flavors and notes of the different dokha tobaccos. The more modern, flavored dokha blends are patterned after hookah tobacco and are heavily flavored with fruit, mint or clove to cloak the actual tobacco taste and soften the harshness.

    Dokha comes in hundreds of strengths, flavors and brand names. The most commonly available strengths are barid, daffi and har—cold, warm and hot, respectively. Many vendors also offer moderating strengths in these three ranges, such as “over-cold” or “extra-hot.” These designations refer to the harshness of the tobacco, not necessarily the level of buzz a blend may impart.

    The buzz is what makes dokha special. The tobacco gives users a stimulating and comforting laf raas when smoked. The high is impacted by the blend of the tobacco, says Chahine. Generally speaking, the harsher (warmer) a blend, the more buzz it may impart, but there are many warm and over-warm blends that are specifically developed to give the user a maximum effect. “One puff of dokha is more than enough to satisfy a consumer, unlike other types of tobacco where a gram or more of tobacco is needed,” he says.

    The bowl of a medwakh is much smaller than that of a traditional Western tobacco pipe. Consumers usually fill it by dipping the pipe into the container of dokha and slowly spinning it until loaded. The pipes are made of various materials such as wood, bone, base metal, marble, steel, gold, silver, plastic or glass. A medwakh holds about a fingernail’s worth of tobacco—all that’s needed for each session. “Most people smoke less than 10 grams of dokha [the equivalent of four tobacco cigarettes] per week,” says Chahine. “The average Western cigarette smoker consumes about 15 cigarettes per day.”

    Photo: Medwakh

    Traveling abroad

    Smoking dokha outside the Middle East was a rarity until the 21st century. BKG was established in 1987 by a small farmer with a strong desire to provide the highest-quality dokha. At the time, it was a small shop with only few blends of dokha and some wooden pipes. The company now has almost 200 employees. In 2003, BKG began selling dokha on the international market. Following a surge in dokha demand within the UAE, the company expanded by setting up divisions in Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Europe and the U.S.

    “We used to sell our dokha to a few companies who packed them under their brand with the writing Bin Khumery dokha,” says Behzod. “After a certain period of time, we noticed that some of those companies were selling product that was not the one we were sending them; they were mixing some very low-quality dokha and selling it with our name, thereby damaging our reputation. As a result, we came up with idea of Turbo, the best-quality dokha on the market and always consistently the same. The Turbo brand consists of 19 blends of dokha, four types of medwakh, five types of filters and two types of pipe cleaner.”

    In 2006, after Chahine’s father brought his family to the U.S. from the UAE, he soon realized there was no reliable source of dokha in his adopted home country. While operating a hookah lounge, Chahine began to notice how Arab students would share and smoke any dokha they somehow had managed to bring from their homeland. Alert to opportunity, Chahine traded an old Playstation game console with a friend in the UAE for three 1.5-liter bottles of dokha.

    In November of 2009, Medwakh.com went online, becoming the first company to establish a legitimate online presence for dokha sales. “Within three minutes of going live, we made our first sale,” says Chahine. “We were floored.” The success of Medwakh.com has snowballed from there.

    The company started with three types of unflavored dokha and today imports and manufactures more than 200 types and flavors under three different brand names: Medwakh.com, Nirvana Dokha and Something Girlie Dokha. “Having seen how popular dokha was when anyone had any to share in our hookah lounge and how interested our American customers were in it, I was absolutely sure there was a market for it here,” says Chahine. “My family has been involved, one way or another, in the tobacco business in the Middle East for at least five generations.”

    Having that family history, and growing up in the UAE, eventually allowed Chahine to secure a reliable supplier. The company now buys its dokha directly from farms in the UAE and Oman through annual contracts.

    Behzod says the demand for dokha in the international market is gradually growing, but BKG is focused mainly on the Middle East and some European countries at the moment. “However, we are ready to supply countries that are interested in our products. It is vital for us to grow organically to sustain the unique quality of the product,” he says.

    Over the last few years, dokha has exploded onto the U.S. market, says Chahine. When the company started, its employees kept track of geographical sales by pinning pins onto a map. They quickly ran out of space though; within 18 months, the company had sold to all 50 U.S. states, 70 countries and six of the seven continents. To date, the company has sent dokha to more than 125 countries. Medwakh.com sold a little more than $300,000 worth of product in 2010. In 2014, the company expects to easily exceed $3 million in gross sales.

    “We’ve been concentrating on building a wholesale/distribution network for the last year or so, and I’ve been advised that we will double our 2014 sales in 2015,” says Chahine. “In 2010, I worked out of half of an office in my house and literally did everything myself. Today, we have 28 extremely dedicated employees, a 3,500-square-foot warehouse, a shipping and manufacturing facility, a corporate office with a phone-sales staff, a half dozen proprietary retail outlets, 45,000 unique online retail customers and over 500 wholesale/distribution customers. We will import between 2,500 and 3,000 kilos of raw dokha this year.”

    In contrast, Behzod said that BKG could not disclose its financials, although he assured Tobacco Reporter that BKG is the largest dokha producer in the UAE, as well as in the world. “We are a family that is built of competent and dedicated employees with the skills to maintain the quality of the products, dynamic growth and corporate culture of the company,” said Behzod. “Our Turbo dokha is a combination of traditional farming skills and unique blending technologies that allows us to produce a superior product for the UAE and the international market.”

    Medwakh.com says it is now the world’s largest online supplier of dokha, and by the end of 2015, Chahine says the company will be the world’s largest dokha supplier overall. “All it takes is for someone to whip out their medwakh at a public event and light a bowl of dokha, and a crowd of people will soon gather and ask, ‘What’s that?’ and the all-important, ‘Where do you get it?’” says Chahine. “By the end of the summer, we’ll have distributors in the U.K., Germany, Russia, Argentina, Norway, Ukraine, Turkey, and who knows who’ll be calling tomorrow.”

    Timothy Donahue is the assistant editor of Tobacco Reporter. Since joining our team in January 2013, he has become not only an expert on the traditional tobacco business but also a well-respected voice in the rapidly developing vapor industry. Tim spends much of his time on the road, attending conferences and interviewing industry representatives. His networking skills, work ethic and quick mind are valuable assets to our diverse audience.