Category: Regulation

Australia under e-pressure
A major international study into electronic cigarettes has prompted healthcare professionals to encourage Australian smokers to switch to vaping, according to a story by Troy Nankervis for Triple M radio.
“For those smokers who won’t or can’t quit, the next best thing would be to switch to vaping,” said Hayden McRobbie, professor of public health interventions at Queen Mary University of London, UK.
McRobbie is a co-author of the Cochrane Review into e-cigarettes, which found that using these devices could help people quit smoking but which conceded the evidence was weak due to limited data.
“I think Australia is missing a huge public health opportunity in its opposition to e-cigarettes,” McRobbie said.
“While the long-term risks are not entirely clear, there is broad consensus now that they are much less harmful than tobacco cigarettes.”
And unlike second-hand smoke, second-hand vapor posed no identified health risks to by-standers, he added.
After consulting with McRobbie, the New Zealand Ministry of Health is set to legalize and regulate the sale of nicotine-containing e-cigarettes from mid-2018.
And now, associate professor Colin Mendelsohn of the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of NSW has urged the Australian medical community to follow suit.
“It [is] good to see New Zealand following the scientific evidence and the lead of the UK, where e-cigarettes have now helped over two million smokers quit,” he said.
“The sooner these products are legalized in Australia, the more lives will be saved.”
November 14, 2017
Victim or villain?
A recent Transparency International report questions whether the tobacco industry is a victim or driver of corruption in South America, according to a story by Isabela Fernandez for the International Policy Digest, relayed by the TMA.
The report apparently examines the illegal trade in tobacco products and the lack of a robust and independent track and trace system.
The industry is said to lose almost 17 percent of its sales to the illegal trade each year.
And the illegal trade is expected to increase from its current level of 57 billion sticks annually, which will negatively affect tobacco manufacturers and have a significant impact on the collection of taxes.
The report alleges that the industry hampers regulations that could reduce smuggling and benefit revenue collection for the countries in the region.
Among the concerns raised are that the President of Paraguay is said to own the Cartesa Group, which allegedly produces most of the brands captured from smugglers.
In addition, the newly-appointed Chilean Finance Minister was said previously to have been the ‘president of British America Tobacco’, which had been accused of bribing governments in the past to influence tobacco legislation.
The report concludes that ‘the only way for Latin American countries to break free from the influence of Big Tobacco would be to create a fully independent track and trace system that would provide full transparency over each pack’s journey from factory to store shelf’.
November 14, 2017
Asia’s vapers unite
Vapers and vaping advocates from Asian countries last week gathered in Jakarta, Indonesia, to call on their governments to allow and regulate the use of electronic cigarettes and heat-not-burn (HNB) devices, according to a story by Roderick T. dela Cruz in the Manila Standard.
The 1st Asia Harm Reduction Forum was held at the Shangri-La Hotel, Jakarta, on November 8-9.
Professor Achmad Syawqie Yazid, chief of the Yayasan Pemerhati Kesehatan Publik (Public Health Observer Foundation, YPKP) of Indonesia, which organized the forum, said that almost half of the world’s 1.1 billion smokers lived in Asia, with India and Indonesia having among the biggest populations of smokers globally.
Thousands died each day in these countries due to complications related to smoking, such as heart disease and cancer.
One of the major health problems in Indonesia was caused by its extremely high cigarette consumption. In fact, the smoking rate in Indonesia, where more than 57 million people smoked, was one of the highest in the world.
Despite the best efforts of public health officials in fighting the cigarette smoking epidemic in the region, smoking rates had stopped declining, Yazid says.
“This condition motivates us, public health observers in Asia, to immediately seek for the most efficient solutions to mitigate the risks of burning tobacco,” he said. “Countries in Asia need to take actions.”
Yazid said one of the most efficient solutions was to introduce alternative tobacco products with lower health risks such as nicotine patches, Swedish snus, e-cigarettes and HNB devices.
“In countries that promote the use of electronic cigarettes and heat-not-burn tobacco products such as Japan and the UK, smoking prevalence has been declining at a record speed,” he said.
“In the UK for example, 2.2 million smokers have quit smoking within five years.
“Japan has the world’s fastest decline in cigarette use, since two years ago.
“The US FDA [Food and Drug Administration] just announced this year that its anti-tobacco regulation will be fully geared towards harm reduction while New Zealand Ministry of Health just endorsed this month the use of electronic cigarettes,” said Yazid.
The full story is at: http://thestandard.com.ph/business/biz-plus/251492/asians-seek-less-harmful-alternatives-to-smoking.html.
November 13, 2017
Topless protest
A recent meeting of the Hamptons Health and Safety Board (HHSB) was disrupted when a large group of angry motorists arrived to protest against recently extended restrictions on smoking, according to a story in Dan’s Papers, Southampton, New York, US. The Hamptons police department was called in to keep the meeting from getting out of hand.
At issue for the protestors was a new rule banning smoking in ‘topless’ cars.
“When I initially read about the ban, I thought it must be a misprint – I thought they were probably eliminating smoking in topless bars, not topless cars!” Randy Talbac, head of a local smokers’ rights group, was said to have told the assembled meeting. “And since there aren’t any topless bars that I know of in the area, I wasn’t too upset. But then it turned out it really was about cars – convertibles, that is – and it’s outrageous.”
The ban on smoking in cars with no tops, whether they are convertibles with the roof down or jeep-type vehicles that have no tops, was said to have come about as a measure to cut down on second-hand smoke exposure.
Christopher Escopillo, the co-chair of the HHSB, explained the genesis of the new rule. “We were getting a lot of concerned citizens coming to us, explaining how they would be sitting in Hamptons traffic behind some guy in a sporty convertible, with his top down, puffing on some big, noxious stogie,” he said. “From their point of view, they are forced to inhale unhealthy air for however long they’re stuck behind the guy. So we decided it was up to the HHSB to do something about it.”
Talbac and his supporters were not impressed by this reasoning, and for a while the situation looked like it might turn violent.
In the end, however, cooler heads prevailed, and Talbac vowed to return with a lawyer and fight the new rule in court.
November 13, 2017
Vatican to ban sales
Cigarette sales are due to be banned in the Vatican City State from next year, according to a story by Gaia Pianigiani for the New York Times quoting a Vatican spokesman.
Cigarettes are sold through duty-free shops reserved for employees and citizens of the Vatican City.
According to a 2015 book based on leaked Vatican documents, cardinals are entitled to a discount on up to 200 packs a month. The Vatican said employees could purchase a maximum of 50 packs a month.
Selling discounted tobacco to employees and pensioners without the increasingly stringent taxes imposed in surrounding Italy, has long been a source of revenue for the Vatican City State. And many people in Rome have bought cigarettes through acquaintances at the Vatican.
But it is all coming to an end. “The Holy See cannot contribute to an activity that clearly damages the health of people,” the spokesman, Greg Burke, said in a statement, citing World Health Organization figures that smoking causes seven million deaths a year.
The sales had been profitable for the Vatican, he said, but “no profit can be legitimate if it puts lives at risk”.
November 10, 2017
Uruguay going after packs
The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD) has commended the Uruguayan government for introducing a bill to require all cigarettes to be sold in standardized packaging, according to a IUATLD statement relayed by the TMA.
The standardized packs will be devoid of logos, colors, brand images and promotional information, while the brand and product names will be displayed in a standard color and font.
Current regulations require that graphic health warnings cover 80 percent of the front and back surfaces of cigarette packs.
The statement said that, if the bill is approved, Uruguay would become the seventh nation to require standardized cigarette packaging after Australia, France, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway and the UK. José Luis Castro, executive director of the IUATLD, said Uruguay had become a world leader in tobacco control.
He said the new policy would take the country a step closer to neutralizing the power of tobacco brands and prioritising the health of citizens above the interests of the tobacco industry.
The IUATLD believes that standardized packaging is a powerful public health measure proven to help smokers quit and discourage non-smokers from beginning the habit.
Castro said the bill sought to reduce the product’s appeal by removing tobacco advertisements and promotions, and thereby eliminating the possibility that consumers might be misled into believing that one product was less harmful than another.
It sought also to increase the visibility and effectiveness of graphic health warnings.
November 9, 2017
England to quit by 2040
A new report forecasts that the UK government is on track to meet its smoke-free target for England by about 2040, where smoke-free is defined as a smoking prevalence among adults of five percent or lower.
This forecast is based on a continuation of above-inflation excise increases and known regulatory interventions.
The report, Working towards a smoke-free England, was prepared for Philip Morris Ltd by Frontier Economics.
Frontier forecast, too, that if smoking continued to decline at the same rate after 2040, it would be eliminated by about 2051.
‘Smoking is in long-run decline, but since 2012 it has declined at more than twice the rate seen between 1993 and 2011,’ Frontier said in a note posted on its website. ‘Smokers switching to e-cigarettes appear to have made a material contribution to that recent trend.
‘We anticipate that the faster decline in smoking since 2012 will not continue indefinitely. In part this is because the growth of e-cigarettes is now slowing. Data from ASH indicates that there were only 100,000 new vapers in 2017, compared with 800,000 in 2014.
‘The government’s target of reducing smoking to below five percent could be met as soon as 2029 if the faster rate of decline since 2012 were maintained. If that trend continued further, smoking would be eliminated in England by 2035.
‘Meeting this target by 2029 would require an additional 2.5 million smokers to quit over and above those we already expect to quit in our central forecast. This is equivalent to around 210,000 extra quitters each year.
‘This would require significant changes, such as:
- A rapid increase in the number of smokers switching to smoke-free alternatives, including e-cigarettes; and/or
- Reversing the decline in smokers quitting through NHS Stop Smoking services, which decreased to 40,000 in 2016 from a peak of 100,000 in 2011; and/or
- Finding other new and effective ways to persuade smokers to quit.’
The report is at: http://www.frontier-economics.com/documents/2017/11/frontier-report_working-towards-smoke-free-england_nov-2017.pdf
November 9, 2017
FDA calls iQOS meeting
The US Food and Drug Administration has published a Federal Register notice announcing a meeting of the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC) to discuss modified risk tobacco product (MRTP) applications submitted by Philip Morris Products (PMP).
The meeting, which is scheduled for January 24-25 at the FDA’s White Oak campus, was the subject of a Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) press note.
The committee is due to discuss scientific issues related to the MRTP applications submitted by PMP for its iQOS system and several Marlboro HeatSticks products, which are currently under scientific review by the FDA.
Requests for the presentation of oral comments at the TPSAC meeting have to be submitted by December 27.
Written comments have to be submitted by January 4.
More information is available at: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/11/09/2017-24379/tobacco-products-scientific-advisory-committee-notice-of-meeting
November 9, 2017
Health as a broader church
A leading libertarian writer is due to address a dinner in Brussels next week on the subject: ‘Is health the new religion?’.
Hosted by the smokers’ group Forest EU on November 14, the event will ask the following questions:
- Should people be nudged or forced to change their lifestyle in their own best interests and that of the nation, or should they be left alone?
- What role does government and business have to play in improving our health?
- Are current regulations on legal but potentially unhealthy consumer products justified, and should they go further?
Guest speaker Claire Fox is director of the London-based Institute of Ideas and a regular panelist on BBC Radio 4’s The Moral Maze. She convenes the annual Battle of Ideas festival and is author of a recent book on free speech, I Find That Offensive.
Speaking ahead of the event, Claire Fox said it could sometimes feel as though a new secular religious fervor had taken hold in terms of an obsessive public health agenda.
“Behavior modification may have changed its form but guilt-inducing campaigns against smoking, drinking and so-called junk food are pursued with missionary zeal, suggesting that health paternalism is the new religion.
“Sadly this new shift lacks any chance of redemption as it relentlessly pursues evidence-lite policies that too often treat adults as hapless children who need saving from themselves.
“The nanny state invades even the most intimate aspects of how people live their lives, from what they feed their kids to how they spend their leisure time.”
Meanwhile, Guillaume Périgois, spokesman for Forest EU, said there was a rigid evangelism about the public health lobby that was moving swiftly from tobacco control to other areas, notably food and drink.
“People who allegedly abuse their bodies by smoking, drinking or eating the ‘wrong’ type of food are increasingly characterised as sinners compared to those who keep fit, eat healthily and don’t smoke or drink.
“Many people are concerned at the extent to which government is trying to dictate how we live our lives.”
It was time for a proper debate on an issue that had serious repercussions for individual freedom, he added.
November 8, 2017
Packaging challenge fails
Swedish Match has lost a court case it filed against Norway’s government over recently-imposed restrictions on the packaging of snus, according to a Reuters story.
The company had asked for a temporary injunction against regulations that the government imposed to standardize tobacco-product packaging.
The government argued that the new rules on packaging had been drawn up in the interests of public health.
November 7, 2017