India’s ban on vaping products comes with an upside for the country’s dominant cigarette manufacturer, ITC, according to a story by Kiran Kabtta Somvanshi for the Times of India quoting the ET Intelligence Group.
The story said that the blanket ban on the import, manufacture and sale of electronic cigarettes and other electronic nicotine delivery systems had nipped ITC’s plans of entering this sector in the bud.
But, the story added, the ban might be seen as saving the company from the threat of disruptive competition.
In India, the use of e-cigarettes was still in its infancy.
ITC had launched e-cigarettes in 2014 under the brand name Eon. But the company had not committed to making a major investment in the product, probably as it waited for clarity in respect of the introduction of regulations and the reaction of consumers.
Now, the Times said, the ban prevented the entry of products such as Philip Morris’ iQOS device into the Indian market, which had the second-largest number of smokers.
‘Little wonder then that ITC’s stock closed positive despite yet another regulatory measure being introduced to discourage smoking,’ the Times said.
‘It nevertheless remains to be seen how the country’s top tobacco company looks at innovating its conventional cigarettes business besides the strategy of premiumizing its portfolio,’ it said.
ITC was said to have entered the nicotine-replacement product market in 2013 with the launch of the chewing gum Kwiknic. But the company’s latest annual report had no mention of this product; so investors would want to know the company’s Plan B for innovation in its bread-and-butter business.
Category: Regulation
The upside of a ban
Flavored comments
The ‘extraordinary and unprecedented’ flood of fake comments into the network hosting the public consultation process for the US Food and Drug Administration’s proposed regulation of flavors in tobacco products is much higher than previously was known, according to a story by Brent Stafford at regulatorwatch.com.
With the comment period now closed, staff at Regulations.gov were said to have confirmed to RegWatch the ‘stunning revelation’ that 95 percent of the 525,000 comments received into the system were BOT-submitted comments or were otherwise duplicate in nature.
Last month, regulatorwatch.com reported that, in a battle to destroy vaping, ‘bad actors’ had spammed more than 255,000 fake anti-vaping comments into the system overseeing the consultation process related to proposed regulations that could include restrictions on the use of flavors in e-liquids, or an outright flavor ban.
It was said that the assault nearly brought down federal servers and so bogged-down the internal network that it became next-to-impossible to process any submissions.
RegWatch described what happened as a massive assault on the credibility of the public consultation process.
Meanwhile, according to a Vaping 360 story last month relayed by the TMA, the 255,000 comments originated from four IP addresses.
At that time, the agency was said to have been able to stem the flow of comments but had not approved or published a single comment from the pending queue of hundreds of thousands of comments.
The spammed comments were unsigned and followed one of four templates, including three that used language copied from an April Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids letter to FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, and another from a form letter to California mayors created by the California Department of Public Health.
The comments were said to ‘critique the use of flavors and packaging to increase addictiveness and appeal’.Be afraid, be very afraid
The UK Government is moving the country on to a no-deal Brexit footing even though it says it believes a no-deal ‘scenario’ is unlikely.
It is issuing a series of ‘technical notices’ setting out ‘information to allow businesses and citizens to understand what they would need to do in a “no-deal” scenario, so they can make informed plans and preparations’.
One such notice provides ‘information to organizations, businesses and members of the public concerned with tobacco and related products, regarding changes to the regulation of such products in the unlikely event that the UK leaves the European Union (EU) in March 2019 with no agreement in place’. The notice does not include tax issues, however.
Some of the UK laws that regulate tobacco products and e-cigarettes implement the Tobacco Products Directive 2014/40/EU and the Tobacco Advertising Directive 2003/33/EC, as well as a number of delegated and implementing acts made under the Tobacco Products Directive.
EU-derived policy and legislation regarding tobacco and related products cover areas including:- control of sale of products
- advertising
- product standards (such as ingredients of products and their emissions)
- and packaging.
The Tobacco Products Directive also sets reporting requirements for tobacco products and e-cigarettes. Manufacturers must submit specified information on ingredients and emissions for products before they are placed on the market.
‘If the UK leaves the EU in March 2019 with no agreement in place, the Tobacco Products Directive and the Tobacco Advertising Directive would no longer directly apply to the UK,’ according to a note at GOV.UK.
‘The UK domestic law that implements these directives, such as the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016, would remain in force, with minor amendments to ensure it still works effectively after EU exit. These amendments would be brought in through regulations made under the EU (Withdrawal) Act powers and would come into force on exit day.
‘The amendments to UK tobacco legislation would include giving the UK government the power to update the legislation in response to emerging threats, changing safety and quality standards, and technological advances. These updating powers are likely to have minimal impact on industry. Their purpose is to make sure that the UK is still able to make technical changes after we leave the EU, where needed.’
In the event of a no-deal Brexit, the Government says it would:- ‘Create new domestic systems to allow producers to notify tobacco products and e-cigarettes in accordance with existing rules. Manufacturers will need to submit information on the new systems for any new products that they wish to sell in the UK.
- ‘Introduce new picture warnings for tobacco products as the copyright for the existing picture library is owned by the European Commission. Manufacturers will need to ensure that tobacco products which include picture warnings produced from Exit Day onwards will be labelled with the new picture warnings.’
The notice said the Government would be consulting on the technical details of both these issues in September ‘to ensure that changes are simple and effective, to minimise the burden of any changes’.
‘Inevitably, under a “no-deal” scenario the close working relationships that exist with our European partners would not be the same,’ the notice added. ‘The UK will, of course, continue to play an active role in the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.’
The Government says that further information on new systems for notification and picture warnings will be provided as part of the consultation and when the new legislation is introduced.The industry has no clothes
United Nations agencies must join forces at the policy level and refuse interference from tobacco companies in their programs so the destructive impact of tobacco can be effectively addressed and lives can be saved, according to a UN News story quoting the head of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) Secretariat, Dr. Vera Luiza da Costa e Silva.
The News story said the FCTC, which was celebrating its 15th anniversary of adoption this year, was a global health treaty that advocated the control of tobacco production, sale and use, as a way to reduce tobacco-related illnesses, deaths, environmental degradation and poverty across the world.
‘According to a report by WHO and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), it is estimated that up to one billion people could die from tobacco-related diseases this century,’ the story said. ‘Currently, over seven million people die every year due to tobacco use.
‘In addition, tobacco costs the global economy over a trillion dollars annually in medical expenses and lost productivity. As for the environmental impacts – deforestation and soil degradation for tobacco cultures, as well as water and soil pollution from cigarette littering – they cannot be overstated.’
“In 15 years, we have made a lot of progress, with tobacco-control measures in place in most of the world’s countries for example,” said da Costa e Silva. “But we are still facing a great deal of interference from the tobacco companies in government decision-making and even inside our own house, within UN agencies.”
Article 5.3 of the Convention requires that parties to the treaty ensure that their public health policies are protected ‘from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry’. The article is based on the idea that there is a fundamental and irreconcilable conflict between the tobacco industry’s interests and public health interests.
“They are wolves masquerading as sheep,” said da Costa e Silva, referring to poverty-reduction programs and other development projects that tobacco industry giants are funding, in partnership with several international inter-governmental organisations.Tariffs take their toll
The impression among US leaf dealers is that Chinese buyers have decided to honor their contracts with the US Tobacco Co-operative and some individual growers they have previously contracted with, according to the most recent issue of Christopher Bickers’ Tobacco Farmer Newsletter.
US tobacco is one of the products implicated in the trade dispute between the US and China and the dealers have apparently been led to believe that there will be no other Chinese purchases of US flue-cured this year.
Bickers (cebickers@aol.com) reported also that the prices offered at the opening sales that took place this week at most of the flue-cured auction warehouses were not encouraging.
Meanwhile, the first round of US tariffs on Chinese vapor products has taken effect with the imposition of a 25 percent tax on all shipments of ‘e-cigarettes, mods, batteries, and similar devices from China’, according to a Vaping360 story relayed by the TMA.
The story said the tax would be felt by US importers, wholesalers, retail sellers, and vapers because very little domestic manufacturing existed.
“For the vast majority of American vapers, the choice is not going to be an American-made product versus a Chinese-made product with a 25 percent tariff,” American Vaping Association president Gregory Conley was quoted as saying. “It’s only going to be the latter, which isn’t much of a choice at all.”Addicted to nonsense
Israel on Tuesday outlawed the import and sale of e-cigarettes made by Juul Labs, citing public health concerns over their nicotine content, according to a Reuters story published on voanews.com.
A statement by Israel’s Health Ministry said the Juul device was being banned because it contained nicotine at a concentration higher than 20 milligrams per milliliter and posed ‘a grave risk to public health’.
The Ministry added that the ban was consistent with similar restrictions in Europe.
The ban, which goes into effect in 15 days, was signed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who holds the health portfolio.
In a statement on Tuesday, Juul Labs said it was ‘incredibly disappointed’ with what it called a ‘misguided’ decision by the Israeli government. The San Francisco company said it planned to appeal the ban, adding that its devices provided smokers with ‘a true alternative to combustible cigarettes’.
Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported in May that Juul e-cigarettes were available for purchase at 30 locations around the country.Smoke and mirrors
Campaigners have urged the UK Government to tackle the problem of drugs and violent assaults in England’s prisons by amending the prison smoking ban and allowing designated smoking areas.
The call follows an announcement by prisons minister Rory Stewart on Friday that he will resign if the use of drugs and assaults do not fall in 10 problem jails.
In June, Stewart tweeted: ‘Delighted to confirm that we have just achieved one hundred per cent smoke free prisons’.
‘Incidents of self-harm and assaults in prisons are at record levels and the use of illegal drugs is rife, yet the government insists on banning tobacco, a legal product,’ said Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ group Forest.
‘Allowing prisoners to smoke might actually help address the far more serious problems Rory Stewart is trying to solve.
Clark said that by offering to resign if his program of reforms didn’t succeed, Stewart had shown himself to be an honourable politician.
But he also needs to be pragmatic and in the real world a substantial number of prisoners enjoy smoking, Clark added.
‘No-one should be surprised that if you take away one of their few pleasures there will be negative consequences.
‘We challenge Mr Stewart to test the theory by allowing designated smoking areas in half of the ten problem prisons he has chosen to target.
‘He can then compare one set of prisons against the other to see if permitting smoking makes any difference to the problem of drugs and violent assaults.’A rational approach
Malaysia’s Minister of Health, Dzulkefly Ahmad, has been asked whether he has been reading the evidence about electronic cigarettes coming out of the UK.
This question was raised in an opinion piece in the Malay Mail by Sarah Zailana Hamid, who made the point that while nobody was saying that e-cigarettes were absolutely safe, what was being said was that they were less harmful than were combustible cigarettes.
She said she hoped that Malaysia would move towards a similar stance as that recommended in a report published on Friday by the UK House of Commons Science and Technology Committee.
Such a stance would allow for the usage of e-cigarettes while conducting annual reviews to determine the long-term effects with a publicly funded health committee providing oversight.
‘Because if our government insists on waiting until those long-term effects are visible, we will be looking at no alternative to smoking and thus, letting the Malaysian smoking population continue to miss the opportunity for a less harmful choice,’ she said.
‘The report also pointed out the stigma over vaping, and how the second-hand vapor had “negligible health risks”. Thus, the media should bear some responsibility for demonising the vaping community in the past which led to the overreaction from our authorities and the general public.
‘Truth be told, there is a need for an independent study of Malaysians on e-cigarettes and such devices, a monitoring of their long-term health effects, while the government allows these products to be promoted as an alternative to traditional cigarettes for people trying to quit smoking.
‘I do hope that Dzulkefly manages to push through such a change so that we can truly move forward towards a healthier Malaysia with the principle of harm reduction rather than an outright ban.’New warnings in India
The Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has released new images to be included as graphic health warnings on tobacco products starting September 1.
According to a News18.com story relayed by the TMA, last week, the Supreme Court said that tobacco products would continue to carry graphic warnings covering 85 percent of the packaging space.
The government apparently released two separate set of images, the first of which will be used on tobacco products for 12 months beginning September 1, with the second to be used subsequently.
‘All tobacco products manufactured or imported or packaged on or after 1st September 2018 shall display Image-1 and those manufactured or imported or packaged on or after 1st September 2019 shall display Image-2,’ the ministry said in a statement.
‘Any person engaged directly or indirectly in the production, supply, import or distribution of cigarettes or any tobacco products shall ensure that all tobacco product packages shall have the specified health warnings exactly as prescribed.’
Violation of the provision is a punishable offence with imprisonment or fine as prescribed in Section 20 of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003.Keeping an open mind
The Philippines House of Representatives is urging that vaping be included in the country’s tobacco control strategy, according to a story by Jim McDonald at vaping360.com.
The legislative body has issued a resolution asking the health department to promote tobacco harm reduction.
The resolution, authored by Representatives Anthony Bravo and Jose Tejada, references the experience in the UK, where public health authorities have promoted vaping as a safer alternative for cigarette smokers.
McDonald said that, according to the Manila Standard, the lawmakers specifically cited the landmark reports from Public Health England and the Royal College of Physicians.
He added that a resolution did not amount to a law and wasn’t binding on the regulators. It was a recommendation by the legislature that the department of health regulate vapes without banning them.
The Vapers Philippines president Peter Paul Dator reportedly told the Standard that his organization thanked the legislators for keeping an open mind to the growing body of scientific evidence supporting e-cigarettes as a significantly less harmful alternative to conventional cigarettes. “We urge the [Department of Health] to do the same and help save lives,” he added.
