Category: People

  • Seeking common ground

    Seeking common ground

    The US Food and Drug Administration has been told that it should refrain from a crackdown across the vaping category but act decisively against its ‘bad actors’.
    Jeff Stier, senior fellow at the Consumer Choice Center, offered this advice as the FDA prepares its new action plan on electronic cigarettes.
    Stier put forward some ‘simple steps’ for the FDA to follow if it wanted to adhere to common ground.
    “We should all be able to agree that e-cigarettes are not entirely safe and should not be used by kids,” said Stier.
    “At the same time, as Public Health England has been saying for more than three years, e-cigarettes are around 95 percent less harmful than combustible cigarettes and can help smokers quit. To maximize protection to Americans of all ages, the FDA must finally formulate sensible, science-based policies to achieve two key goals:

    • “Prevent youth from initiating the use of any nicotine-containing product, including e-cigarettes.
    • “Foster switching by adult smokers who have been unable to quit by other means.”

    Stier said the FDA was threatening that, because of ‘news reports,’ public opinion and data about youth use that the agency hadn’t released, it might soon remove many e-cigarettes from the market, including most flavors, as well as the pods they come in, until a manufacturer applies for and receives approval for each product.
    The agency was warning also that it might ban sales everywhere except in vape shops.
    “But it’s not too late,” said Stier. “In its new plan, the FDA should implement the legitimate common ground by taking the following three steps:
    1: “Focus on the bad-actors. The FDA should act swiftly and forcefully, as it has the authority to do, against any retailer caught selling an e-cigarette to a minor.
    2: “The FDA must work constructively with the industry it regulates.
    3: “Make good on the promise to change misconceptions about nicotine, which, while addictive, is not the major cause of tobacco-related disease.”
    Stier then moved on to what he believed the FDA should not do:
    1: “Remove e-cigarettes from all stores except vape shops.
    2: “Allow either side to erode common ground. Just as the FDA shouldn’t be lenient with those who sell or give e-cigarettes to kids, it shouldn’t allow false assertions about the risks of e-cigarettes to stand unchallenged.
    3: “Fall prey to the notion that the FDA has in its power the ability to prevent every last youth from ever trying an e-cigarette.”
    Stier said that when it gave the FDA authority to regulate recreational lower-risk nicotine products, Congress believed the FDA could be sophisticated enough to prevent youth use while helping adults quit smoking.
    “Sadly, to date, the FDA has accomplished little on either front,” he said. “These failures don’t justify a misplaced ‘crackdown’ on e-cigarettes. They require an intensive focus on stopping the bad actors.
    “If the FDA doesn’t get it right – this month – President Trump should ask, in an exit interview, why FDA leadership couldn’t achieve a central promise of the administration: improving our lives not with more regulation, but with less of it, wisely implemented.”

  • New BAT regional director

    New BAT regional director

    Luciano Comin, currently British American Tobacco’s regional head of marketing, Americas and Sub-Saharan Africa (AMSSA), has been appointed to succeed Kingsley Wheaton as regional director, AMSSA.
    Comin is due to start his new role on January 1 as Wheaton takes up his new role as chief marketing officer.
    During his 26-years at BAT, Comin has held many roles, including marketing director Venezuela, marketing director Mexico and GM Mexico. He was regional marketing manager for Western Europe before taking up his current role.

  • NGP portfolio heating up

    NGP portfolio heating up

    Imperial Brands’ volume shipments of cigarettes and other tobacco products calculated as ‘stick equivalents’ (SE) during the 12 months to the end of September, at 255.5 billion, were down by 3.6 percent on those of the 12 months to the end of September 2017, 265.2 billion.
    Within that overall volume, US-market volume was down by five percent to 22.1 billion.
    In announcing its preliminary results for the year to the end of September, the company said that while its volume was down by 3.6 percent, it had outperformed industry volumes across its footprint.
    It had achieved share growth in many of its priority markets, while its Growth Brand share had risen by 0.7 of a percentage point.
    And it had enjoyed strong performances from ‘tobacco Specialist Brands: Backwoods, Kool, Rizla, Skruf and Premium Cigars’.
    An improved price/mix had delivered tobacco net revenue growth of 0.9 percent.
    Meanwhile, Imperial said it was delivering strong growth in next generation products focused on smoker conversion.
    It was delivering a satisfying, safer experience with a trusted brand, blu, supported by leading-edge science
    And it had a strong innovation pipeline focused on reduced risk products in the categories of vapor, heated tobacco and oral nicotine.
    Pulze, the company’s first heated tobacco product, was planned to be launched in early 2019.
    Tobacco and NGP (next generation products) net revenue was down by 0.3 percent, from £7,757 million to £7,730 million; tobacco and NGP adjusted operating profit was down by 1.1 percent, from £3,595 million to £3,557 million; distribution adjusted operating profit was increased by 17.3 percent from £181 million to £212 million; total adjusted operating profit was increased by 0.1 percent from £3,761 million to £3,766 million; and adjusted earnings per share were up by 1.9 percent from 267.0p to 272.2p.
    ‘FY18 was a successful year of delivery against our strategy and I’m pleased with the progress we are making in creating something better for the world’s smokers,’ said chief executive, Alison Cooper.
    ‘In NGP our main focus is on transitioning smokers to blu, a significantly less harmful alternative to cigarettes.
    ‘NGP also offers additive opportunities for our shareholders and the success of the international rollout of my blu has put us in a strong position to further invest and accelerate sales growth in FY19.
    ‘In tobacco we focus on providing smokers with an evolving portfolio of high-quality brands.
    ‘Following our additional brand investment in tobacco over the past two years, we have increased Growth Brand volume, share and revenue in our priority markets.
    ‘Our financial delivery was strong, with revenue and earnings growth, high cash generation and a further dividend increase of 10 percent.
    ‘Capital discipline remains central to all our activities, providing funds for investment and enhancing returns.
    ‘We have the strategy, assets and capabilities to realise the significant opportunities presented by a changing environment and to generate growing returns for our shareholders.’

  • Clearing the smoke

    Clearing the smoke

    The Philippines’ Department of Health (DOH) is pushing for higher taxes on tobacco products to help fund the requirements of the Universal Health Care Bill, according to a GMA News story.
    But the DOH Secretary Francisco Tiongson Duque said the proposal was aimed also at reducing the incidence of smoking in the country.
    The Universal Health Care Bill has been approved by the Congress and Senate, and is now awaiting the president’s authorization.
    The news story reported that a Pulse Asia survey in September had shown that 67 percent of Filipinos are in favor of higher taxes on tobacco – a figure that seems low given that 78.4 percent of Filipinos don’t smoke.
    Duque said that if tobacco taxes were raised as proposed, the percentage of smokers in the country would drop from 21.6 to 15.7.
    If a pack of cigarettes was taxed at P97, an estimated one million people would be saved from dying from smoking-related diseases.
    Meanwhile, Dr. Gundo Weiler, the World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in the Philippines, said that one out of three Filipinos died before they reached the age of 70, most of them due to smoking.
    Weiler said that the strategy of the DOH was a win-win situation that targeted more funds for health care, while, at the same time, reducing the population of smokers in the country.

  • Big tax rise proposed

    Big tax rise proposed

    A coalition of health-advocacy groups in the US state of Montana want cigarette taxes to rise by $2 a pack to help maintain an expansion of Medicaid, which is a joint federal and state program that helps with medical costs for some people with limited income and resources.
    According to a story by Eric Whitney for New Hampshire Public Radio, Montana legislators
    expanded Medicaid by a very close vote in 2015.
    The measure passed with the condition that the expansion of Medicaid eligibility in the state would expire in 2019 unless lawmakers voted to reapprove it. And once it expired, people who benefited from Medicaid under the expansion would lose that benefit.
    Fearing legislators might not renew funding for Medicaid’s expanded rolls, Montana’s hospitals and other health advocacy groups came up with a ballot measure to keep it going with funds generated by a tobacco tax.
    Whitney said in his report that the measure, which is on today’s ballot, became the most expensive ballot measure race in Montana’s history – drawing more than $17 million in opposition funding from tobacco companies alone, and in a state with fewer than 200,000 smokers.
    Most of that money had come from cigarette maker Altria, he said, and, according to records from the National Center for Money in Politics, that amount was more than Altria had spent on any state proposition nationwide since the center started keeping track in 2004.
    Amanda Cahill, who works for the American Heart Association and is spokesperson for Healthy Montana, the coalition backing the measure, said coalition members knew big tobacco would fight back.
    “We poked the bear, that’s for sure,” Cahill said, though she added that the measure had been introduced not with the intention of stirring up trouble, but because it was the right thing to do.
    If ballot initiative I-185 passes, it will mean an additional $2 per pack tax on cigarettes, and a tax on other tobacco products. It would also levy a tax on electronic cigarettes, which are currently not taxed in Montana.
    Nancy Ballance, a Republican representative in the Montana state legislature opposes the measure.
    “In general, I am not in favor of what we like to refer to as ‘sin taxes,’ ” Ballance says. “Those are taxes that someone determines should be [levied] so that you change people’s behavior.”

  • Targeting quit strategies

    Targeting quit strategies

    Tobacco control efforts targeted for those with mental health problems are urgently needed to increase quit rates for this group of smokers and to lower the prevalence of smoking overall, according to a story at medicalxpress.com quoting Renee Goodwin, PhD, Department of Epidemiology, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health (CMSPH).
    Although increasing numbers of US smokers are quitting cigarettes, those with serious psychological distress are much less likely to do so.
    A new study by scientists at the CMSPH and The City University of New York found that individuals with mental health problems quit cigarettes at half the rate of those without psychological distress. The findings are published in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research.
    “Overall, tobacco cessation programs have been very successful, but our research suggests that people with mental health problems have not benefited from these,” said Goodwin, the senior author of the report.
    “It is increasingly clear that tobacco control efforts targeted for those with mental health problems are urgently needed to increase quit rates for this group of smokers and to lower the prevalence of smoking overall.”

  • Smoking more in Canada

    Smoking more in Canada

    New Health Canada figures show that Canadians over 25 years of age smoked more tobacco and cannabis last year than they did two years previously, according to a Canada Press story published at ottawamatters.com.
    Health Canada tracks trends in tobacco, alcohol and drug use among Canadians 15 years of age and older to help develop policies and programs.
    The prevalence of cigarette smoking among those over 25 was 16 percent in 2017, up from 13 percent two years earlier.
    And 13 percent of people aged 25 or older reported having used cannabis during the last year, up from 10 percent in 2015.
    The federal survey results showed little or no change in consumption habits of those in the 15-to-24-year-old age bracket, and little change in the percentage of Canadians who’d used opioids: 12 percent, down from 13 percent in 2015.
    The figures came days after the federal government legalized recreational marijuana use for those aged 18 or 19 and older, depending on the province.
    The government aims to drive the overall tobacco-smoking rate in Canada to less than five percent by 2035.
    The latest survey was conducted from February to December last year through telephone interviews with 16,349 respondents in all 10 provinces.
    The survey found also that 15 percent of Canadians aged 15 and older had ever tried an e-cigarette in 2017, up from 13 percent in 2015. However, past-30-day use of e-cigarettes was unchanged from 2015, at three percent.

  • Smoke-hos banned

    Smoke-hos banned

    Employees of a Scottish council have been banned from tobacco smoking during the working day, according to a story in The Scotsman.
    Dundee City Council said its revised smoking policy would encourage staff to quit and reduce the number of adult ‘role models’ seen with cigarettes in public.
    However, The Scotsman said it was unclear how the policy would work in practice given the council had been unable to answer questions about what would constitute a breach of the rules.
    And the trade union, Unison, which represents council staff, said it had not agreed to the policy.
    A Dundee City Council spokeswoman said the council had revised its smoking policy because it was working to protect the health of employees and promote positive health messages across the wider community, in line with an agreed Our People Strategy and health and wellbeing framework.
    A key part of that approach involves discouraging children and young people from taking up smoking. “One way to assist that is to reduce the number of adult ‘role models’ who can be seen smoking,” she was quoted as saying.
    The council said the policy mirrored recent changes brought into effect by other councils and by NHS [National Health Service] Tayside.
    It said there had been ‘detailed discussion’ with trade unions.
    But a spokesman for Unison said it had not been consulted fully.
    “There are clear aspects of this policy we could not agree to,” he said.
    “We are usually very supportive of anti-smoking policies. However, people who do smoke need to be able to take breaks and get support from their employer to help them give up.”

  • FDA to hold e-cig meeting

    FDA to hold e-cig meeting

    The US Food and Drug Administration is planning to hold a ‘public hearing’ on December 5 because it believes that a rising number of young people are becoming addicted to vaping.
    A note issued through the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products said that, on November 2, the FDA commissioner, Scott Gottlieb, M.D., had issued a statement on the agency’s ‘concern with rising numbers of youth becoming addicted to e-cigarettes and the current lack of adequate research or approved treatments to help kids quit using e-cigarettes or other tobacco products’.
    ‘To help address these issues, the agency will hold a public hearing at the FDA White Oak Campus on December 5 to hear public perspectives on the available scientific evidence related to drug therapies for e-cigarette cessation as it relates to youth users and how the FDA may support further research in this area’.
    ‘Individuals interested in presenting at the hearing must register by November 23, 2018. Those interested in attending the hearing in person or watching the free, live webcast must register by December 3, 2018.
    ‘Regardless of attendance at the public hearing, interested parties may also submit a public comment to docket FDA-2018-N-3952 starting Monday, November 5, 2018, through January 2, 2019.
    ‘Further information, including instructions for presenters, is included in the Federal Register notice.’

  • Working on discrimination

    Working on discrimination

    A request by a health organization in Japan that its job openings in nursing and related occupations were specified as being limited to non-smokers has been declined by a local public employment agency after it deemed smoking ‘a matter of personal choice,’ according to a Mainichi Daily News story. The original, Japanese-language story was written by Yoshihiko Saito.
    The Chiba Foundation for Health Promotion & Disease Prevention, which is based in Chiba Prefecture’s Mihama Ward, east of Tokyo, expressed disappointment at the job center’s refusal because, it said, the request ‘was for the promotion of health’.
    Meanwhile, the Hello Work employment office countered that ‘individuals should be selected based on their skills and competency’.
    The foundation, which conducts medical examinations, has made public on its website since last year its policy of limiting job opportunities to non-smokers as part of its efforts to curb smoking.
    However, an official at the employment office said that smoking was a personal choice and that it was not possible publicly to announce such requirements.
    The official said the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare sought a “fair selection process” based on individuals’ skills and competency.
    “We wanted to open the door to as many applicants as possible,” the official said.
    Professor Hiroshi Yamato at the University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan, who studies measures to prevent smoking, said the employment office had made a mistake in its decision. “Patients face the possibility of suffering from second-hand smoke if people who smoke are hired,” said Yamato. “It’s essential for such health industries to hire only non-smokers.”
    But economist Takuro Morinaga, a regular smoker, said that the job center had acted appropriately. “Just as it’s wrong to discriminate against people because of their origin, it’s also not right to exclude individuals because they smoke,” Morinaga said.
    Meanwhile, the employment security section of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said that requiring non-smokers for certain jobs ‘cannot categorically be considered discrimination, if there are rational reasons behind such moves’.
    At Public Employment Security Offices across Japan, there had been at least 20 job postings for nurses, restaurant workers, and other occupations that specifically required non-smokers.