Category: Regulation

There is another way
The authors of a new booklet are urging US lawmakers and regulators to rethink traditional strategies for combating tobacco smoking and its negative health outcomes.
In a press note issued yesterday, The Heartland Institute said that for decades, lawmakers and regulators had used taxes, bans, and strong regulations in an attempt to reduce the negative health effects of smoking. And recently, some had sought to extend those policies to electronic cigarettes.
‘A new booklet published by The Heartland Institute titled Vaping, E-Cigarettes, and Public Policy Toward Alternatives to Smoking urges policymakers to re-think that tax-and-regulate strategy,’ it said.
‘Health professionals have long known that the smoke created by combustible cigarettes, rather than the nicotine, is what makes smoking harmful. Smokeless tobacco and e-cigarettes provide a much safer and healthier alternative delivery system for nicotine.
‘Tobacco harm reduction is a proven strategy for helping smokers reduce their tobacco use or quit altogether.
‘Dr. Brad Rodu, lead author of Vaping, E-Cigarettes, and Public Policy Toward Alternatives to Smoking, has been at the forefront of tobacco harm reduction research and policy development for more than 20 years. He is a professor of medicine at the University of Louisville, where he is a member of the James Graham Brown Cancer Center and holds an endowed chair in tobacco harm reduction research.
‘Dr. Rodu and his co-authors – Matthew Glans and Lindsey Stroud of The Heartland Institute – encourage policymakers to be mindful of the extensive research that supports tobacco harm reduction and understand that “bans, excessive regulations, or high taxes on e-cigarettes could encourage smokers to stay with more-harmful traditional cigarettes”.’
The booklet discusses issues including:
■ Indoor and outdoor bans on vaping.
■ Prohibiting e-cigarette purchases by minors.
■ Regulating flavors.
■ Myths and facts about e-cigarettes.
■ The idea there is an epidemic of children being poisoned by e-cigarettes.
■ E-cigarettes as a gateway to smoking.
■ How e-cigarettes help smokers quit.
■ History of failed anti-smoking campaigns.
■ The case for tobacco harm reduction.
■ ‘Quit or Die’ as the only strategy.
A free PDF of the booklet is available at: https://www.heartland.org/_template-assets/documents/publications/Vaping%20E-Cigarettes%20and%20Public%20Policy.pdf.
March 2, 2017
Shanghai bans smoking
Photo by hans-johnson
By the end of last year, 23.3 percent of the residents of Shanghai, China, aged 15-69, were tobacco smokers, down from 26.9 percent in 2010, according to a story in The Shanghai Daily citing the Shanghai Health and Family Planning Commission’s annual report.
The survey, the results of which were published yesterday, found that 46.8 percent of men and 2.0 percent of women smoked.
A total ban on smoking in indoor public places came into force across the city yesterday.
Shanghai has restricted public smoking since 2010, but the original regulation included bans in only a limited number of places, such as schools and libraries.
The new regulation extends the bans to all indoor public places and some outdoor ones.
The survey, which interviewed 34,400 people in 1,796 public place, found that 78 percent of people were aware of the new tobacco-smoking regulations, and that 95 percent supported them and pledged to observe them.
Commission chief Wu Jinglei said the data showed the city had come a long way since the limited ban was introduced in 2010, but that there were still serious challenges.
The authorities are conducting widespread inspections, focusing on places where smoking is popular, and their week-long crackdowns will continue into April and May. Thousands of volunteers around the city are reporting violations.
Offenders are liable to fines of up to 200 yuan (U$30) and restaurant owners can be fined up to 20,000 yuan for failing to enforce the ban.
March 2, 2017
Factory closure threat
Photo by gagilas
British American Tobacco has said that it might close its South African cigarette plant if plans to ban branded tobacco packaging are implemented, according to a story by Thembisile Dzonzi for Bloomberg News.
BAT’s Heidelberg factory is situated south of Johannesburg.
The proposed ban would threaten the financial viability of the Heidelberg operation, Joe Heshu, BAT’s head of external affairs in Southern Africa, said in an e-mailed response to questions from Bloomberg.
Standardized packaging threatened the closure of the factory and posed a threat to the viability of the legal tobacco industry in South Africa, Heshu said.
The move would make it harder to distinguish licit cigarettes from black-market cigarettes and “the illegal market will benefit from having a cheaper product,” he added.
South Africa is cracking down on industries and products viewed as harmful to consumers, including through a planned tax on sugar-sweetened beverages, which Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said last month would be implemented later this year.
In his budget speech, Gordhan announced higher taxes on tobacco and alcohol products.
The full story is at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-01/bat-says-planned-south-african-tobacco-rules-may-close-plant.
March 2, 2017
Flavor ban one step closer
Photo by ‌Bahadorjn
In the US, New Jersey has moved one step closer to banning the sale and distribution of most flavored electronic smoking products, according to a story by Brent Johnson for NJ Advance Media.
The state Assembly’s health committee voted 7-2, with two abstentions, on Monday to approve the bill, which would ban the sale of vaping devices and products in flavors other than clove, menthol and tobacco. Currently there are hundreds of flavors available, such as honey, chocolate and cherry.
New Jersey already bans the sale or distribution of flavored cigarettes, except those with clove, menthol or tobacco flavors.
If passed by both houses of the state legislature and then signed by the governor, the new bill would extend that law to ban electronic smoking devices, cartridges, and liquid refills with flavors other than the three allowed.
Sponsors of the bill say its goal is to prevent vaping products from being targeted at young people, and possibly luring them into smoking tobacco products.
But opponents of the proposed ban say electronic cigarettes are less risky than are tobacco cigarettes, and can help people quit smoking. Plus, they say, banning the products would cause many vape shops to close.
Kevin Roberts, a former spokesman for Governor Chris Christie who now represents Logic Technology, the nation’s third-largest supplier of electronic cigarettes, said Monday that the bill went against “public health goals and would undoubtedly push countless individuals back toward conventional cigarettes and their known harms”.
March 1, 2017
E-cig gagging order mooted
Photo by wynged wyrdz
As part of its anti-vaping legislation, Canada’s federal government is attempting to limit public access to scientific data, according to Derek James From writing a guest column on torontosun.com.
Bill S-5, which was introduced in November 2016, would prohibit manufacturers or purveyors of electronic cigarettes from sharing scientific information comparing the health effects of smoking traditional combustible tobacco cigarettes with vaping.
This ban is said to be so broad that merely making Canadians visiting a vape shop aware of a peer-reviewed scientific journal article could result in a fine of up to $500,000 and a two year prison term.
From, who is a lawyer with the Canadian Constitution Foundation in Calgary, said the restriction would almost certainly attract constitutional scrutiny as a violation of the right to freedom of expression.
He said that, in 2015, Public Health England, an agency of the UK Department of Health, had issued a press release announcing the results of an independent expert review that found that vaping electronic cigarettes was 95 percent less harmful than was smoking traditional cigarettes.
‘They also found no evidence that vaping is a “gateway” to smoking,’ From wrote. ‘Finally, they warned that nearly half of the population was not aware of the health benefits of switching from smoking to vaping.
‘Yet, once Bill S-5 becomes law, anyone selling e-cigarettes in Canada would be breaking the law if they even provided this U.K. Department of Health report and its life-saving information to customers.’
March 1, 2017
Tighter tobacco controls
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Restrictions on tobacco smoking in enclosed public places in Shanghai, China, are due to be converted into an outright ban, according to a Global Times story citing an eastday.com report.
And, at the same time, restrictions will be included in some outdoor public places.
The new bans and restrictions are scheduled to come into force in March
District health promotion committees were said to have started a two-week campaign on Wednesday aimed at increasing public awareness about the latest regulations.
Officers were said to be organizing theme activities in designated areas.
Citizens are being invited to stop anyone they see smoking in indoor venues and to call a hotline to report them.
Shanghai’s smoking control department will also carry out large-scale crackdowns on indoor smoking.
Smoking-control regulations went into effect seven years ago, but they allowed smoking in designated indoor areas, including those in hotels, restaurants, entertainment venues, airports and port stations.
The latest controls will prohibit smoking in certain public outdoor areas, including after-school education centers and children’s hospitals.
February 27, 2017
Smoking ban sought in China
Photo by ilya
Anti-tobacco activists are calling on the Chinese government to impose a nation-wide ban on tobacco smoking in public places, according to a story in The Global Times.
This follows yesterday’s release of the results of a survey suggesting that an overwhelming majority of people support the move.
Nearly 92 percent of the survey respondents were said to have supported a total smoking ban in public areas.
The survey was carried out by the Chinese Association on Tobacco Control but no details were given of the survey’s methodology.
Wu Yiqun, deputy director of the Research Center for Health Development think tank, told the Times that while China had huge public support for a nation-wide smoking ban, a timetable to adopt a law had been on the back burner since the State Council released the Regulations on the Control of Smoking in Public Places on its website for public feedback in November 2014.
“The proposed law has been mainly stymied by tobacco industry officials due to the huge economic interests involved,” said Wu.
The tobacco sector delivered 1.1 trillion yuan ($170 billion) to the state in 2015, a figure that was up by 20.2 percent from that of the previous year, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration said in 2016.
“Some government officials can be blamed for the postponed smoking ban, as they argue their own department should not be included in the regulations as it would directly damage their own interests,” Yang Gonghuan, a professor at Peking Union Medical College, told the Times.
Mao Qunan, a spokesperson with China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission, said at the conference where the survey figures were announced that legislation would be just the first step toward a smoking ban. It would also require joint co-operation from other departments to ensure the law was not just “a piece of paper”.
And Shen Jinjin, a National People’s Congress deputy, said at the conference that he would propose a nation-wide smoking ban at the March sessions of China’s annual political meetings.
February 24, 2017
Supporting the small guy
The Cause of Action Institute (CoA Institute) on Tuesday filed an amicus curiae brief in support of a challenge to a new regulation that threatens small premium-cigar businesses in the US.
The CoA Institute filed its brief in support of the plaintiffs: the Cigar Association of America, the International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers Association, and Cigar Rights of America.
These groups have brought a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration challenging a new regulation with what the CoA Institute described as far-ranging, negative economic impacts on consumers and small businesses engaged in the premium cigar industry.
‘The new regulation finalized by FDA unfairly targets America’s smaller-scale cigar manufacturers, trampling on a proud American heritage and eliminating economic opportunity for many small businesses,’ the CoA Institute said in a press note.
“Common sense appears to be dead at the FDA,” Patrick Massari, assistant vice president at the CoA Institute was quoted as saying. “Inexplicably, the FDA ignored tens of thousands of comments from the premium cigar industry, Congress, local government, media, and the citizens of the United States, particularly those affected in ways large and small by FDA’s power grab. Under this new rule, the tradition of premium, hand-rolled cigars handed down by generations will turn into a corporate profit mill.”
‘In its brief, CoA Institute argues that FDA failed to conduct a legally sufficient cost-benefit analysis, as required by federal law and Executive Orders issued by President Clinton and President Obama,’ the press note said. ‘Specifically, President Clinton’s 1993 EO 12866 requires that “[e]ach agency shall tailor its regulations to impose the least burden on society, including individuals, businesses of differing sizes, and other entities (including small communities and governmental entities), consistent with obtaining the regulatory objectives, taking into account, among other things, and to the extent practicable, the costs of cumulative regulations. [emphasis added]’
‘The limited analysis FDA produced either omitted or glossed over several important costs:
- First, premium cigar prices will substantially increase for all consumers as a result of the rule;
- Second, the sheer compliance costs of FDA’s regulation will be so high that smaller, family-owned businesses will no longer be able to comply;
- Third, the resulting government-defined marketplace will cripple consumer choice and bar future innovation.
‘Many companies will likely have no choice but to sell out to larger corporations, which will then dominate the market as regulation-protected monopolies.
‘The FDA itself admits that it failed to do any analysis on consumer choice, saying: “We lack a baseline estimate of consumer valuation of tobacco product variety, making it impossible to estimate how consumers who continue to use tobacco products would value the potential loss of variety due to product exit under this final rule”. Instead, the FDA ignored this essential element of cost-benefit analysis by pretending that such data does not exist.
‘In its brief, CoA Institute calls on the Court to order FDA to reopen its cost-benefit analysis and to vacate and remand the final rule.’
February 23, 2017
FDA applications meeting
The US Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products is due to explain the processes it uses in the review of tobacco product applications.
In a press note, the FDA said it planned to hold a meeting of the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC) on April 6.
‘During this meeting, representatives from the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products will present information to the Committee, which includes several new members, on the processes CTP uses in the review of tobacco product applications, including substantial equivalence (SE), modified risk tobacco product (MRTP) and premarket tobacco applications (PMTA),’ the note said.
‘Topics will include the statutory standards applicable to the different types of applications; the scientific basis for review decisions, with a focus on PMTA and MRTPA; and the role of the committee in the review process.
‘People interested in presenting data, information, or views, either in person or in writing, must send in their submissions by March 15 or March 23, respectively.’
February 22, 2017
Bus-stop smoking ban
Photo by bryan…
Starting on March 1, tobacco smoking will be prohibited at 1,150 shelters at 932 bus stops in Taipei, Taiwan, according to a story in The Taipei Times quoting the Taipei Department of Health.
From that date. those who smoked at these bus stops would face fines of between NT$1,200 and NT$10,000, the department said.
And those who throw cigarette butts on the ground will face fines of NT$1,200 for a first offense, NT$3,600 for a second and up to NT$5,000 for a third.
The Taipei Department of Health’s secretary-general Lee Pi-hui said that his department had been advising the public of the new tobacco-smoking policy since the start of the year, using ‘various channels’.
And the Taipei Public Transportation Office director Chang Hua-chen said his office had posted no smoking signs on bus shelters while bus companies had promoted the policy in their vehicles.
The transportation office plans to send inspectors to check bus shelters once the ban takes effect, Chang said.
The department of health said that it had conducted surveys in 2014 and 2015 to test public opinion on non-smoking bus shelters and the results had showed that 94 percent and 95 percent of respondents supported the restriction.
It said it had received petitions from people demanding a smoking ban at all bus shelters.
February 21, 2017