Category: Regulation

Starting the year with a ban
Photo by Owen Zammit
Malta will be marking the start of 2017 with a ban on smoking and vaping in private cars when people under the age of 16 are present, according to a story in The Times of Malta.
‘Children are at particular risk from the effects of passive smoking because they have an increased risk of developing chest infections during their first five years,’ the Health Ministry was quoted as saying.
‘Babies who are exposed to cigarette smoke are also at a greater risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), which is also known as cot death.’
The ministry said also that smoke made children more vulnerable to ear infections and asthma.
Levels of toxins from smoking in cars could reach high counts very quickly, it added.
The ban, it was reported, will apply to ‘all tobacco products’ and electronic cigarettes.
Drivers will be held responsible for violations and be liable to a fine of €50, but passengers caught smoking in a car in the presence of minors will also be liable to a fine of €50.
Smoking was banned in all enclosed public spaces in Malta in April 2004.
December 30, 2016
China smoking ban unveiled
China has unveiled draft legislation that would impose a nation-wide ban on tobacco smoking in public places – including some outdoor areas, according to a NextShark story.
The draft legislation was unveiled at the Global Conference on Health Promotion in Shanghai on Tuesday by Mao Qun’an of China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission.
It is intended that the legislation would be implemented by the end of 2017.
Those caught smoking in places covered by the draft legislation would be liable to a fine of up to 500 yuan (US$72), while non-compliant businesses would face fines of up to 30,000 yuan (US$ 4,300) and risk losing their operating licenses.
December 29, 2016
Smoking ban challenged
The Romanian Minister of Health, Vlad Voiculescu, has said that social democrat MPs are trying to reverse the provisions of an anti-tobacco law that ban smoking in enclosed public places, according to a story in the Business Review.
Voiculescu wrote on his Facebook page that the MPs would try to get approval from the Committee for Human Rights for the removal of the smoking-ban provisions.
He said also that the parliament’s Health Committee, which is led by social democrats, had proposed amendments to the bill that was signed into law this spring.
“The Senate has tacitly approved the law so that smoking would be possible, practically, in any enclosed space,” Voiculescu wrote.
The Chamber of Deputies will have the final say on the proposed changes to the law.
“The current form of the anti-smoking law is just one of the points that deserves to be defended by the whole society, against the interests of the tobacco industry and of the interests of some members of the parliament,” said Voiculescu.
December 29, 2016
FDA issues further guides
Photo by thisisbossi
The US Food and Drug Administration has issued a final rule regarding the refuse-to-accept procedures for premarket tobacco submissions.
Under this rule, the agency says, it will refuse to accept tobacco product submissions or applications that are not in English, do not pertain to a tobacco product, do not include contact information, or do not meet other requirements as listed in the rule.
At the same time, the FDA has issued its Submission of Warning Plans for Cigars, a guide to assist industry players that are required to submit warning plans related to statements on cigar packaging and advertising.
Those concerned are required to submit a proposed warning plan to the FDA no later than May 10, 2017, or 12 months prior to advertising or commercially marketing the cigar, whichever is later.
Meanwhile, the FDA has published its final guidance entitled Listing of Ingredients in Tobacco Products.
‘This guidance is intended to assist manufacturers and importers making tobacco product ingredient submissions to the FDA, as required by the Tobacco Control Act,’ said the FDA. ‘Revisions to this guidance include minor clarifying and editorial changes to promote consistency throughout the FDA’s guidances and updated submission compliance dates.
‘The guidance also explains the statutory requirement to submit a list of all ingredients in tobacco products, who submits ingredient information, what information is included in the submissions, how and when to submit the information, the FDA’s compliance policies, and definitions.
‘Under the policies outlined in the guidance, the FDA does not intend to enforce the submission requirement for newly deemed tobacco products that were on the market as of August 8, 2016, until August 8, 2017, or February 8, 2018 for small-scale manufacturers. Tobacco products entering the market after August 8, 2016, must submit the ingredient information at least 90 days before the product is introduced into interstate commerce.
‘FDA is currently accepting ingredient listings for tobacco products and encourages manufacturers to start the processes as early as possible.’

December 29, 2016
Smoking stops in Taipei
Photo by John Yavuz Can
From the start of next year, tobacco smoking will be forbidden at all 932 bus stops in the Taiwanese capital Taipei, according to a Focus Taiwan News Channel story quoting a city health department announcement on Monday.
The new provisions will expand an existing ban that currently applies to 155 bus stops on 15 dedicated bus lanes.
No penalties will be applied in respect of violations of the new provisions between January 1 and March 1, but after that violations will be punished with fines of between NT$2,000 (US$62.24) and NT$10,000, the department said.
Also on Monday, the department said the city’s smoking ban on sidewalks adjacent to schools had been expanded to include a further 31 schools, bringing the total number covered by the ban to 267.
December 28, 2016
Tobacco vendors to register
Photo by Christian Haugen
Unregistered sellers of tobacco products in Fiji will, from February1, be liable to penalties of up to $5,000, according to a Fiji Broadcasting Corp story.
The country’s tobacco-products wholesalers and retailers, including suki vendors, are being advised to renew their registrations now so that they will be able to continue selling such products. Registrations started on December 1.
The Permanent Secretary for Health and Medical Services, Philip Davies, said recently that wholesalers and retailers had until the January 31 to register.
And, according to a story in The Fiji Times Online, the Health Minister Jone Usamate said that tobacco and suki vendors had to make every effort to visit their nearest health office in the Central, Western and Northern divisions. “Our Tobacco Control Team will be present to do a mass registration and licensing campaign and the certificates will be issued on site,” Usamate said.
Under the Tobacco Control Decree, all those trading in tobacco products have to register or renew their existing registration annually.
December 28, 2016
Hong Kong pushes for larger warnings
Hong Kong wants to increase the size and number of graphic images accompanying health warning on cigarette packs, reports The South China Morning Post.
Cigarette packaging has remained the same since 2007 and it is time for the government to overhaul packaging, according to Undersecretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee.
Under the plan, the size of warnings on cigarette packs would increase to cover 85 percent of the pack, from the current 50 per cent, and the number of graphic designs would double from six to 12.
Chan said Hong Kong’s measures to deter smokers were fairer to the industry and the public than those in some other countries, which had legislated unbranded plain packaging or given increased prominence to shocking pictures.
“We haven’t gone to plain packaging yet,” she said. “We felt that this is something we can do to protect people from smoking.”
Department of Health data from 2012 showed the number of Hong Kong residents who smoke had dropped to a low of 10.2 percent of the population.
December 26, 2016
Graphic warnings from today
Starting today, graphic health warnings are required to be printed on cigarette packs sold in South Korea, according to a story in The Korea Herald.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare was quoted as saying that all cigarette packs sold in the country, including those sold at duty-free shops, must carry one of 10 designated full-color pictures accompanied by warnings about the adverse health effects of tobacco smoking.
Some of the pictures show the effects of fatal diseases such as lung cancer, oral cancer, heart attacks and strokes.
Text warnings include those concerning the dangers of second-hand smoke, smoking while pregnant, sexual dysfunction, skin aging and premature death.
The graphic health warnings must be placed on the upper part of both the main faces of cigarette packs, with the pictures covering more than 30 percent of each of these faces.
“After reviewing figures from 18 countries which adopted the graphic health warning labels, it was found that the smoking rate fell by 13.8 percent in Brazil, while the average for these countries was around four percent, after these labels were attached,” said a ministry official.
At the same time as it is introducing the graphic warnings, the ministry is planning to resume, after 14 years, anti-smoking television slots.
December 23, 2016
Inaccurate warnings forever
A US public health expert has described the warnings that are required to appear on snus products sold in the United States as ‘egregiously inaccurate’.
University of Louisville professor Brad Rodu was reacting to the rejection by the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) of Swedish Match’s request to eliminate or revise the 30-year-old, egregiously inaccurate warnings.
Writing on his blog rodutobaccotruth, Rodu explained that, in 2014, Swedish Match had sought to:
- Remove the warning, ‘This product can cause gum disease and tooth loss’;
- Remove the warning, ‘This product can cause mouth cancer’; and
- Replace the warning, ‘This product is not a safe alternative to cigarettes’ with this text: ‘No tobacco product is safe, but this product presents substantially lower risks to health than cigarettes’.
Rodu said that the FDA had justified its rejections in a six-page letter to the company, in a 115-page supporting document, and subsequently in an announcement proclaiming, ‘FDA Issues Science-Based Decisions on First MRTP Applications’.
Rodu raised a question mark over the claim that the decision was ‘science based’ and went on to review ‘the FDA’s tortured interpretation of the scientific evidence in its decisions on the gum disease/tooth loss and mouth cancer warnings’.
He said also that while the FDA had closed the door on the gum disease tooth loss warning, it had given Swedish Match the option of submitting a revised application for the other warnings.
But he didn’t appear to be holding out much hope. He said it appeared that the agency’s revision/amendment pathway was designed to defeat all but the wealthiest and most determined applicants, leaving millions of smokers and future smokers with demonstrably false warnings against the use of safer smoke-free products.
Rodu’s blog is at: http://rodutobaccotruth.blogspot.co.uk/
December 23, 2016
FCTC funding story ‘inaccurate’
Photo by US Mission Geneva
The EU Commission has described as inaccurate a report by the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) that claims that nearly 80 percent of the parties to an international tobacco control treaty, including the EU, have not paid their contributions.
The Commission was responding to a question by the French member of the European Parliament, Nadine Morano.
Morano said that the TPA report revealed that almost 80 percent of the parties to the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control had not paid their financial contributions required under the convention.
She asked the Commission to ‘outline what the state of play is with regard to the payment of the EU’s tobacco control contribution, and, more generally, take stock of the steps that have been taken to combat smoking in the EU’.
The Commission replied that it was aware of the report by the TPA. ‘This report is unfortunately inaccurate because it does not take into account the payment schedules of Parties,’ it said.
‘Regarding the EU contribution for 2016-2017, the 2016 portion has already been paid and the remaining balance will be paid in 2017 as agreed with the World Health Organisation FCTC.
‘The EU and its member states are strongly committed to tobacco control. As such, a number of tobacco control measures have been introduced in the form of legislation, recommendations and information campaigns. Such measures include: the regulation of tobacco products on the EU market (e.g. packaging, labelling, and ingredients), EC law providing for advertising restrictions for tobacco products, a Council Recommendation and national legislation on smoke-free environments, tax measures and activities against illicit trade, and anti-smoking campaigns.’
In launching its report in October, The World Health Organization in Intensive Care, the TPA said that as of July 15, 142 of the 180 FCTC member countries, nearly 80 percent, had outstanding obligations.
Commenting on the report, David Williams, TPA president, said it was shocking how many countries still refused to pay their subscriptions.
“We suspect that this is indicative of wider concern about the way the WHO operates,” he said.
“It is essential that during the election campaign for the next Director-General of WHO, which has just started, that the candidates face up to the very serious questions about transparency, funding, accountability and malpractice, which the WHO must answer. The world’s taxpayers deserve clear answers, not obfuscation.”
December 22, 2016