There is no evidence that, one year after its full implementation in EU member states, the revised Tobacco Products Directive (TPD2) has reduced smoking rates, according to the smokers’ campaign group Forest EU.
TPD2 measures were said to have included an immediate ban on packs containing fewer than 20 cigarettes, a ban on flavored cigarettes (except menthol, which will be banned in 2020) and severe restrictions on the ability of smokers to access e-cigarettes.
TPD2 also increased the size of health warnings to 65 per cent of the front and back of every pack of cigarettes, with additional warnings on the top of the pack.
“The regulations are excessive, even by the European Commission’s standards,” said
Guillaume Périgois, director of Forest EU. “Smokers are being treated as second class citizens in a disgraceful attempt to denormalize both the product and their habit.
“Larger pictorial warnings are problematic since the Commission itself is now on record having called into question the proportionality of larger health warnings in delivering public health gains. If they are clearly visible, smaller warnings are just as effective as larger warnings in the eyes of the consumer.”
Calling for the Commission to explore alternative models of achieving public health gains that didn’t ostracize smokers, Périgois said the Commission needed to look at new approaches, for instance supporting member states in the provision of education programs or in providing a proper framework in which smokers could explore the growing vaping sector.
Category: Regulation
Looking beyond TPD2
Plain unpopular
One year on from the introduction of standardized packaging for tobacco in the UK, new research commissioned by Japan Tobacco International and conducted by the independent polling company Kantar TNS, has revealed that the majority of the UK public are not supportive of the policy.
In a note posted on its website JTI said the largest public opinion poll of its kind since standardized tobacco packaging was introduced, research had found that UK citizens were concerned their government had imported a failed policy from Australia without fully evaluating the potential negative consequences.
The poll had found that:
* ‘Almost two-thirds of the UK population believe that plain packaging will not achieve its primary objective of reducing smoking rates (65 percent) and is a poor use of government resources (65 percent).
* ‘Three out of every five UK adults (58 percent) believe plain packaging will lead to an increase in the number of illegal cigarettes sold in the UK.
* ‘If the UK Government had yet to decide on plain packaging and was considering whether to introduce it today, 69 percent of UK adults believe they should either reject the policy (35 percent) or wait for more evidence of its effectiveness from Australia (34 percent).
* ‘72% of respondents believe the Government would either a) fix a policy review/ignore evidence that went against a preferred policy (29 percent), or b) be reluctant to change their preferred policy if the evidence was weighted against it (43 percent).’
Respondents reportedly were critical also of how the Bill became law:
* ’68 percent think the Government changed the decision-making requirements it had previously set out in order to push it through.
* ‘72% think it was important for the Government to research the links between illegal tobacco and terrorist organizations.’
JTI said that, one year on, the latest data showed no impact on tobacco sales or smoking rates in the UK, and that counterfeit standardized packs had been discovered on high streets as early as one month after the implementation of standardized packaging.
‘An analysis conducted by JTI on UK counterfeit samples shows that tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide levels far exceed those allowed in the country,’ the note said. ‘But this is only the tip of the iceberg: in some cases, counterfeits have been found to contain heavy metals such as arsenic, cadmium and lead, along with other toxic contaminants: asbestos, mold, dust, dead flies, rat droppings – and even human excrement.’
“Plain packaging is failing in the UK, as it has in Australia and France, and as we always warned that it would,” states Jonathan Duce, head of external communications at JTI’s global headquarters in Geneva.
“Rather than wait for results to emerge from Australia – as originally committed to by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt – the government pushed through a policy without waiting for hard evidence or research into the consequences. Plain packaging should never have been introduced in the UK, and other governments considering the measure should think twice before importing this failed experiment.”A plain failure of policy
Campaigners have called for an independent ‘root and branch’ review of the impact of all tobacco regulations introduced in the UK since 2010, including that requiring standardized tobacco packaging and a tobacco-products display ban at retail outlets.
The call came after evidence emerged that smoking levels had gone up since the introduction this time last year of standardized packaging and other measures.
‘According to independent research, recent statistics suggest that smoking rates in England were higher than for the same time last year before plain packaging was fully implemented on 20th May 2017,’ a Forest press note said.
‘The figures, published this week by the Tobacco Manufacturers Association, follows evidence that plain packaging has also failed to reduce smoking rates in Australia and France.’
‘In 2012 Australia became the first country in the world to impose standardized packaging on tobacco products. Five years after its implementation, data published by the Australian government showed that the measure had made no significant difference to the daily smoking rate.
‘Instead low-priced cigarettes doubled their market share between 2011 and 2016 (from 29 percent to 60 percent) at the expense of medium- and high-priced cigarettes (from 19 percent to 10 percent) as people switched to cheaper brands.
‘France introduced plain packaging of tobacco products in January 2017. One year later data published by the public authority OFDT showed that the number of cigarettes shipped to retailers remained largely unchanged, with a decrease of just 0.7 percent in 2017.
‘The failure of plain packaging to reduce smoking prevalence in France was acknowledged by health minister Agnès Buzyn during a parliamentary debate. According to the minister, plain packaging “does not lead smokers to quit smoking”. She added that she didn’t know if the introduction of plain packaging in France “has been effective in preventing youth from starting smoking”.
As well as standardized packaging, May 2017 saw the introduction of other tobacco control measures. The European Commission’s revised Tobacco Products Directive forced all EU member states to adopt larger health warnings and prohibit the sale of smaller packs of cigarettes and rolling tobacco. A ban on menthol cigarettes will follow in 2020.
“The experience of Australia, France and Britain suggests that plain packaging doesn’t lead to a decline in smoking rates,” said Simon Clark (pictured), director of Forest, the consumer group.
“Governments blunder on from one tobacco control measure to another, regardless of their impact.
“It’s time for an independent root and branch review of all the tobacco control measures introduced since 2010, including plain packaging and the behind-the-counter display ban.”
The failure of standardized packaging was said to be an indictment of the haste with which the policy was pushed through parliament before the 2015 general election.
“Plain packaging has nothing to do with health,” Clark said. “The decision to introduce it in the UK was based not on evidence that it would reduce smoking rates but on party politics.
“It wasn’t right then and it isn’t right now.”Child labor an 'open secret'
Disturbing patterns of child exploitation pervade the tobacco fields of Africa, leaving young people in rural areas poisoned for life while tobacco brands fuel the world’s deadliest habit, according to a story by Michelle Chen for the Nation, citing Human Rights Watch (HRW) research.
Through field research during 2017, HRW investigators were said to have discovered that children 12-17 years old were regularly employed during the harvesting and processing seasons in Zimbabwe, and that workers of all ages were ‘pushed to work excessive hours without overtime compensation, denied their wages, and forced to go weeks or months without pay’.
Young people were particularly vulnerable, reported Chen, because tobacco picking was not officially regulated as dangerous work for children in the country, despite the clear health and social threats linked to child farm labor.
Although multinational corporations bore special responsibility for labor violations, which hit both wage laborers and smallholder farmers, HRW said ‘the government and tobacco companies are failing to ensure that workers have sufficient information, training, and equipment to protect themselves’.
Chen reported that, unlike in countries such as Brazil and Indonesia, which had made strides in eradicating child labor, in Zimbabwe such exploitation remained an open secret because of corruption and incompetent regulation.Opting for quit-or-die
The government of South Korea is changing the health warnings required on packages of combustible cigarettes and heat-not-burn (HNB) products, according to a story by Lee Kyung-min for the Korea Times.
The change will be most pronounced in the case of HNB products, whose packs previously carried an image of what the story described as a needle but that looked more like a syringe. The image was said by many to be unclear and ineffective.
From December, manufacturers of HNB products will be required in include on their packs graphic warnings about health risks associated with smoking, including cancer, similar to the warnings carried by packs of combustible cigarettes.
The Times said the government planned to dispel the idea that HNB products were less harmful [than were combustible cigarettes] and therefore should remain exempt from stringent health policy.
‘HNB-produced smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, of which more than 70 are carcinogenic substances, known to cause, initiate or exacerbate cancer,’ the Times reported.
‘According to the World Health Organization (WHO), all forms of tobacco use are harmful, including HNBs.’
Yesterday, the Ministry of Health and Welfare unveiled a set of new graphic warnings with more ‘disturbing’ messages than those currently used.
The new warnings must replace the current ones by December 23.
The introduction of the new measures followed what was described as ‘a one-year in-depth deliberation commissioned by a 13-member special committee comprised of government officials and private experts’. A survey of 1,500 smokers and non-smokers was said to have been conducted to reflect public opinion.
According to data from the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, HNB products accounted for eight percent of the South Korean cigarette market in January, up from three percent seven months earlier.Vaping policies criticized
A new report by the Nanny State Index, a project set up to monitor intrusive, anti-consumer legislation, has strongly criticised the punitive approach to safer nicotine products that is increasingly being adopted across the EU, according to a story by Fergus Mason for vapingpost.com.
The Index, which is published by the Epicenter think tank group, is compiled by the Institute of Economic Affairs director Christopher Snowdon (pictured).
As well producing an annual scorecard ranking EU countries by consumer freedom, it publishes also reports on issues of special concern, and the suppression of reduced-harm nicotine products has now reached that threshold.
In the latest, 72-page report, Snowdon acknowledges that there has been progress in some areas; so, for example, nicotine e-liquid is now legal in all EU member states and all other European countries except Switzerland.
He identifies also two countries with a positive approach to harm reduction – Sweden with snus, and the UK with vapor products.
However, Snowdon criticises the EU’s Tobacco Products Directive, which imposes restrictions on what vapor products can be sold and how they can be advertised.
Now, national governments were increasingly gold-plating the TPD rules and imposing extra taxes on vapers. Twelve of the 28 EU members had already done so, and the EU was pushing for ‘harmonisation’ of e-cigarette and tobacco taxation.Putting an end to ENDS
India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has proposed banning electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), including electronic cigarettes, according to a story in the most recent issue of the BBM Bommidala Group newsletter.
The Ministry says that such a ban would be a matter of public interest.
It recently informed the Delhi High Court that e-cigarettes contained nicotine and that they could be a gateway product that led young people to try combustible cigarettes. Therefore, the government was looking to ban the devices altogether.
The High Court took up the issue after Seema Sehgal, described as a homemaker, filed a petition asking the government to formulate guidelines for the sale, production and supply of the devices.
Six Indian states have prohibited the manufacture and marketing of vaping products.Plain packaging failing
The UK-based Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association (TMA) yesterday published data showing how standardized tobacco packaging is failing in the UK.
The TMA said that while reducing smoking levels had been a key objective behind the introduction of standardized packaging in May 2017, the evidence indicated that there had been an upturn in smoking levels in recent months.
‘The Smoking Toolkit Study has found that on a three-month rolling average, from December 2017 to March 2018, smoking rates in England were higher than for the same time last year before plain packaging was fully introduced,’ the TMA said in a press note.
‘The TMA estimates that if the same effect was seen across the UK, there would be approximately 350,000 more adult smokers in March 2018 than a year before plain packaging was fully introduced.
‘This reflects international evidence that plain packaging doesn’t deter smoking. France introduced plain packaging in January 2016. The French Health Minister, Agnes Buzyn, recently admitted that: “Plain packaging did not contribute to the decrease of official tobacco sales”.’
At the same time, the TMA said, standardized tobacco packs had delivered a huge benefit to criminals because counterfeiting a single pack design was easier, cheaper and more profitable than was counterfeiting different designs.
‘Counterfeit plain packaged tobacco products have already been found across the country,’ the TMA said.
‘The Government was warned this would happen by the tobacco industry, law enforcement and intellectual property experts.’
Meanwhile, the TMA said that new polling it had conducted during the past two months had found that smokers were being pushed towards the illegal market by plain packaging. Over a quarter of UK smokers said that the measure had made them more likely to buy untaxed tobacco, the equivalent of 1.9 million people across the UK.
“The recent evidence shows that plain packaging appears to be failing in the UK like everywhere it has been introduced,” said Giles Roca, director general of the TMA.
“It appears not to be delivering the health outcomes it was claimed it would bring while at the same time is proving to be a boon to the black market by encouraging smokers to buy from illicit sources.
“The Government should recognise that plain packaging is failing and undertake a full and immediate review of this policy.”HNB decision unchallenged
New Zealand’s Ministry of Heath has abandoned its legal fight to stop a tobacco company importing and selling heat-not-burn (HNB) tobacco sticks, according to a story on Radio New Zealand (RNZ).
Last month, the Wellington District Court dismissed the Ministry’s case against Phillip Morris, ruling the product, HEETS, did not come under the Smoke-Free Environment Act’s ban on tobacco products for chewing or other oral use.
The Ministry has decided not to appeal the decision.
The products will be subject to some of the regulatory controls that apply to combustible cigarettes; so they cannot be sold to minors and their advertising is restricted.
But unlike combustible cigarettes, vaping and HNB devices can be used indoors in public places.
The Ministry said it was now considering how best to regulate vaping devices and HNB products.
Meanwhile, a Scoop story in April said that the legality of selling nicotine vaping products in New Zealand remained in doubt.
The previous National-led government claimed nicotine-vaping products could not be legally imported into and sold in New Zealand, but last year promised new regulations to allow the sale of nicotine e-cigarettes and e-liquids.
And at the beginning of April, National MP Nicky Wagner, who championed the promised law change, introduced a private member’s bill to try to get vaping back on the Labour-led government’s agenda.
But vaping researcher, Professor Marewa Glover, of Massey University’s School of Health Sciences, said that six months into the new Labour-led government’s term, all Associate Minister of Health Jenny Salesa had said on the matter was that she didn’t know what the government’s position on e-cigarettes was going to be.Following the money
Four municipalities in the Ilocos region of the Philippines that, during the past two years, received the biggest shares from tobacco excise taxes have failed to publicly disclose how the funds are being spent, in violation of budget rules, according to a major Vera Files story by Maria Feona Imperial, Lucille Sodipe and Jake Soriano, published in the Philippine Star.
Candon City, the municipalities of Cabugao and Santa Cruz in Ilocos Sur, and Balaoan in La Union reportedly each received more than a billion pesos in tobacco excise taxes since 2016 but failed to comply with Department of Budget and Management (DBM) memoranda reporting requirements.
LGUs [Local Government Units] that benefit from excise taxes are required to prepare quarterly reports on fund utilization and the status of projects, following a prescribed format. These reports are to be posted within 20 days after every quarter on the LGUs’ websites, and in at least three conspicuous public places.
Two laws, Republic Act 7171 and RA 8240, later amended by RA 10351, provide tobacco-producing local governments 15 percent of total excise taxes collected annually on the sale of tobacco products.
Local governments’ shares in these taxes, which are earmarked to ‘advance the self-reliance of tobacco farmers’, have risen to more than P41 billion since 2016, an election year, when the national government started releasing a windfall of excise tax shares after the sin tax reform law, which imposed higher taxes on cigarettes.
Prior to 2016, the funds were channeled through lawmakers, a scheme that the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional due to post-enactment intervention in the implementation of the national budget.
The budget releases were since accompanied with guidelines on the use of funds and ’emphasized the concomitant posting and reporting (of) requirements to enhance transparency and accountability’.
Yet VERA Files said that it had found that the top recipients of tobacco excise tax shares since 2016 had failed to comply with the DBM’s reporting requirements.
Reports showed also that proceeds from the taxes were being used to fund projects that did not directly benefit tobacco farmers.
Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, in an interview with VERA Files, said noncompliance could be grounds for administrative action, including suspension from office.
