A story in Reason magazine makes the point that a yearning for bad news on vaping has rendered some opponents incapable of accepting official figures that show that what they see as an epidemic among young people is nothing of the sort.
Jacob Sullum, a senior editor at Reason magazine, said that, last week, voters in San Francisco had overwhelmingly approved a ban on the sale of “flavored tobacco products”, including electronic cigarettes, in part because of the rising popularity of e-cigarettes among teenagers.
Supporters of this and other, similar measures who said they wanted to protect teenagers from the temptations of vaping gave no weight to the interests of adult smokers who used e-cigarettes to quit, a process in which flavor variety played an important role.
In any case, three days after the San Francisco vote, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had published survey data showing that in 2017 vaping declined among middle school students and remained steady among high school students after falling in 2016.
‘E-cigarette alarmists were so flummoxed by reality’s failure to fit their narrative that they insisted the survey must be wrong,’ Sullum wrote.
Later in his piece, Sullum said that critics viewed sweet flavors as inherently suspect. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) had argued that the FDA should not tolerate e-cigarettes that tasted good and that it should take faster action to rid the marketplace of kid-friendly e-cig flavors. The FDA had begun to move on this epidemic but its actions were slower-moving than was the wildfire spread of e-cigarette use among kids.
‘Never mind that “the wildfire spread of e-cig use among kids” perceived by Schumer coincides with what the CDC says is a decline in e-cig use among kids,’ said Sullum. ‘The more fundamental problem is that Schumer seems incapable of conceiving that “kid-friendly e-cig flavors” also appeal to adults, which makes vaping more attractive as a harm-reducing alternative to smoking. The implication is that banning those flavors could be deadly to smokers who would otherwise switch. Anyone who ignores that prospect is only pretending to care about public health.’
Category: People
Panic stalks the land
Support for leaf export levy
Some anti-tobacco campaigners and economists in Bangladesh have said that the withdrawal of a 25 percent customs duty on leaf-tobacco exports would encourage growers to cultivate more tobacco, despite the health and environmental hazards the crop poses, according to a story in The Dhaka Tribune.
In his recent budget speech, Finance Minister A.M.A. Muhith said he had proposed the withdrawal of the customs duty in order ‘to reduce domestic consumption by encouraging exports’.
However, anti-tobacco campaigners and economists condemned the move, expressing fears that farmers would put more focus on tobacco cultivation and eschew other crops if the customs duty were removed.
“When Bangladesh is supposed to be reducing the production of tobacco, it is giving incentives to increase production by withdrawing duties on exports instead,” Dr. M Asaduzzaman, distinguished fellow of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, reportedly told the Tribune.
If the customs duty were withdrawn, farmers would get better prices and would be encouraged to cultivate more tobacco while shifting away from other crops, he added.
The economist said also that if the government wanted to reduce domestic tobacco consumption, it needed to take stricter measures than incentivizing exports.
Meanwhile, A.B.M. Zubair, executive director of the anti-tobacco NGO, Progga, said Bangladesh’s food security would come under threat if the duty were removed, not only because farmers might shift away from food crops, but also because tobacco cultivation had a negative impact on the fertility of the soil and the environment.
The Tribune reported that, according to a report by the World Health Organization titled Tobacco and its environmental impact: an overview, tobacco cultivation is associated with land degradation or desertification in the form of soil erosion, reduced soil fertility and productivity, and the disruption of water cycles.
The report said that cultivation and curing of tobacco were both direct causes of deforestation, because forests were cleared for tobacco plantations and wood was burned to cure the leaves.
Moreover, chemicals used to control a weed commonly found in the tobacco fields of Bangladesh were found to have been polluting aquatic environments and destroying fish supplies, as well as soil organisms needed to maintain soil health.
Farming communities were exposed to health risks caused by the chemical pollution of their environment because tobacco growers used abnormal fertilizers and chemicals to attain higher yields.Prices increased marginally
The average price paid to Zimbabwe’s growers for this season’s flue-cured tobacco was, after 52 days of sales, up by less than one percent on that of the previous season, according to a story in the Zimbabwe Herald citing figures from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB).
The full-season average price paid to Zimbabwe’s growers has not increased in 20 years.
At the 52-day mark, 177.8 million kg of flue-cured had been sold for US$515.1 million.
By the same point of last season’s sales, 145.8 million kg had been sold for US$420.6 million.
So the apparent average price so far this season is US$2.90 per kg, up US$0.02 per kg, or about 0.7 percent (the story had the percentage increase at 0.45 percent) on that of the previous season, US$2.88.
So far this season, 151.0 million kg of flue-cured has been sold under the contract system for US$440.4 million, for an apparent average of US$2.92 per kg (the story had the average as US$2.90 per kg, possibly because of rounding).
At the same time, 26.7 million kg of flue-cured has been sold at auction for US$74.7 million, for an apparent average of US$2.80 per kg (US$2.79 per kg).Price increase in Japan
Philip Morris Japan said yesterday that it would increase the prices of all 86 cigarette products it sells in the country on October 1, on which date tobacco tax is due to rise by ¥1 per cigarette, according to a story in The Japan Times.
The company said it would increase the price of packs of 10 cigarettes by ¥20 and that of packs of 20 cigarettes by ¥50.
For its flagship Marlboro brand, the price of most packs of 20 will be increased to ¥520 from the current ¥470.
The price increases are subject to approval from the Finance Ministry.
The decision to raise cigarette prices above that required by the tax increase had been made after a comprehensive assessment of the market environment, the company said.
The company is considering also a price revision for its iQOS heat-not-burn tobacco products in line with the tax increase.E-liquids – the reality
The effectiveness of Australia’s vaping laws is being thrown into question with data showing illicit nicotine is making its way into retail stores, according to a story by Flint Duxfield for mobile.abc.net.au.
Data from the New South Wales Department of Health suggests people could be unwittingly buying e-liquids containing nicotine, even though it is illegal to sell such liquids in Australia.
In testing conducted since 2015, the Department found that 63 percent of e-liquids labeled as nicotine-free contained nicotine.
The Department was unable to provide a breakdown of the concentrations of the nicotine, but of the testing it conducted of all e-liquids, about half contained between 3 mg/ml and 20 mg/ml. [20 mg/ml is the maximum strength allowed under the EU’s Tobacco Products Directive]
While it is legal to buy liquid nicotine from overseas for personal use in all states except Queensland, the sale of e-liquids containing nicotine is illegal across Australia.
However, official figures show that NSW retailers stock nicotine-containing e-liquids.
From November 2015 to April 2018, NSW health inspectors visited 227 retailers selling e-liquids. More than 40 per cent of those retailers were found to be selling products that contained nicotine.
Of the other state health departments contacted, Western Australia’s agreed that e-liquid labeling was an issue but could not provide any details.Smoking revisited
In the last few decades, the lung cancer rate in China has risen sharply, but the culprit is not smoking; it’s pollution.
This is according to a piece by Robert Hoffman posted on the American Thinker website.
‘The war on tobacco, breathlessly waged by liberals and others who yearn to command everyone and everything, is based on the hysteria that smoking and being around the reprobates who smoke, as the surgeon general has declared, kill us,’ he said. ‘That countless other things do is dismissed as a distraction, not germane to the clear scientific facts.
‘A look at the clear scientific facts actually conveys quite a different conclusion.
‘According to nearly all the studies done, as opposed to the mere assertions, about 10 percent of lifelong cigarette-smokers contract any stripe of cancer. Those who consume three or more packs a day have a three-to-four-percent higher rate of lung cancer than the non-smoking population.
‘And among that non-smoking population, 10 to 15 percent are likely to get cancer of anything. ‘Thus, it would appear that in the absence of post hoc ergo propter hoc, you are more likely to be felled by cancer if you don’t smoke.’
Hoffman goes on to say that during the past few decades, the lung cancer rate in China has risen sharply, but that the culprit is not smoking.
The culprit is, he says, pollution, and the rate is considerably higher in the country’s smog-ridden cities.Profiting from child labor
The International Labour Organization (ILO) must prioritize protecting children over continuing to accept funding from the tobacco industry, which exploits farmers and their children while producing products that kill, according to a piece by Mary Assunta of the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance posted on the British Medical Association’s Tobacco Control Blog.
Such action could be postponed no longer, she said.
Today is World Day Against Child Labour, and Assunta dedicated her piece to the ‘millions of children trapped in child labour’. ‘It is a reminder that in the 21st century we have failed our children miserably, otherwise there would not be 152 million children working, many full-time,’ she said.
Assunta said that transnational tobacco companies (TTC) and international leaf traders profited from cheap leaves produced in low-income countries using child labour.
And while about US$15.4 million in industry funding had been given to the ILO, ostensibly to address child labour in six tobacco growing countries, these programs – part of the TTC’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs – did little to solve the deeply-entrenched problems farmers faced, which were linked to the industry itself.
The World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) called on Parties to ban such tobacco related CSR activities, and the ILO remained the only UN agency still collaborating with the tobacco industry.
‘Tobacco industry sponsored programs do little to curb child labour in tobacco farms because they do not improve the tobacco industry-driven cycle of poverty for tobacco farmers, such as low leaf prices and unfair contracts, that forces children into the fields,’ Assunta said.BAT investing in glo
British American Tobacco said yesterday that it would invest €800 million during the next five years in its factory in Ploiești, Romania.
‘The investment, which will generate 200 new jobs in Romania, will support the expansion of BAT’s innovative tobacco heating product – glo – in countries across Europe during the second half of 2018,’ the company said in a press note posted on its website.
‘A completely new manufacturing hall will be built dedicated to producing the specially designed tobacco sticks – called Neostiks – which work with the glo tobacco heating device. In total, an additional 7,000 square metres of production space will be created and, once completed, the Romanian production plant will be the sole supplier of glo Neostiks across Europe, as BAT continues its ambition to transform the tobacco industry with a range of potentially reduced-risk alternatives for smokers.’
The investment will enhance also the cigarette-making capabilities within the factory.
“We have a long-held ambition to offer smokers a range of potentially reduced-risk products – like tobacco heating devices, e-cigarettes and oral tobacco,” Tadeu Marroco, regional director – Europe and North Africa, was quoted as saying. “This ambition has seen us launch vaping products and tobacco heating devices in 16 countries in the last five years and we’ve bold plans to increase our geographical footprint in the second half of 2018. The significant investment in our factory in Romania is testament to our commitment to offer smokers a wider range of tobacco and nicotine products – with a particular focus on potentially reduced-risk alternatives to smoking – in an increasing amount of countries.”
The factory will supply Neostiks also for the Romanian market following the launch of glo there in December. In the six months since its launch, first in Bucharest and then in 17 other major cities around Romania, almost 25,000 consumers are said to have bought glo and tens of millions of Neostiks have been sold.
In 2017 BAT said, its revenues outside of the US from e-cigarettes and tobacco heating products quadrupled to £397 million. On a full year basis including Reynolds American’s contribution, this would have been more than £500 million.
And the company aims to generate more than £1 billion revenue from NGPs by the end of 2018 and to more than £5 billion by 2022.Saving lives
A leading US public health expert has criticized two researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health for denying that smoking is known to be more hazardous than is vaping.
According to Dr. Michael Siegel (pictured), a Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, the researchers made the denial in an article published in the Summer 2018 issue of the Hopkins Bloomberg Public Health Magazine. Dr. Ana Maria Rule, an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, was said to have argued that: ‘Even if vaping proves safer than smoking, that’s still a long way from a gold stamp for their safety’.
And Dr. Joanna Cohen, a professor and director of the Institute for Global Tobacco Control, was quoted as stating: ‘They are likely safer than continuing to smoke combustible cigarettes, but without the long-term studies, we just don’t know’.
Writing on his blog, The Rest of the Story, Siegel said that the problem with this denialism was not merely that it spread misinformation. ‘The problem is that this is exactly the kind of false propaganda that is deterring many smokers from trying to quit smoking using vaping products and is causing some ex-smokers to return to smoking,’ he said.
‘Whether they realize it or not, this is precisely the effect statements like those being made by these Johns Hopkins researchers are having on the public. In fact, several national surveys have demonstrated that the public is largely misinformed about the relative hazards of smoking vs. vaping. And it is this misperception that has stunted what otherwise could have been a much more substantial shift from smoking to vaping in this country. In other words, this isn’t just a question of misleading the public. It’s a question of saving lives, or failing to do so.
‘Hopefully, these researchers will publish a correction or retraction of these claims so that we can begin the process of restoring some semblance of a science base in the field of tobacco control.’'Clarification' sought
A statement made last week by the Korean Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) could mislead millions of people into thinking that the use of heated tobacco products is as harmful as smoking cigarettes, according to Philip Morris International.
‘There is compelling scientific evidence, including KFDA’s own findings, that heated tobacco products generate an aerosol that is completely different from cigarette smoke, and that they are a better choice than cigarettes, a PMI press note said.
‘And yet, with their June 7 statement, the agency could be risking the health of millions of Koreans who use tobacco products. These are the very people they are charged with protecting.
‘Those who are still smoking may be discouraged from switching, and those who have switched may turn back to cigarette smoking.’
PMI said that everybody agreed that smoking was harmful. Now, it said, there was a much better alternative, made possible by technology and science, for the millions of Koreans who would put themselves at the greatest risk of serious health consequences if they continued to smoke cigarettes.
‘Rather than focusing on the significant reductions in harmful chemicals compared to cigarette smoke that the agency’s own science shows, KFDA points to “tar” measurements to judge the relative risk of tobacco products,’ the note said.
‘However, the World Health Organization (WHO) – an objective and respected group with the public good as its goal – has been crystal clear on this matter: “Tar need not be measured, as it is not a sound basis for regulation, and the levels can be misleading”. Exactly. The concept of “Tar” applies to cigarette smoke, which is not the same as the aerosol from heated tobacco products – a fact that has been confirmed by numerous studies.
‘Scientific evidence shows that switching to heated tobacco products, while not risk-free, is a much better choice than continuing to smoke. ‘Koreans who use tobacco products, and those around them, deserve truthful information based on 21st-century science – not political agendas. Measuring “tar” is yesterday’s approach misapplied to today’s innovative products.
‘For the benefit of the people of Korea, we believe KFDA should consider issuing a clarification.’
