The UK’s Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has changed its rules so that health claims are no longer banned from advertisements for electronic cigarettes.
In a note posted on its website, the ASA said that the change had been made by the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP and BCAP) following an extensive consultation.
The change was welcomed by Dan Marchant, board member of the UK Vaping Industry Association and MD of VapeClub, who said that Public Health England had been clear that vaping was at least 95 percent less harmful than smoking.
And he said that vaping’s potential to help smokers quit had been backed by public health groups from the Royal College of Physicians to Cancer Research.
“But despite this support, it has previously not been possible for us to spread the positive news to consumers, and the public perception of vaping has suffered as a result,” he said.
“Although some questions remain about how the new rules will be applied to particular products and businesses, it is right that advertising rules are now starting to catch up so we can share factual information with smokers about this potentially life changing alternative.
“Only by building confidence in the health benefits of vaping will it be possible to convince every smoker that switching to vaping could positively change their lives.
“However, it also remains the case that the ability of the industry to advertise its products is still constricted by the EU’s Tobacco Products Directive which only allows advertising in very limited forums with no apparent consistency.
“The UK’s exit from the EU provides an ideal opportunity to amend these rules to further bring advertising regulations into line with vaping’s recognised public health potential.”
CAP and BCAP’s evaluation of the responses to its consultation is here.
CAP and BCAP’s regulatory statement is here.
Category: People
E-cig ad rules changed
Menthol under threat
The US Food and Drug Administration plans to propose a ban on menthol cigarettes this week as part of its aggressive campaign against flavored electronic cigarettes and some tobacco products, according to a story by Sheila Kaplan for the New York Times, quoting agency officials.
However, Kaplan said the proposal would have to go through the FDA’s ‘regulatory maze’, and that it could be several years before such a restriction took effect, especially if the major tobacco companies contested the agency’s authority to do so.
None of the major tobacco companies were ready to comment on the possibility of barring menthol cigarettes.
Such a move has been long-awaited by some public health advocates, who have been especially concerned about the high percentage of African-Americans who become addicted to menthol cigarettes.
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the agency’s commissioner, would not comment publicly on the proposal on Friday [when Kaplan’s piece was published]. But he was quoted as having said in a recent interview that the FDA was revisiting the issue, one that had been weighed by previous administrations. “It was a mistake for the agency to back away on menthol,” he said.
Canada has already imposed a ban on menthol cigarettes, and the EU’s ban is set to go into effect in 2020. Earlier this year, San Francisco passed a prohibition against the sales of menthol cigarettes and flavored e-cigarettes.
Kaplan said that the menthol proposal was just one of several initiatives the FDA planned to announce sometime this week, which would include a ban on sales of most flavored e-cigarettes, except menthol and mint, at retail stores and gas stations across the country.
The products, which include such flavors as chicken-and-waffles and mango, would be mainly relegated to sales online, at sites where the agency hopes to impose strict age verification to ensure that minors cannot buy them.Tax plans challenged
A group made up of more than 50,000 tobacco growers in the Philippines has urged the government to reconsider its plan to increase again the excise tax rate on cigarettes, according to a story in The Manila Standard.
The group said the move would further harm the leaf-production industry.
The PhilTobacco Growers Association said in a letter to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III that they were already feeling the adverse impact of the lower demand for tobacco caused by higher excise taxes on tobacco products.
The letter was sent also to the Senate Ways and Means Committee chairman Senator Juan Edgardo Angara, and House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Estrellita Suansing.
The growers said that from P2.72 per pack in 2012 for cheaper cigarettes, the excise tax had now reached P35.00 per pack.
And the latest data from the National Tobacco Administration had shown that tobacco production had declined from 68 million kg in 2013 to 48 million kg in 2017.
The growers said they had been surprised that on top of the tobacco-tax increase of 2013, another had been imposed in 2017. “And now the government is again planning to increase the tax on cigarettes,” they said.
The growers said the proposal by Senator JV Ejercito to set tobacco excise tax at P90 per pack with a nine-percent increase annually would more than double the current tax.
The Department of Health and other sectors are pushing for the increase in excise tax of cigarettes to P90 per pack to fund the Universal Health Care bill.
But the growers said the tobacco industry already contributed billions of pesos yearly to government coffers, citing the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s figures for tobacco tax collections in 2017 that reached over P126 billion.
“Because of that, isn’t it right that we should be given the opportunity to recover?, the farmers asked.
“Isn’t it right that other sectors should also be encouraged to pay higher taxes for them to contribute to economic development?”.More growers registered
Tobacco grower registrations in Zimbabwe for the 2018-19 season have increased by 65 percent to 162,028 from those of the previous season, 98,233, according to a story in The Herald citing figures from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board.
Of the 2018-19 registered growers, 34,845 registered for the first time, which seems to indicate that 28,950 have returned to tobacco.
However, the increase in registrations has largely been influenced by the need for growers to obtain individual numbers so that they benefit from the introduction of foreign currency incentives.
Changes to the way that payments are made to growers have made it difficult for the them to share money after selling their crops because they are no longer paid cash. The money is now being deposited in bank accounts or paid through EcoCash.
Tobacco production has been on the increase during the past due to an organized market and the recent introduction of an input scheme by the government.Smoking at record low in US
Cigarette smoking has reached the lowest level ‘ever recorded’ among US adults, according to new data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute (NCI).
That left about 47 million (one in five) US adults using ‘tobacco’ products last year, products that were said to include a variety of smoked, smokeless, and electronic tobacco products.
‘An estimated 14 percent of US adults (34 million) were current (“every day” or “some day”) cigarette smokers in 2017 – down from 15.5 in 2016 – a 67 percent decline since 1965,’ a CDC press note said. [It wasn’t clear why some figures were given to one place of decimals while others were not.]
‘A particularly notable decline occurred among young adults between 2016 and 2017: about 10 percent of young adults aged 18 to 24 years smoked cigarettes in 2017, down from 13 percent in 2016.’
“This new all-time low in cigarette smoking among US adults is a tremendous public health accomplishment – and it demonstrates the importance of continued proven strategies to reduce smoking,” said CDC director Robert Redfield.
“Despite this progress, work remains to reduce the harmful health effects of tobacco use.”
Information contained in the 2017 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), published in yesterday’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, described how the range of tobacco products used by US adults included ‘cigarettes, cigars, e-cigarettes, hookah/water pipes/pipes, and smokeless tobacco’. The survey has been used to assess cigarette smoking among US adults since 1965, but surveillance of other tobacco products began more recently
‘In 2017, cigarettes were the most commonly used product (14 percent) among US adults, followed by cigars, cigarillos, or filtered little cigars (3.8 percent); e-cigarettes (2.8 percent); smokeless tobacco (2.1 percent); and pipes, water pipes, or hookahs (1 percent),’ the note said.
‘Of the 47 million adults who currently use any tobacco products, about nine million (19 percent) reported use of two or more tobacco products. The most common tobacco product combinations were cigarettes and e-cigarettes.
The note then goes on to describe how tobacco-product usage varies within ‘subgroups’ and to quote NCI director Norman E. Sharpless, MD, as saying the persistent disparities in adult smoking prevalence described in the report emphasized the need for further research to accelerate reductions in tobacco use among all US citizens.
Meanwhile, FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, was quoted as saying that the continued drop in adult smoking rates to historic lows was encouraging and that the FDA was committed to accelerating declines in smoking and shifting the trajectory of tobacco-related disease and death through its comprehensive approach to tobacco and nicotine regulation. “We’ve taken new steps to ultimately render combustible cigarettes minimally or non-addictive and to advance a framework to encourage innovation of potentially less harmful products such as e-cigarettes for adults who still seek access to nicotine, as well as support the development of novel nicotine replacement drug therapies,” he said.
“At the same time we’re also working to protect kids from the dangers of tobacco product use, including e-cigarettes.”Healthy results for Ploom
Japan Tobacco Inc. said today that the results of a clinical study had demonstrated a reduction in exposure to, and uptake of, selected harmful and potentially harmful constituents (HPHCs) in Japanese healthy adult smokers who switched to Ploom TECH, JT’s tobacco vapor product.
The study was conducted in consultation with a medical advisor, Yuji Kumagai, MD, PhD, a professor at the Kitasato Clinical Research Center.
The researchers randomly assigned 60 Japanese healthy adult smokers for five days to one of three groups: (a) a group whose members switched to Ploom TECH (PT); (b) a group whose members continued to smoke their own brand of combustible cigarette (CC); or (c) a smoking abstinence group (SA).
After the five-day study period, the levels of 15 biomarkers of exposure (BoEs) to selected HPHCs were found to have been significantly reduced in the PT group compared to those in the CC group.
And, significantly, the magnitude of the reduction in BoE levels observed in the PT group was similar to that observed in the SA group.
‘The study results show that completely switching to Ploom TECH from combustible cigarettes leads to significant reductions in exposure to, and uptake into the body of, selected HPHCs,’ JT said in a note posted on its website. ‘Although further research is required, these results strongly support the potential of Ploom TECH use to reduce the health risks associated with smoking.’
JT pointed out that, currently, there were no globally-agreed standards for assessing the relative risks to health associated with the use of different tobacco or other nicotine-containing products, though some countries had set guidelines in this field.
‘JT continues to engage in research and development to develop new methodologies to substantiate, through objective science, product risk reduction,’ the company said. ‘As we continue with our studies, we will communicate our progress via our science website – JT Science.’ILO funding move welcomed
The International Labour Organization (ILO) no longer relies on funding from tobacco companies and affiliated organisations, for the time being, according to a note posted on the website of the Framework Convention Alliance (FCA).
‘In its Decision concerning contracts that had tied the ILO to an industry whose products kill more than seven million people each year, the Governing Body of the ILO adopted an integrated strategy to address decent work deficits in the tobacco sector,’ the note said.
‘The Governing Body has directed the ILO director general “to continue efforts to mobilize various sustainable sources of funding from the public and private sector with appropriate safeguards”.’
The FCA said it was confident the ILO would apply appropriate safeguards to its future fund-raising efforts to ensure that it no longer accepted funding from the tobacco industry.
‘The FCA also commends the ILO for its continued dedication to protecting the rights of workers within the tobacco sector and for the commitment it has shown in thoroughly addressing the issue of funding from tobacco companies.
‘The ILO’s contracts with the Eliminating Child Labor in Tobacco Growing (ECLT) Foundation and with Japan Tobacco International (JTI) expire in June and December 2018, respectively.
‘Rejecting funding from tobacco companies will allow the ILO to maintain its impartiality and enhance its capacity to address the issues that trap workers in systemic poverty including unfair contracts, collusion by companies over leaf prices, and inflation of the costs of farm inputs.
‘Other UN agencies should take note. The ILO has set an important precedent by taking the issue of tobacco industry funding seriously and addressing it institutionally. It has positioned itself to go further in addressing the root causes of systemic poverty in the tobacco sector, free from the undue influence of tobacco companies, consistent with Article 5.3 of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) and the Model Policy for agencies of the United Nations system on preventing tobacco industry interference.
‘The Governing Body has also directed the ILO director general to organise a tripartite meeting as a matter of urgency, to further develop and implement the integrated strategy. This upcoming tripartite meeting presents an opportunity to expand protections for workers within the tobacco sector and completely shut the door on any undue tobacco industry influence.’E-cigs have vital role
Twenty-nine per cent of health professionals would not recommend electronic cigarettes to cancer patients who already smoked, according to research presented at the 2018 NCRI [UK National Cancer Research Institute] Cancer Conference, according to an NCRI story published at medicalxpress.com.
While vaping e-cigarettes might pose some health risks, the story said, evidence suggested it was much less harmful than was smoking.
Health bodies, including Public Health England and the Royal College of Physicians, had given support for the use of e-cigarettes as a less harmful alternative.
Researchers said their findings had highlighted the need for clearer guidance and training for health professionals around endorsing e-cigarettes to cancer patients who smoked.
The study was presented by Dr. Jo Brett, a senior research fellow in the faculty of health and life sciences at Oxford Brookes University, UK.
“Smoking is a well-established risk factor for many common cancers,” she said. “It is the single biggest avoidable cause of cancer in the world.
“Problems caused by smoking continue after a cancer diagnosis. It increases the risk of treatment complications, cancer recurrence and the development of a second primary tumour, leading to an increased risk of death. So it’s vital that these patients are encouraged to stop smoking.
“E-cigarettes are now the most popular intervention for smoking cessation in the UK.
“However, little is known about health professionals’ knowledge and attitude towards e-cigarettes and whether they are endorsing use of e-cigarettes with cancer patients.”Smoking bans extended
Thailand’s Public Health Ministry is due to enforce tobacco-smoking bans in or at 81 newly-listed public places, including airport terminals, ATMs and hotel lobbies, according to a November 6 story in The Bangkok Post.
Separate smoking areas will be allowed in some places.
The list was published in the Royal Gazette, which indicated the bans would be enforced in 90 days.
New no-smoking zones include hospitals, clinics, schools, nurseries, homes for the elderly, health and massage parlors, libraries, learning centers, gymnasiums, swimming pools, ATMs, public toilets, grocery shops, theaters, game shops, drug stores, meeting venues, shopping centers, government offices and organizations, zoos, amusement and water parks, laundry shops, bus stops, piers, taxi and van stands, and public areas of airports, hotels and condominium buildings.
Areas within a five-meter radius of the entrances and exits of such places will also be no-smoking zones.
However, the ministry will allow universities, government offices, state enterprises and airports to have separate smoking areas.Born to smoke
On the first day of her life, a child who is born in Delhi takes in air that is the equivalent of smoking 20-25 cigarettes, according to a story by Abhaya Srivastava for Agence France Presse, quoting Arvind Kumar, a prominent Delhi lung surgeon.
For years, the surgeon has campaigned to raise awareness about the dangers of air pollution, which the World Health Organization last month likened to the tobacco epidemic.
Many of the patients he sees already bear physical scars from breathing a lifetime of Delhi air.
“These are non-smokers, but even they have black lungs,” he was quoted as saying.
“Even teenagers have black spots on their lungs. This is frightening.”
AFP reported that, despite Delhi’s smog reappearing every winter, official efforts to combat it had been ineffectual.
Emergency measures such as banning construction, cutting down on traffic and prohibiting the use of diesel generators had had little effect.
At the same time, longer-term solutions remained elusive. State governments had refused to co-operate on root causes of the crisis, such as farmers using fire to clear their land on the outskirts of Delhi.
But Kumar was quoted as saying that pollution had to be tackled at its source. “Everything else is just eyewash,” he said.
