A bill that would toughen anti-smoking legislation in South Africa has been submitted to parliament, according to a story by Nomvelo Chalumbira for Reuters, quoting a health ministry spokesman.
The Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill would restrict smoking in public places, require standardized tobacco packaging, ban point-of-sale advertising and displays, and scrap the sale of single cigarettes.
Health ministry spokesman Popo Maja was said to have told Reuters that the bill, submitted to parliament for review last week, sought to comply with standards set by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which South Africa signed in 2005.
“Everything has been taken into consideration,” he was quoted as saying. “What WHO and our country are saying is that it is important for us to make sure that we have a healthy workforce.”
As with previous changes to tobacco legislation in South Africa the bill is facing a backlash from businesses who may suffer from tougher smoking rules. Japan Tobacco International (JTI) was said to have paid for a radio advert aired this month that encouraged the public to protest against the proposals, which were published by the Department of Health in May. “What if your loved one got put in jail because they smoke? It is just one step of the bill controlling your lifestyle choices. Join us in saying #HandOffMyChoices,” said the JTI-funded radio advert broadcast by 702 Talk Radio.
JTI was said not to have respond to several requests for comment about the advert and the #HandOffMyChoices campaign.
The Tobacco Alcohol and Gambling Advisory Advocacy and Action Group (TAG), which campaigns for tobacco control, has said it will make a complaint to regulators about the radio advert, which it believes breaches laws on tobacco advertising.
Category: People
Tougher smoking bill
Weight-gain secondary
Writing for HealthDay News, Dennis Thompson said yesterday there was good news and bad news for smokers who worried about packing on extra pounds when they tried to quit.
According to a new study, quitters who gained a lot of weight faced a higher short-term risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
But the health benefits of quitting were so potent among the former smokers who took part in the study that they all experienced a substantial decrease in their risk of early death, no matter how much weight they gained.
People who gained more than 22 pounds after quitting had a 59 percent increased risk of developing diabetes, according to the report published on August 16 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
But quitters who gained that much weight also experienced a 50 percent decline in their overall risk of early death and a 67 percent drop in their risk of dying from heart disease.
But smokers who kept their weight gain to a minimum while quitting were best off, said senior researcher Dr. Qi Sun, an associate professor of nutrition with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston.
Meanwhile, Dr. Steven Schroeder, director of the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center at the University of California, San Francisco, who wrote an editorial that accompanied the study, said the results showed just how devastating smoking was to a person’s health.
“The damage from smoking is so overwhelming that it just beats everything else,” he said. “Nothing comes close to being so good for your health as stopping smoking.”Tax smokers, not vapers
If the UK Government increased the cost of vaping through the imposition of taxes on electronic cigarettes it would discourage the very thing it was trying to encourage: the switch from smoking to vaping.
This was the essence of a statement by Dan Marchant, director of the Vape Club and board member of the UK Vaping Industry Association, following the publication of stories suggesting that the Government was considering taxing electronic cigarettes as part of its autumn budget.
One aim of the tobacco control plan, Marchant said, was to reduce smoking prevalence among people within the lowest earning brackets. Increasing the cost of the most effective alternative to smoking would not help achieve this goal. In fact, it would do the opposite.
Switching from smoking to vaping provided harm reduction benefits, but another of its attractions was that it offered significant monetary savings. Increasing the cost of vaping would decrease its attractiveness to smokers and have a detrimental effect on encouraging people to move away from tobacco.
The best thing smokers could do for their health, Marchant said, was to quit smoking. However, the evidence was increasingly clear that the use of e-cigarettes was significantly less harmful than was smoking tobacco. The government sought to support consumers in stopping smoking by adopting the use of less harmful nicotine products. At the same time, Public Health England (PHE) had produced guidance for employers and organizations looking to introduce policies on e-cigarettes and vaping in public, and had recommend such policies be evidence-based. PHE recommended that e-cigarette use was not covered by smoke-free legislation and should not routinely be included in the requirements of an organization’s smoke-free policy.
Meanwhile, Marchant said that maintaining high duty rates on tobacco products was a proven and effective means to reduce smoking. As well as providing an incentive to quit for those who smoked, it provided a disincentive for young people to take up smoking.
‘Although national smoking prevalence continues to decline, the picture is not so positive for all groups and communities across England,’ he said. ‘Smoking remains highest among populations who already suffer from poorer health and other disadvantages.
‘In 2015, there were almost three times as many smokers among the lowest earners in our society in comparison to the highest earners. In 2016, the prevalence of smoking among people working in jobs classed as routine and manual was more than double that of people working in managerial and professional occupations. If we are to achieve the first smoke-free generation and break this cycle, we must support those populations where smoking rates remain high to quit.’
Marchant said that rather than taxing vapers, the Government should further increase the ‘sin-tax’ on cigarettes. This would raise more money since there were more than seven million smokers and 2.8 million vapers, half of whom still smoked to some degree. Such a strategy would fit with the Government’s tobacco control-plan guidance.Celebrating tobacco
Duke Homestead, at Durham, North Carolina, US, is scheduled to host two free programs this month focused on the history and culture of tobacco, according to a note issued by the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
An examination of tobacco myths on August 18 and a celebration of harvesting on August 25 are expected to offer ‘a well-rounded picture of raising tobacco in North Carolina’.
The note said that tobacco built and shaped the Durham of today thanks largely to the Duke family that started their manufacturing tobacco business in Durham.
The August 18 program will explore myths and misconceptions about tobacco such as: What makes tobacco bad for you?; and who invented the iconic bright leaf tobacco?
The August 25 program is an annual event that celebrates North Carolina’s farming history and culture.
More information is available at: (919) 477-5498 or DukeHomestead.org.Risk communication vital
Comparative risk communication might encourage smokers to switch to lower-harm tobacco products, according to the results of a study by US researchers at the Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science, School of Public Health, Georgia State University, Atlanta.
The researchers found also that comparative risk messages with more negative anti-smoking elements in the design might be particularly effective, because they led to ‘higher self-efficacy to quit smoking’.
They concluded that regulatory agencies might want to consider using comparative risk messages with more negative anti-smoking elements ‘to educate the public about lower risk of e-cigarettes’.
An abstract of the Tobacco Control study is available on the BMJ Journals website.Smokers to pay the price
In announcing that it had applied to increase the retail prices of its tobacco products, Japan Tobacco Inc. said today that declining sales made it difficult to maintain quality and services with cost reductions alone.
JT said it had applied to the Minister of Finance for approval to ‘amend’ retail prices of tobacco products in Japan in conjunction with a planned tobacco-excise-tax hike on October 1.
JT said it had applied to increase the retail prices of 143 products, including 122 cigarettes, one cigarillo, three pipe tobaccos, three cut tobaccos and 14 snuff tobaccos. Additionally, it said it had applied for seven Ploom TECH product price rises in the tobacco vapor category.
‘The Japanese domestic tobacco market continues to experience decreasing sales volumes due to structural factors including the aging and declining adult population, as well as increasingly stringent smoking restrictions,’ the company said in a note posted on its website. ‘At the same time the cost per pack for providing the same quality and services has been increasing. Under these circumstances, JT had been maintaining the quality and price levels through cost reducing efforts.
‘However, since JT is projecting a further sales volume decline, it is very difficult to maintain the same quality and services with cost reduction initiatives alone. In this context, JT has applied to amend the retail prices of cigarettes, which exceeds the excise tax hike of ¥1.0 per cigarette, considering further increases in costs including materials. Retail price increases will vary among different brands and products, to ensure that the quality of each product will be maintained and that consumer expectations continue to be met.’
JT added that, within the tobacco vapor category, a new tax system would be imposed in stages over a five-year period. JT said it had decided to apply a ¥30 increase to the retail price of Ploom TECH, whose tax was expected to be increased by ¥30.89 a pack.
A table of representative brands presented in the note indicated that the retail price of a pack of Mevius cigarettes would rise by ¥40 to ¥480, while the price of Winston and Hi-Lite would increase by ¥30 to 450, and the price of Hope would go up by ¥20 to ¥250.
‘New retail prices will be effective on October 1, 2018, following the Minister of Finance’s approval,’ JT said.Chinese city to ban smoking
Xi’an, the capital of Northwest China’s Shaanxi province, is set to ban tobacco smoking in all indoor public venues, according to a China Daily story.
The regulation banning smoking, which was announced on Tuesday by the city government, prohibits also smoking in some outdoor public places, such as schools, stadiums and health institutions for pregnant women and children.
Smokers who do not adhere to the regulation will be fined 10 yuan (US$1.50), and venue owners may be fined up to 1,000 yuan.
The regulation is due to take effect on November 1.
Xi’an, home to the Terra-Cotta Warriors, is the latest major Chinese city to ban smoking in all indoor public venues, following in the footsteps of Beijing and Shanghai.
China has set itself the target of reducing its smoking rate among people aged 15 and above from the current 27.7 percent to 20 percent by 2030, according to the Healthy China 2030 blueprint issued in 2016.Tariffs threaten vaping
Proposed tariffs on US imports of vaping products from China could not come at a worse time for the industry, according to a story by Kara Carlson for Reuters.
New levies would increase prices just as the industry was facing slowing growth and a requirement to add new health warnings to packaging.
The Trump administration has threatened 25 percent tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, including vaping devices and parts, in addition to the tariffs on imports worth $50 billion already imposed.
Vaping has surged in popularity in recent years, partly on health grounds and partly because of price.
But the tariffs could increase the price of a vape by about 15 percent, according to industry estimates.
Carlson said that such an increase would be particularly painful for an industry where consumers are highly sensitive to rising prices.
A study in the journal Tobacco Control estimated a 10 percent price increase in e-cigarettes would reduce sales by between 12 percent and 19 percent. The study noted that because many vapers were experimenting, rising prices could curtail future use.Regulating innovation away
Juul Labs Inc., maker of the US’ top-selling electronic cigarette, Juul, is attempting to use Bluetooth technology to limit youth usage of its products, according to a TechBeast story.
However, the strategy is unlikely to be rolled out domestically for years since it would require Juul Labs to complete a daunting Food and Drug Administration regulatory review.
“We are actively evaluating new technologies and features to help keep Juul out of the hands of young people,” the company said in a statement issued on Friday.
And Kevin Burns, the company’s chief executive, told Bloomberg News that “we’re not a lifestyle brand, we’re a functional product. We don’t want the product to seem cool.”Unauthorized risk reduction
Six leading public health and medical organizations yesterday urged the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ‘to stop the sale of new electronic cigarette products that have been illegally introduced in recent months without the agency’s prior review and authorization,’ according to a note posted on the website of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, one of the signatories.
‘These include numerous products similar to the Juul e-cigarettes that have become wildly popular with teens across the United States,’ said the Campaign note.
‘The groups sending a letter to FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb are the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Heart Association, American Lung Association and Truth Initiative. The letter was accompanied by images of the new e-cigarettes.
‘Over the last year, the use of Juul has skyrocketed among youth across the country, as commissioner Gottlieb has acknowledged and reports by news media and educators have documented. It is about to happen again.’
The Campaign then quoted Gottlieb as writing in a blog post last week that the agency had become aware of reports that some companies might be marketing new products that were introduced after the FDA’s compliance period and that have not gone through premarket review. ‘These products are being marketed both in violation of the law and outside of the FDA’s announced compliance policies,’ Gottlieb was quoted as saying. ‘We take these reports very seriously. Companies should know that the FDA is watching and we will take swift action wherever appropriate.’
The Campaign said the FDA had the tools to prevent this from happening. ‘The FDA’s 2016 rule extending its authority to e-cigarettes (called the “deeming rule”) prohibits the introduction of any new product after August 8, 2016, unless the manufacturer files a premarket review application with the FDA and the FDA issues an order authorizing the marketing of the product,’ it said. ‘While the FDA delayed this review requirement until 2022 for e-cigarettes that were already on the market as of August 8, 2016, the premarket review requirement still applies to new or changed products introduced after August 8, 2016, and it is those products that this letter addresses.’
The Campaign complained that, despite this requirement, manufacturers had recently introduced numerous new e-cigarette products without any evidence that they had filed premarket applications or received marketing orders from the FDA. ‘These include products that look like and seek to capitalize on the success of Juul, which is sleek, high-tech and easy to hide (it looks like a USB flash drive), comes in sweet flavors including mango and fruit medley, and delivers a powerful dose of nicotine,’ the Campaign said.
‘Manufacturers that have recently introduced or announced Juul-like products include big tobacco companies Altria (with its MarkTen Elite product), ITG Brands (with myblu) and R.J. Reynolds (with its recently-announced Vuse Alto). Similar products introduced by independent manufacturers include Kandy Pens’ Rubi, MLV’s PHIX and Mylé Vapor’s Mylé.’
In their letter, the health groups complained that manufacturers of e-cigarettes had introduced new products at an ‘alarming pace’ in total defiance of the law, with no apparent concern for FDA enforcement. ‘We urge FDA to take quick and aggressive action to enforce the law before one or more of these products become the next Juul phenomenon among our nation’s youth,’ the letter apparently stated.
Meanwhile, the Campaign said that, in April, the same six organizations had urged the FDA ‘to take action to address Juul’s popularity among youth, including removing from the market Juul flavors such as mango and cool cucumber that appear to have been introduced after August 8, 2016, without FDA review’.
It said that the health groups’ letter made the point that the issue was not whether the FDA had the authority to prevent the introduction and marketing of products that appealed to kids; it was whether the FDA would exercise the authority it clearly possessed.
