Category: People

  • Committee split on e-cigs

    Committee split on e-cigs

    The chairperson of a committee inquiring into electronic-cigarette use in Australia has prepared a dissenting report recommending permitting nicotine use in such products, according to a story by Megan Haggan for the Australian Journal of Pharmacy.
    But in its Report on the Inquiry into the Use and Marketing of Electronic Cigarettes and Personal Vaporisers in Australia, Parliament’s Health, Aged Care and Sport Committee made five recommendations.

    • A review of the evidence relating to the health impacts of e-cigarettes, to be updated every two years. Issues covered by the review would include: whether e-cigarettes can help people to quit smoking, the health effects of e-cigarette liquid (e-liquid) and long-term use of e-cigarettes, whether e-cigarettes could lead to more young people smoking and/or using nicotine, and the relative health impacts of e-cigarettes when compared to tobacco products.
    • An international meeting of health experts to discuss policy and legislative approaches to e-cigarettes.
    • A national approach to the regulation of non-nicotine e-cigarettes.
    • The Therapeutic Goods Administration’s continued role in classifying nicotine and assessing e-cigarettes.
    • Greater regulation of flavourings and colourings used in e-liquid.

    In their dissenting report, the Committee chairman and federal member for North Sydney, Trent Zimmerman, and Tim Wilson recommended that:

    • Nicotine used for e-cigarettes be made exempt from Schedule 7 of the Poisons Standard.
    • Legislation be passed to permit the sale and use of e-cigarettes containing nicotine with a regulatory framework for their sale and consumption based on standards found in the European Union and the United Kingdom.
    • A notification and assessment process for colour and flavourings used in e-cigarettes.

    Meanwhile, Dr. Andrew Laming was said to have provided a dissenting report recommending that vaping be legalised.
    The Public Health Association of Australia welcomed the majority report, saying it and its approach closely align with the views of leading public health experts in their recommendations for an evidence-based and precautionary approach to e-cigarettes.
    The PHAA says it is also pleased to see the report acknowledge the three pillars of Australia’s harm minimisation drug policy: prevention, protection and promotion; as well as its emphasis on ensuring that e-cigarette regulation is consistent with tobacco regulation.
    Haggan’s story is at: https://ajp.com.au/news/minority-report-committee-divided-e-cigs/.

  • Uniting around e-cigs

    Uniting around e-cigs

    Members of the UK’s lower and upper houses are due to congregate outside the Palace of Westminster today to call on Parliament to set an example by opening its doors to vaping.
    The members of the two houses will be led by Mark Pawsey (pictured), MP for Rugby and chairperson of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for E-Cigarettes, in supporting the launch of VApril, a nation-wide campaign aimed at encouraging the UK’s seven million smokers to switch to vaping, which is now seen by many people as one of the best ways to break the smoking habit.
    The campaign is being organized by the UK Vaping Association (UKVIA) and fronted by Christian Jessen, who is a medical doctor, television presenter and writer.
    “Vaping is now recognised as one of the best ways to quit smoking and therefore presents a major opportunity to make a significant and positive impact on the public health of the nation,” Pawsey was quoted as saying in a press note put out by the UKVIA. “Yet only one in 10 people understand the relative minor risk of vaping compared to smoking.
    “Even in our own Parliament vapers are treated the same as smokers, forced into outdoor areas far removed from their places of work. It is time we practice what we preach and make Parliament ‘vape friendly’. That is why we are seeking to change the rules in Parliament so we can set an example to the public and businesses across the country.”
    Meanwhile, Jessen said that, according to a recent report by Public Health England (PHE), e-cigarettes might be contributing to at least 20,000 successful new quits per year – with the industry estimating this figure to be much higher.
    “But as a doctor it’s disappointing to hear that an estimated 40 percent of smokers still haven’t even tried vaping.
    “I’m delighted to be joining forces with the UK Vaping Industry Association to launch VApril. VApril is all about helping more smokers to make a successful and permanent switchover. I personally believe vaping has overwhelming potential to help smokers break their habit, and this is important because stopping the habit is the single most significant step that people can make to improve their health. We hope that smokers across the UK will put down their cigarettes for a month, take the VApril Challenge and give themselves the best chance of quitting smoking for good.”
    Smokers are being encouraged to take the VApril challenge across the UK by dropping into vaping masterclasses being provided by specialist vaping stores during April. They will receive a free guide – Vape to Break the Smoking Habit – to help them transition from smoking to vaping and give them the best chance of a successful quit.
    More information is available at: www.vapril.org.

  • FDA moving on e-cigs

    FDA moving on e-cigs

    The commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration Scott Gottlieb has said that the agency is considering whether it could bring electronic cigarettes into the over-the-counter (OTC) regulatory pathway, according to a CNBC report relayed by the TMA.
    Gottlieb said the OTC pathway would give the agency more tools to look at both safety and benefit, study whether or not an e-cigarette promoted smoking cessation, and study toxicity and the way it affects the lung.
    This move was said to be part of the sweeping plan to overhaul tobacco regulation that the Commissioner announced in July.
    “At the very time I am trying to take nicotine out of combustible tobacco, I don’t want to be sweeping the market of products that provide an alternative to smokers who want to get access to nicotine,” Gottlieb said.
    The idea flows from the FDA’s continuum of risk policy that recognizes that conventional cigarettes are the most harmful and other nicotine products are potentially less risky.

  • Smoking incidence falls

    Smoking incidence falls

    The smoking rate among South Korean men aged 19 or older fell last year to below 40 percent; the first time that it has fallen this low, according to a Yonhap News Agency story citing the results of a survey published on Wednesday.
    The survey by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the proportion of men who smoke stood at 39.3 percent in 2017, down by 1.3 percentage points on that of the previous year.
    The survey was conducted among 228,381 adults.
    The smoking rate has generally fallen steadily since 2008, when it stood at 47.8 percent, to 2015, when it stood at 40.6 percent.
    The rate moved up to 40.7 percent in 2016 following a drop a year earlier due to a hike in cigarette prices.
    In January 2015, South Korea increased the price of cigarettes by 80 percent, from 2,500 won (US$2.25) per pack to 4,500 won.
    In 2016, the government required tobacco companies to include graphic warnings on 30 percent of the upper parts of both of the main faces of cigarette packs.

  • Harassment alleged

    Harassment alleged

    A second woman has filed a lawsuit in the US against the UC San Francisco professor and prominent tobacco control activist Dr. Stanton Glantz, who last year was accused of sexual harassment by a former female researcher at the school, according to a story by Laura Waxmann for the San Francisco Examiner.
    Former research associate Juliette Jackson is seeking unspecified damages for claims that Glantz, who heads UCSF’s Center for Tobacco Research and Education, created a ‘sexually-charged’ and hostile work environment in which he allegedly ‘repeatedly leered at Jackson’s and other females’ breasts,’ according to the complaint.
    The lawsuit, filed in Alameda County Superior Court, comes after a sexual harassment lawsuit filed in December by Eunice Neeley, a former doctoral researcher whom Glantz mentored for about two years.
    A spokesperson for UCSF said the school “cannot comment on litigation”.
    In an email to the San Francisco Examiner, Glantz pointed to a blog post he authored in December, in which he denied both Neeley and Jackson’s claims. He also alleged that Neeley and Jackson had been ‘collaborating in their efforts’ against him ‘for over a year’.

  • EU acting on child labor

    EU acting on child labor

    The EU Commission says it encourages the International Labour Organization (ILO) to promote decent work and eradicate child- and forced-labor in the tobacco sector, without resorting to financing from the tobacco industry.
    The ILO has attracted criticism after a meeting of its governing body closed on Thursday without having reached a consensus on whether to continue its partnership with the tobacco sector in the fight against child labor.
    But the Commission’s statement, delivered in writing on the day that the ILO meeting closed, was in answer to a question raised in December by the Maltese member of the European Parliament, Marlene Mizzi.
    In a preamble to her question, Mizzi said that thousands of child workers spent summers working on tobacco farms, often to earn money needed for books, school supplies, and backpacks, or to help their parents pay the bills.
    ‘Many experience symptoms of acute nicotine poisoning, including nausea, vomiting, headaches, and dizziness,’ she said. ‘Public health studies have shown that tobacco farmworkers have nicotine levels in their bodies equal to smokers in the general population.
    ‘Moreover, it is dangerous for children to work 12 hours a day in the sun and high heat while absorbing nicotine and pesticides. Working in tobacco can be perilous for adults, but it is especially harmful to children whose bodies and brains are still developing.’
    Mizzi asked: ‘Can the Commission clarify what measures it plans to take with regard to the tobacco industry, in order to protect the health of children by preventing hazardous child labor on tobacco farms?’.
    In answer, the Commission said the EU was committed to fighting child labor through a ‘multidimensional and integrated approach’. ‘This is particularly important in the case of agriculture, one of the sectors with the highest incidence of the worst forms of child labor,’ it said.
    ‘The EU contributes to preventing child labor in the tobacco sector through actions promoting alternative livelihoods and decent jobs as well as improved access to education and training.
    ‘EU development policy interventions in agriculture are generally focused on supporting product diversification among smallholder farmers by promoting alternative sources of income to tobacco. Thus, our agro-business programs are underpinned by a thorough analysis of the relevant value chains and the role played by child labor.’
    The Commission said that, as had been said in response to a previous question, its approach to fighting child- and forced-labor in agriculture, including that within tobacco supply chains, was based on an integrated multi-country approach to leverage companies into observing due diligence and rising consumers’ awareness.
    ‘The EU also encourages the International Labour Organization to promote decent work and eradicate child- and forced-labor in the tobacco sector without resorting to financing from the tobacco industry,’ it said.

  • Labor issues won’t go away

    Labor issues won’t go away

    The tobacco industry is being challenged over claims that it is committed to the future of tobacco-growing communities.
    In a piece in the Manila Times, Tih Ntiabang, the Framework Convention Alliance’s regional co-ordinator for Africa, said that last week the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) governing body had ‘postponed yet again a decision to stop accepting money from the tobacco industry for its projects to end child labor in the tobacco growing sector’.
    ‘A majority of countries and workers in the governing body want to finally break financial ties with the tobacco industry,’ he said. ‘However, there is still opposition from the employers group and a few countries, mostly in the African region.’
    Later in his piece, he said that ending child labor in tobacco growing could be achieved without accepting money from the tobacco industry. ‘The ILO governing body should embrace the proposed integrated strategy which would mobilize international development partners instead of relying mainly on funds from an industry whose products kill seven million people each year,’ he said.
    ‘Last week, more than 200 public health and sustainable development organizations called on the ILO’s governing body to institute “the strongest possible policies to prohibit co-operation and public-private partnerships with the tobacco industry”.
    ‘While the ILO governing body keeps deferring its decision, the tobacco industry and organizations it funds are ramping up publicity that they are committed to the future of tobacco growing communities. The reality is rather different.
    ‘The ILO partnerships with the tobacco industry provide limited results, which do not address the root causes of child labor. Tobacco farm workers remain trapped in labor exploitation, poverty and illness despite the claims of the industry, which benefits the most from an extremely harmful but highly profitable business.’
    Tih’s piece is at: http://www.manilatimes.net/ilo-fails-to-cut-ties-with-tobacco-industry-yet-again/388402/

  • More labor issues coming

    More labor issues coming

    In a report scheduled to be made public on April 5 in Harare, Zimbabwe, Human Rights Watch (HRW) is expected to highlight ‘abusive practices such as hazardous child labor and the exposure of insufficiently-informed tobacco farmers and workers to nicotine poisoning,’ according to a story in New Zimbabwe relayed by the TMA.
    HRW is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights.
    It reportedly told New Zimbabwe that families involved in tobacco cultivation were vulnerable to nicotine poisoning and abuse, adding ‘[o]ur research revealed an industry fuelled by impoverished small-scale farmers and vulnerable workers – including young child workers – who need greater protection from Zimbabwean authorities and tobacco companies’.
    The report, authored by Margaret Wurth, HRW researcher in the Children’s Rights Division, found that adults and children who were interviewed reported symptoms consistent with nicotine poisoning such as nausea, vomiting, headaches and dizziness.
    And it found evidence of ‘excessive working hours without overtime compensation on large-scale farms, and problems with wages, including having their wages withheld or delayed, and or being paid less than they were owed’.

  • Prohibition Lite on the way

    Prohibition Lite on the way

    In a piece on the Reason website, J.D. Tuccille posits that there’s no particular reason to think that smokers will be happier with denatured tobacco than drinkers have been with weak beer.
    In examining the US Food and Drug Administration’s proposal to lower nicotine in cigarettes to minimally or non-addictive levels, Tuccille says that low-nicotine cigarettes sound a lot like the 3.2 percent beer that plagued much of the country after Prohibition. ‘Nobody was happy with the diluted swill, and they tolerated it only if they couldn’t smuggle in something better,’ he writes. ‘Most places have since dumped it, indicating that a taste for the unadulterated product remained strong even after years of restrictions.’
    Tuccille’s piece ends by saying that FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb’s proposal to mandate low-nicotine cigarettes looks a lot like other well-intentioned but presumptuous efforts to substitute the will of regulators for the desires of the public – Prohibition Lite. And like all such efforts, he says, it’s likely to get people turning up their noses and looking for something better.
    Tuccille’s piece is at: https://reason.com/archives/2018/03/26/fdas-low-nicotine-cigarette-scheme-is-an.

  • Research has real bite

    Research has real bite

    A study undertaken by British American Tobacco has shown that teeth exposed to cigarette smoke over a period of two weeks became ‘very discolored very quickly’, whereas teeth exposed to e-cigarette vapor or vapor from glo, a heat-not-burn product, did not. After two weeks of almost continuous exposure, the teeth exposed to vapor were almost indistinguishable from teeth that were not exposed to anything at all.
    ‘Smokers get “stains”, turning teeth from a healthy-looking white to an unhealthy-looking yellow/brown color,’ BAT said in a press note. ‘Although this staining is commonly referred to as nicotine staining, it is not caused by nicotine, but by tar in smoke.
    ‘As part of a wider study on oral health, scientists at British American Tobacco studied discoloration in teeth. A prototype Vype e-cigarette and a tobacco heating product, glo, were assessed for tooth discoloration and the impact on teeth compared to that of cigarette smoke.
    ‘A puffing robot was used to puff on the products to produce smoke and vapor.  In each case, the smoke or vapor was collected onto a filter pad (Figure 2B) and then a solvent was used to extract the solid material from the filter pad.  The impact of the extracted material (extract) on tooth discoloration was then tested using cows’ teeth.
    ‘Cows’ teeth are routinely used in laboratory experiments in lieu of human teeth. They are used for example to test oral hygiene products like toothpaste and mouthwash.
    ‘The teeth were prepared by polishing them using fine sandpaper to create a surface more like that of human teeth. The teeth were then incubated at body temperature in human saliva to create an environment mimicking that in the human mouth.  This incubation results in the creation of the so-called pellicle layer on the teeth, which is the smooth film you can feel on your teeth when you rub your tongue over them. It is the normal protein layer that forms on teeth when certain molecules in saliva bond to the tooth enamel.
    ‘The teeth were incubated in an oven at body temperature and exposed to the various extracts from the cigarette smoke or e-cig or THP vapor. Some teeth were also incubated in solvent with no extract at all to act as a control/blank.
    ‘After the first day, the teeth exposed to the smoke extract started to change colour and over the course of 14 days, these teeth got darker and darker in color. Even with the naked eye, the color changes with the cigarette extract could be easily seen after one day. The exact color change was also measured in the laboratory using a special camera that can detect tiny changes in hue. In contrast to teeth exposed to smoke those exposed to e-cigarette or THP vapor exhibited minimal change in color, similar to untreated teeth.’
    These results were presented on Saturday at the annual conference of the American Association for Dental Research in Florida, US.