Category: Packaging

E-cig ban to be lifted
A ban on the sale of electronic cigarettes and heat-not-burn (HNB) devices is due to be lifted in the UAE by mid-April, according to a story in The Khaleej Times.
The lifting of the ban had been expected following an announcement on February 16 that the Emirates Authority for Standardization and Metrology (ESMA) had approved new standards for electronic cigarettes and HNB devices.
And the intention to lift the ban was confirmed the next day by Abdullah Al Maeeni, director general of the ESMA. “We issued the regulation to legalize it, and it will be enforced by mid of April 2019, as the Authority is working hard through the development of technical standards and regulations,” he said.
UAE residents readily smoke electronic cigarettes in public though their sale has been illegal.
The new standards set by ESMA will reportedly regulate a range of matters, including nicotine components, technical specifications, packaging, and labeling.
They will apply to e-cigarettes and HNB devices, and to their associated products such as e-liquids and tobacco sticks.
The story said that the new ESMA standards were in line with the Government’s efforts to curb smoking and put a stop to the illegal sale of electronic cigarettes.
February 18, 2019
Singular offence
A Kenyan man has been told he must pay a Sh15,000 fine or serve five months in prison for selling single cigarettes, according to a story in The Nairobi News.
The punishment was handed down by a Nyeri Court on Tuesday.
The man, Simon Gichuki Maina, appeared before resident magistrate Ruth Kefa where he pleaded guilty to selling single cigarettes.
The law states that cigarettes may be sold only in packs.
The Court heard that Maina was arrested by Nyeri police at the Kasuku bar on February 11.
Maina asked the court for leniency on the grounds that he did not know that selling single cigarettes was a crime.
February 13, 2019
Standard debate
The Malaysian Health Ministry is considering introducing standard packaging for cigarettes, according to a story by Robin Augustin for Free Malaysia Today.
Deputy Health Minister Dr. Lee Boon Chye was said to have told Today that standardized tobacco packaging was part of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which Malaysia had become a party to in 2005.
“This has been done in countries like Australia, and the results can be seen,” he said.
Lee acknowledged that there would be opposition to the move from industry players and traders.
“They will cite reasons like the cost of the exercise and how it will affect their business or the intellectual property rights of tobacco companies,” he said.
“We are considering it. There is no timeline set. We have to study the matter and hold talks with stakeholders.”
The Galen Center for Health and Social Policy was said to have told Today it would support a move to introduce standardized tobacco packaging but noted several matters that should be considered firstly.
The think tank’s CEO Azrul Mohd Khalib said these matters included the need for new and specific legislation to ensure the parameters of standardized tobacco packaging were clear on intellectual property rights.
“There are legitimate concerns from businesses regarding how their trademarks would be affected by this move,” he said.
“Their worries and issues need to be fairly heard and addressed.”
Azrul warned that the imposition of standardized tobacco packaging could result in smokers choosing cheaper tobacco products, which could lead to an increase in smoking rates.
“It could increase the preference for illicit tobacco products which would likely be the cheapest on the shelf,” he said, adding that the government must be prepared to implement more enforcement regarding the illicit cigarette market.
February 13, 2019
World Bank report
Contrary to tobacco industry arguments, taxes and prices have only a limited impact on the illegal cigarette market share at country level, according to a World Bank report, Confronting illicit tobacco trade: A global review of country experiences.
The report, running to about 650 pages, says that evidence indicates that the illegal cigarette market is relatively larger in countries with low taxes and prices while relatively smaller in countries with higher cigarette taxes and prices. Non-price factors such as governance status, weak regulatory framework, social acceptance of illicit trade, and the availability of informal distribution networks are said to ‘appear to be far more important determinants of the size of the illicit tobacco market’.
Part of the Bank’s advice for tackling the illegal trade is for authorities to avoid reliance on the tobacco industry, whose role is said to pose a challenge to countries seeking to address the illegal trade, ‘since the tobacco industry is often linked to illicit trade in tobacco products, either directly or indirectly’.
‘The UK and Ireland case studies emphasize the need to fulfill obligations under Article 5.3 of the FCTC [World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control] to prevent the tobacco industry from influencing public policy,’ the report says. ‘The case studies, including Colombia, Australia, Georgia, and Malaysia, also confirm prior findings that the tobacco industry regularly overstates levels and changes in tobacco illicit trade to oppose tobacco tax reforms. The Georgia and Uruguay case studies show that when the government responds to industry pressure and reduces taxes due to fears regarding tobacco illicit trade, the result is a decline in revenues and an increase in consumption, while the true drivers of illicit trade in tobacco products remain unaddressed.’
The Bank concludes, in part, that the following actions need to be undertaken to confront the illegal trade in tobacco products.
- ‘Require licensing for the full tobacco supply chain, as required by Article 6 of the [FCTC] Protocol.
- ‘Require use of secure excise tax stamps and other product markings to facilitate enforcement and tax collection, as required by Article 8 of Protocol.
- ‘Establish effective track-and-trace systems to follow tobacco products through the supply chain from production or import to sale to consumers (Article 8 of the Protocol).
- ‘Establish effective enforcement teams equipped with automated reporting devices, to reduce human discretion in tobacco tax administration (Articles 8 and 19 of the Protocol).
- ‘Obtain detection equipment and use it effectively at customs posts (Articles 14 and 19 of the Protocol).
- ‘Develop a risk profile to target inspections (Articles 10, 14 and 19 of the Protocol).
- ‘Set relatively low duty-free allowances (Article 13 of the Protocol and Article 6.2 of the FCTC) for tobacco product purchases, both in terms of amounts and frequency.
- ‘Regulate or ban trade in tobacco products in free trade and other special economic zones (Article 12 of the Protocol).
- ‘Set and enforce significant financial penalties and penal provisions for illicit trade in tobacco products (Articles 15, 16 and 17 of the Protocol).
- ‘Provide for secure and environmentally friendly destruction of seized cigarettes, carried out by the regulatory authorities and not by the tobacco industry (Article 18 of the Protocol).
- ‘Educate the public on the impact of tobacco illicit trade.
February 4, 2019
EU system on right track
The EU Commission has said that the EU traceability system for tobacco products is fully compliant with the World Health Organization’s Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products (Protocol).
The Commission was replying to two questions posed by the Romanian member of the EU Parliament, Cristian-Silviu Buşoi.
In a preamble to his questions, Buşoi said that during the eighth session of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (COP8) and the first meeting of the parties to the Protocol (MOP1) held in Geneva in October 2018, WHO Spokesperson Dr. Stella Bialou had justified the non-compliance of the EU’s Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) in respect of tobacco tracking and tracing because the adoption of the TPD had preceded the ratification of the Protocol.
‘Moreover, on 9 June 2016, Parliament voted to ratify the Protocol and all member states voted in favour in the Council, leading to its official ratification by the EU on the 24 June 2016,’ he said, before asking:
1. ‘How and when will the Commission remedy this discrepancy, now that the Protocol has been ratified by the EU?
2. ‘How is the Commission addressing the situation of the remaining 15 member states that have not ratified the WHO Protocol individually?’
In reply to the first question, the Commission said that the EU traceability system for tobacco products established under the TPD was fully compliant with the Protocol established under the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
‘The EU was involved in negotiating the FCTC Protocol, adopted in 2012,’ the Commission said. ‘The FCTC Protocol (in particular Article 8) was taken into account when the EU adopted its system in 2014. The EU system, which will be in place by 20 May 2019, is based on Article 15 TPD and complemented by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/574 and Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2018/573 adopted in December 2017, which following the positive scrutiny of the latter act by the co-legislators entered into force on 6 May 2018.
‘Member states’ competent authorities and the Commission exercise full control over this system. Several measures ensure the full compliance with the FCTC Protocol, notably: independent generation of unique identifiers, independent storage of traceability data with real time visibility for enforcement purposes, as well as high density and standardisation of reporting events in terms of time and content. The Commission sees no reason to introduce any changes to the design of the EU system.’
In answer to the second question, the Commission said that member states had unanimously supported the ratification of the Protocol by the EU, for matters falling under EU competence.
‘As for matters falling under national competence, to date 11 member states have ratified the Protocol,’ it said. ‘There are national procedures ongoing in the remaining member states. The Commission regularly organises meetings with national experts to support the member states in ratifying and implementing the Protocol.’
January 4, 2019
Visitor warnings
The Japanese Finance Ministry plans to expand the size of health warnings on cigarette packs, according to a story in The Japan Times quoting ‘sources with knowledge of the matter’.
The Ministry reportedly plans to implement the change before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.
The move was said to be designed to increase people’s awareness of the health hazards related to smoking.
And it was said, without explanation, that the move ‘takes into consideration visitors to Japan’.
Currently, cigarette manufacturers are obliged to display health warnings on both the front and the back of cigarette packages, covering 30 percent or more of each surface.
But the Ministry plans to increase the coverage to 50 percent or more.
And it plans also to make the health warnings easier to comprehend by adding extra information, such as that relating to recent medical findings.
Meanwhile, the Ministry intends to create a new mandatory warning for heat-not-burn tobacco products.
December 31, 2018
Topical warning
New graphic health warnings are expected to start to appear on cigarette packs in South Korea next month, according to a story in The Korea Times.
They are due to appear also on heat-not-burn products.
The 12 new images are said to show smokers suffering from ailments such as lung cancer, oral cancer, laryngeal cancer, heart attack and stroke, while carrying warnings about everything from tooth discoloration to premature death.
South Korea first required graphic warnings on tobacco products in 2016 – warnings that take up at least 30 percent of the top of both of the main faces of cigarette packs.
The warnings are supposed to be changed every two years.
The smoking rate among South Korean men aged 19 and older was 20.3 percent in 2018, down from 20.8 percent in 2016, according to government data.
Separate data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) put the smoking rate of South Korean men aged 15 and older at 31 percent in 2015, the highest among 15 OECD countries surveyed. Japan came in second with 30 percent, followed by Italy with 25 percent.
December 24, 2018
Vaping is not smoking
Packaging for tobacco sticks used with the heat-not-burn (HNB) device IQOS does not have to include graphic health warnings in Malaysia because such sticks do not come under the legal classification of a cigarette, according to a story in The Sun Daily quoting the Ministry of Health (MoH).
The MoH said the exemption from the ruling on pictorial warnings stemmed from the fact that the Heets tobacco sticks, while comprising a tobacco product, emitted vapor instead of smoke.
Questioned by the Sun Daily, the MoH said it had not approved any studies on the health consequences of using HNB devices, but that the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) had agreed to investigate these health effects.
Meanwhile, because the tobacco sticks are not classified as cigarettes, they can be sold at a lower price, RM14, than that of combustible cigarettes, RM17.40.
The Sun Daily said that HNBs had been allowed to be marketed in Malaysia without prior research to verify claims by tobacco companies that they were a safer alternative to cigarettes.
It said that questions about the grounds on which HNBs were allowed to be marketed in Malaysia were not answered by the MoH.
December 21, 2018
Industry wrong on pricing
The introduction of standardized cigarette packaging in the UK led to an increase in the sale price of leading brands, according to a story in the Guardian citing new research.
A study by Stirling University found that the price of top-selling cigarettes increased by almost five percent during the 18 months after the legislation was introduced. The price of hand-rolling tobacco rose also, by about eight percent.
Stirling is one of 13 universities that forms the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, a Centre for Public Health Excellence funded by the UK Clinical Research Collaboration.
Researchers said their findings were at odds with tobacco companies’ predictions that standardized packaging, which became mandatory in May last year, would lead to lower prices and greater affordability.
“Tobacco companies were strongly opposed to plain packaging,” Dr. Nathan Critchlow, of Stirling’s institute for social marketing, was quoted as saying. “They appeared adamant that, if the policy was implemented, brands would only be able to compete on price, which would result in lower prices, greater affordability and, consequently, increased consumption.
“Our study, however, provides early evidence that these concerns of lower prices appear to be unfounded. We found that, as well as the sale prices, recommended retail prices also increased. This suggests that tobacco companies instigated the price rises – and that their predictions of falling prices and rising affordability were intended to deter the government from implementing the policy.”
The Guardian reported that the team analysed electronic point of sale data from 500 small retailers in Scotland, England and Wales during the 12-month transition period and then for six months after the legislation became mandatory.
The average price per cigarette and price per gram – both adjusted for inflation – were examined for 20 of the leading fully-branded tobacco products and their standardized equivalents.
The study was funded by the Cancer Policy Research Centre at Cancer Research UK and was published in the international journal Addiction.
December 20, 2018
Commended for plain packs
The World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday commended Thailand’s tobacco control measures as it prepares to become the first country in Asia to require that all tobacco products are sold in standardized packaging, according to a story in The Bangkok Post.
“Thailand’s bold steps against tobacco – the single most important cause of preventable deaths worldwide – are commendable and reflect the country’s earnest efforts to promote the health and well-being of its people,” Poonam Khetrapal Singh, regional director of WHO Southeast Asia, was quoted as saying.
The new standardized-packaging regulations comprise the Government’s latest effort to curb smoking. They add to the 2017 Tobacco Control Act, which mandated a minimum age of 20 for tobacco purchases, and banned single-stick sales and tobacco advertisements, promotions and sponsorship.
As elsewhere, the standardized packaging regulations are due to restrict the use of logos, colors, brand images and promotional information, leaving only brand names and product names displayed in a standard color and font.
The Post said that under the new law, all tobacco products would have to be sold in standardized packs by September 2019. Thailand already had graphic health warnings covering 85 percent of tobacco-product packaging, it added.
Thailand has more than 11 million smokers, with, it is estimated, one in five Thai adults smoking.
Nearly 50 percent of men between the ages of 35 and 54 smoke, while one in every six Thais between the ages of 13 and 17 uses tobacco.
December 20, 2018