Category: Regulation

India’s auctions opened
The Indian government has said that global companies will no longer have to depend on a local partner or agent to buy leaf tobacco from the country’s farmers, according to a story in the Business Standard relayed by the TMA.
The story suggested that allowing global players to participate directly in flue-cured tobacco auctions would increase competition and help improve farmer prices.
Global buyers were said to buy 70 percent of the country’s flue-cured tobacco, while the remainder was bought by local cigarette manufactures.
In 2016, the country’s exports of flue-cured tobacco amounted to 230 million kg and were worth Rs59.5 billion (US$921.1 million).
But exports declined by four percent this year, primarily due a decline in production, according to R Subba Rao Chowdary, a Tobacco Board official responsible for marketing and exports.
May 24, 2017
Ventilation in a hole
An article in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute has suggested that the US Food and Drug Administration should consider regulating cigarette filter ventilation, up to and including a ban.
It further suggests a research agenda to support such an effort.
A short background to the article says that Filter ventilation was adopted in the mid-1960s and was initially equated with making cigarettes safer. But since then, lung adenocarcinoma rates had paradoxically increased relative to other lung cancer subtypes.
Filter ventilation is said to alter tobacco consumption in such a way as to increase smoke toxicants. It is said to allow for elasticity of use so that smokers inhale more smoke to maintain their nicotine intake. And it is said to cause a false perception of lower health risk from ‘lighter’ smoke.
Little of this seems particularly new. The problems caused by changes in smoking behavior with the advent of low-delivery cigarettes were identified long ago, though the emphasis on filter ventilation is more recent.
The background says that the 2014 Surgeon General’s Report on smoking and health concluded that changing cigarette designs had caused an increase in lung adenocarcinomas, implicating cigarette filter ventilation that lowers smoking machine tar yields.
The lead author of a recent study has said that research data suggests a clear relationship between the addition of ventilation holes to cigarettes and increasing rates of lung adenocarcinoma seen over the past 20 years.
The study, by researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, and five other universities/cancer centers, was the subject of a story in EurekAlert! relayed by the TMA.
The lead author, Professor Peter Shields said that what was especially concerning was that these ventilation holes were still added to virtually all cigarettes smoked today.
Shields said the FDA had a public health obligation to take immediate regulatory action to eliminate the use of ventilation holes on cigarettes.
He said it was a complicated process to enact such regulations, but that there was more than enough data to start the process.
“Such an action would drive down the use and toxicity of conventional cigarettes, and drive smokers to either quit or use less harmful products,” he said.
May 23, 2017
Smokers work around TPD
According to the UK’s Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association (TMA), new research has shown that even before major changes to the UK tobacco market were due to come into full effect on May 20, people were increasing their purchases of cheap, black market tobacco products.
‘In a series of questions put to consumers over the last five months as the new measures were being phased in, the … TMA has tracked the impact of these regulations on smoker behaviour and found a growth in people buying from non-UK duty paid sources,’ the TMA said.
The key findings of the TMA’s research were:
- A 14.5 percent increase in smokers buying packs of 20 cigarettes from illicit sources and abroad during the past five months;
- A 91.7 percent increase in smokers buying larger packs of hand-rolling tobacco from illicit sources and abroad;
- A 31.6 percent increase in smokers buying online from social media and websites advertising cheap illicit tobacco;
- A 22.1 percent increase in smokers buying any tobacco product from abroad, thereby avoiding UK duty.
The survey found, too, that the average price paid for a pack of 20 cigarettes from an illicit supplier was £5.96 – £1.39 less than the £7.35 that the government has used to set the minimum excise tax on a pack of 20 cigarettes.
“It is clear from this research that plain packaging and the small packs ban, measures imposed by Europe and adopted by the UK government, are already having an impact on smokers’ behaviour as they seek out cheaper alternatives from the black market and abroad,” said Giles Roca, director general of the TMA, commenting on the findings. “It’s no surprise that our research points to a rise in the illicit market – this is exactly what happened in Australia when plain packaging was introduced in 2012.
“On banning small packs, which are particularly popular in the UK, independent research confirmed that such a move will cost the treasury £2.1 billion in the first year, costing 11,190 jobs whilst even those in public health agree that it will lead to people smoking more, not less, tobacco.
“On plain packaging, a recent major independent review of 51 studies found no evidence that it acted to prevent youth-uptake – the chief justification why the measure was introduced in the UK. Whilst figures from France, that introduced plain packaging in January 2017, show cigarette consumption actually increased compared to last year when branding was allowed. In March alone the French bought four million packets of cigarettes, over four percent more than during the same period last year.
“These measures were introduced [in the UK] not based on evidence or hard fact but on the dogma of various health lobby groups. Given these measures originated in Brussels, the government should commit to review each and every one of them following Brexit.”
May 23, 2017
UK urged to go own way
New EU regulations governing vaping products sold in the UK are ‘stringent and ill-conceived, and should be reviewed and overhauled as part of the Brexit process for the good of the country’s public health’, according to the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA).
To ensure that the UK realised the massive potential health benefit of vaping for those seeking to stop or reduce smoking, and to save the government billions of pounds in National Health Service (NHS) costs, there was a need for an overhaul of Article 20 of the EU’s Tobacco Products Directive, which come into force on May 20.
The UKVIA said that while it welcomed those aspects of the new EU regulations that provided certainty and clarity on quality and safety issues pertaining to vaping products, the provision of product information and the testing of products and their vapor emissions, it was questioning what it termed ‘the level of ill-conceived restrictions on nicotine strengths and e-liquid bottle sizes and advertising bans akin to those for cigarettes’.
The association said it believed such ill-conceived regulation would impact the continuing growth of the vaping market, which was today worth more than half a billion pounds in consumer purchases – purchases that reflected the enormous demand from smokers for less harmful alternatives to smoking.
‘Vaping is currently enjoyed by some three million smokers in the UK, over half of whom now describe themselves as “former smokers”,’ a UKVIA press note said. ‘Based on the NHS’s valuation of £74,000 for every smoker that stops smoking, a total saving of £111 billion for the nation’s coffers is already being realised.’
Charles Hamshaw-Thomas, a UKVIA board member (pictured), was quoted as saying that a huge potential public health prize could be lost if the UK government didn’t act swiftly. “We are very concerned about several of the new EU regulations which pay lip service to the potentially seismic public health opportunity which is widely recognised as being on offer,” he said. “Excessive restrictions, almost identical to those for tobacco products, make no sense if all smokers and the wider public are to be made aware that vaping is much more healthier than smoking.
“There is huge demand from smokers for less harmful alternatives to cigarettes. In August 2015, Public Health England reported that vaping is likely to be at least 95 percent less harmful than smoking; and since then a growing consensus has emerged in the public health community that vaping products are life changers. It’s critical therefore that the government, in the world of Brexit, ensures that the UK’s regulatory base and framework for vaping and reduced-risk nicotine products is fit for purpose and that the industry is incentivised to develop and promote new and ever better products so that a smoke free world becomes a reality.
“We are calling for Article 20 to be overhauled at the earliest possible opportunity in the Brexit process.”
Meanwhile health behaviourist, Peter Hajek, Professor of Clinical Psychology at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, said that vaping would now be regulated much more strictly than conventional cigarettes were regulated. This would make it fiddly, less helpful for dependent smokers and more expensive. And it would discourage further product improvements. There was no logical justification for any of these measures.
“In a nutshell, the EU TPD protects cigarettes from their much less risky competitor and will be damaging to public health,” he said. “If there is any leeway to ignore or scrap this part of the Directive, now or in the future, it should be taken.”
The UKVIA press note said that many stop smoking services across the UK were beginning to declare themselves as ‘vape friendly’, by advocating vaping products as a quitting aid. But many feared the new rules would act as a barrier.
“We are concerned that aspects of the Tobacco Products Directive work against helping people stop smoking, by making life for vapers more difficult – sub-optimal strength nicotine, small bottles, small tanks – and by preventing positive messages being shared among those who have been frightened off vaping by a hostile propaganda war,” said Louise Ross, Stop Smoking Service Manager in Leicester.
May 22, 2017
New rules needed
The decision by New Zealand’s Ministry of Health to take action against Philip Morris New Zealand (PMNZ) over the sale of its smoke-free heated tobacco product demonstrated the urgent need for comprehensive reform so that smokers could switch from cigarettes to smoke-free alternatives including heated tobacco products, according to a PM press release published by scoop.co.nz.
The Ministry of Health has filed a complaint in the Wellington District Court against PMNZ over the importation and sale of the company’s Heets tobacco sticks, which are the consumable part of its IQOS heat-not-burn product, according to a stuff.co.nz story relayed by the TMA. The ministry considers Heets to comprise tobacco products designed for oral use other than for smoking, which are prohibited under the Smoke-Free Environments Act 1990. A hearing in the case has been set for June 2.
The general manager of PMNZ Jason Erickson said the company had firmly believed it would be helping to advance the government’s goal of securing a smoke free New Zealand when it introduced its smoke-free product IQOS to New Zealand last year.
PMNZ launched the IQOS device and Heets tobacco sticks in New Zealand in December 2016 as part of the company’s stated global commitment to replacing conventional cigarettes with smoke-free alternatives.
Erickson said the company was confident that the sale of IQOS and Heets fully complied with the Smoke-Free Environments Act (1990) and other relevant legislation in New Zealand.
“The section of the law referenced by the ministry in its action against Philip Morris was originally put in place in the 1990s to address American-style chewing tobacco,” Erickson said.
“We stand behind IQOS and Heets. But it’s clear that old 20th century laws are not sufficient to address new 21st century technologies that New Zealand smokers are embracing as they move away from combustible cigarettes.”
The New Zealand Government announced in March that it would legalise the sale and supply of nicotine electronic cigarettes and e-liquid, and establish a pathway to enable emerging tobacco and nicotine-delivery products to be sold lawfully as consumer products.
“We support New Zealand’s Smoke-free 2025 goal,” Erickson said. “Philip Morris looks forward to working with government to ensure IQOS and Heets are fully understood in the context of the regulations being developed for e-cigarettes and emerging tobacco and nicotine-delivery products.”
The PM press note said that IQOS was available in in more than 20 countries, including the UK, Japan, Italy and Switzerland. Globally, more than two million smokers had switched to IQOS and the company had plans to expand to key cities in 30 countries by the end of 2017.
May 22, 2017
Calling for accountability
Japan Tobacco International has described the EU’s revised Tobacco Products Directive (TPD2) as ‘a raft of draconian rules that will impact consumers and businesses across the Union without meeting its intended goals’.
The comment comes on the eve of the May 20 deadline for all tobacco products on the markets of EU countries to comply with the provisions of the TPD2.
“This is yet another example of Brussels-led over-regulation,” said Ben Townsend, JTI’s EU affairs vice-president in a note posted on the company’s website.
“TPD2 will not achieve its public health goals. It will, however, stifle consumer choice and have huge consequences for local economies, jeopardizing thousands of legitimate businesses and employees, from farmers to packaging manufacturers, and tobacco producers to retailers.”
The press note said that TPD2 mandated a wide-reaching set of measures for products and packaging, including large pictorial health warnings that took up most of the pack surface – dramatically reducing the space available for product information to consumers and brand designs.
Many pack formats had been banned under the false pretext that this would drive smoking levels lower. This included the prohibition of smaller cigarette packs and fine-cut pouches, which was likely to backfire badly by forcing consumers to buy larger formats and therefore spend more money.
The Directive would outlaw also menthol cigarettes from 2020.
“TPD2 is a hugely complex, burdensome and restrictive piece of legislation,” said Townsend. “To top it off, some EU countries were encouraged to go above and beyond TPD2 requirements by introducing even more outlandish measures such as plain packaging. As a result, consumers will come across different regulations for the same product in different countries, which makes a mockery of the European Commission’s original aim to improve the functioning of the internal market”.
In a statement echoing one from Forest EU, JTI said the Commission’s initial Impact Assessment stated that TPD2 would create a two percent drop in consumption over five years to 2021, but that it had had to acknowledge that this figure was just ‘a best effort estimation’.
“TPD2 is an attack on legitimate businesses and adult consumers’ freedom of choice,” said Townsend.
“Even the President of the Commission recently said that they are wrong in over-regulating and that one of the reasons citizens are stepping away from the European project is that EU law-makers are interfering in too many domains of their private lives.
“It’s time for Brussels bureaucrats to listen; they must be held accountable when the review of the Directive is published in 2021.”
May 19, 2017
Health funds unused
A health development surcharge collected on all tobacco products in Bangladesh has remained unused, though nearly three years have passed since the government levied it, according to a story in The Daily Star.
The government imposed a one percent surcharge on all domestic and imported tobacco products from fiscal 2014-15, with the proceeds to be used for ‘treatment and rehabilitation of tobacco disease-stricken people’.
Since then, revenue officials have collected more than Tk6,000 million in surcharges, mainly from cigarette manufacturers, according to the National Board of Revenue.
However, delays in framing the Health Development Surcharge Management Policy have held up the use of the funds.
But there are signs of movement. Recently, the health and family welfare ministry prepared a final draft of the policy, which is due to be placed before the cabinet for approval.
Preparation of the policy draft was said to have been held up because of delays in getting opinions and recommendations from all the stakeholders involved.
And this delay has had consequences. “We could have used the money to control tobacco usage had we gotten the budget earlier,” a senior health ministry official was quoted as saying.
May 19, 2017
Smoking restrictions
Public areas in cities across six regions and states of Myanmar are due to be designated tobacco-smoke-free zones this year, according to a story in The Myanmar Times.
Under the plan, smoking will be banned in hospitals, schools and pagodas in cities in the regions of Mandalay, Yangon, Sagaing and Magwe, and in the states of Kayin and Shan.
Dr Than Sein, Public Health Foundation chair, said the plan would be implemented with the co-operation of the regional and state governments.
“We will designate smoke-free areas in public locations to prevent youths from smoking and to protect from diseases that are caused by passive smoking,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Times story quoted U Naing Win Tun, a smoker of Mandalay, as saying that the plan was good in that it was a way of protecting the health of children, the elderly and women. “But, there should be a plan for smokers, and smoking zones should be designated for them,” he added.
The World Health Organization’s report, World Health Statistics 2017, which was published on Wednesday, indicated that Myanmar was one of the worst countries for air pollution. Its toxic air accounted for 230.6 deaths per 100,000 people, the report said, whereas the equivalent number in Mexico was 23.5 per 100,000 and in Sweden it was 0.4 per 100,000.
May 19, 2017
Time for EU to reflect
Forest EU, which campaigns for smokers’ rights in Europe, has called for a hold to be put on tobacco legislation until it has been established whether the regulations introduced as part of the revised Tobacco Products Directive (TPD2) have worked.
The organization has issued its call ahead of the May 20 deadline for EU countries to no longer allow on their markets tobacco products that aren’t compliant with the provisions of TPD2.
The call follows and to some extent echoes a statement by Forest UK that the TPD2 regulations coming into force ‘infantilise’ consumers and will make no difference to public health (see New rules seen as infantile, May 17). But it also widens the debate.
Guillaume Périgois, director of Forest EU, said in a press note that the TPD2 was introducing new measures intended to combat the illegal trade in tobacco products, including an EU-wide tracking and tracing system for the legal supply chain and a security feature composed of holograms.
“The measures designed to restrict trade in illegal tobacco are an implicit recognition that over-regulation encourages counterfeiting and smuggling of tobacco, with all the harmful side effects this causes, including boosting organised crime and the availability of low quality products,” said Périgois.
The press note said that in December 2012, the European Commission adopted its proposal to revise the previous EU Tobacco Products Directive, or TPD1, following a public consultation that had generated 85,000 responses, the majority of which opposed the key measures featured in the proposal.
‘The accompanying Impact Assessment asserted that the proposal will create a two percent drop in consumption (representing around 2.4 million smokers, compared to the 100 million adult smokers in the EU) within five years after the transposition (i.e. 2021), but the Commission acknowledges that this figure is just “a best effort estimation”,’ the note said.
“The new regulations are a disgraceful attempt to denormalize both the product and legitimate consumers,” said Périgois.
“The European smokers opposed TPD1 then and they oppose TPD2 now.
“There’s no evidence they will have the slightest impact on public health.”
Forest EU said it was calling for a ‘neutral’ review of the impact of TPD2.
“The EU should attempt no further legislation on tobacco before we know how this directive has worked,” said Périgois.
“This will give the EU a chance to review the impact of these policies and, where necessary, amend or repeal regulations that deliberately discriminate against 100 million adult consumers.”
May 18, 2017
Smoking rooms reprieved
A draft amendment to Taiwan’s Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act, scheduled to be sent to the Executive Yuan (cabinet) by the end of this month, is likely to allow the continued use of indoor smoking rooms in hotels, restaurants, bars and nightclubs, according to a story in The Taipei Times quoting health officials.
A draft revision to the act, released in January by the Health Promotion Administration (HPA), was originally set to ban smoking in all indoor locations, which it stated was in accordance with findings that indoor partitions did not effectively prevent second-hand smoke from spreading.
But the HPA then said it would take 60 days to collect opinions from the public before finalizing the amendment and sending it to the cabinet for review.
HPA Deputy Director-General Yu Li-hui now says the agency plans to allow smoking lounges in some locations.
HPA official Lo Su-ying said the draft would continue to allow smoking lounges in hotels, restaurants, bars and nightclubs, and would not introduce a health surcharge on duty-free tobacco sold at airports, as was originally planned.
But the amendment, as announced in January, would treat electronic cigarettes as though they were traditional tobacco cigarettes, making it illegal to provide them to minors.
The John Tung Foundation, which focuses on public health issues and tobacco control, said 47 nations and territories forbade smoking in indoor public facilities and accused the HPA of neglecting its responsibility to safeguard people’s health.
Smoking has been illegal on sidewalks near schools in Taipei since December 26, and since January 1 it has been prohibited also at all of the city’s 932 bus stops.
May 18, 2017