Filtrona has launched a series of new filters for heated-tobacco products (HTP), the Boreas range.
The new range includes Boreas SideFlow, a patent-pending filter with a simplified design, and Boreas CoolBridge, which combines the company’s ECO Paper Bridge cooling segment with mono acetate and its Finewall Tube to create a balanced retention and cooling mechanism.
“As more of our customers move into the rapidly growing HTP market, the launch of our Boreas range of HTP filters is timely and exciting for consumers and the wider industry alike,” said Filtrona Global Director of Innovation and ESG Hugo Azinheira in a statement. “We are thrilled to support our customers with a dedicated range of HTP filters that bear the hallmark of our innovative and unique designs.”
Azinheira said HTP customers would benefit from Filtrona’s considerable expertise. “Our industry knowledge helps companies to catch emerging trends, adapt to changes and build strong brands,” he said.
“For any of our customers that are looking to enter the HTP segment, collaborating with our team of experts can significantly speed up the product development and commercialization processes, giving them a crucial edge in the market.”
Flonq, a leading vaping system manufacturer, has released its latest innovations, the Flonq Ultra and Flonq Max Pro. The two devices, with advanced features and stylish designs, “promise to upgrade the vaping experience,” according to a press release.
Ultra and Max Pro feature an LED display for real-time monitoring of battery and liquid consumption. Both products also have a “boost” mode for enhanced performance that delivers “impressive vapor production and flavor intensity.”
Despite the large 18ml e-liquid capacity, which provides up to 20.000 puffs, both devices maintain a compact and ergonomic design.
“Unlike many vaping brands that simply enlarge their devices when increasing e-liquid tank capacity, we prioritize convenience and comfort for users,” states Marlen Nazarov, Flonq’s founder and CEO. “Our goal is to provide vapers with a combination of performance and style, offering a truly premium vaping experience.”
Flonq continues to offer refined flavors and memorable designs across its product range, according to the release. “We craft our devices, featuring minimalistic and sophisticated design”, explains Vladimir Parygin, the company’s head of Design. “At the same time, we ensure that each device possesses its own personality.”
While both devices feature powerful dual mesh coils, each utilizes a different coil type. In Max Pro, the coils are positioned one above the other, while in Ultra, both mesh coils form a single cylinder, created by right and left sections. This coil difference impacts the flavor experience. Max Pro offers intense and bold flavors, while Ultra delivers refined and firm flavors.
“Another significant aspect that sets us apart from our competitors is the time and effort we dedicate to creating unique designs. We don’t rely on established configurations in the vaping market, and provide compelling storytelling and inspiration behind each device,” stated Nazarov.
The Flonq Max Pro is inspired by the urban environment: big city life, cars, and modern architecture. The device boasts a glossy texture across its entire body and is offered in a variety of vibrant colors. Max Pro appeals to those who appreciate unconventional aesthetics.
For Flonq Ultra, the design team drew inspiration from a maritime theme, luxury boats and yachts. “The device embodies elegance and is crafted from soft-touch matte material,” the release states.
“While often overlooked, we consider every detail in our vapes: from the texture of the materials and portability to the shape of the mouthpieces, ensuring both visual appeal and functionality, of course,” stated Parygin.
Premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) registry bills in the United States are harmfully limiting options for people seeking to quit cigarettes, according to critics.
The bills, which restrict sales to products that have either been authorized by the Food and Drug Administration under the PMTA pathway or are undergoing that process, have been spreading rapidly around the nation, according to Filter.
Alabama, Louisiana and Oklahoma already have PMTA registry bills in force while laws in Kentucky, Utah and Wisconsin are set to take effect in 2025.
To date, the FDA has authorized only a handful of e-cigarettes, all of which are owned by tobacco companies. The remaining vapes on the market are sold unauthorized and often imported from China. Limited FDA enforcement has prompted many states to step in with registry bills.
Tobacco harm reduction advocates have long condemned the PMTA process as excessively onerous. They point out that it’s easier to bring new cigarettes to market than it is to gain authorization for safer vapes that can replace them.
Tobacco companies are supporting PMTA registry bills in what critics say is a bid to dominate the market at the expense of people who smoke.
“Most legislators do not understand that PMTA registries aim to ban the sale of the vast majority of vaping products used by adults in their state,” said Greg Conley, director of legislative and external affairs for the American Vapor Manufacturers trade organization. “They think they are fighting Chinese scofflaws, but really they are making life worse for their own voters.”
Ling Chengxing, former head of China’s State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, has been arrested on suspicion of accepting bribes and abusing power, reports China Daily, citing a May 7 statement by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate.
Among other transgressions, Ling reportedly accepted banquets, sought benefits for relatives in employment and school admissions and secured benefits for others in the cadres selection and appointment.
Ling also accepted gifts, sought special treatment in transportation and medical care for his relatives and used his position to benefit others in business operations, employee hiring and job promotions.
In return, he accepted large amounts of property, according to the allegations.
Originally from Jiangxi province, Ling joined the Communist Party of China in 1977 and began working in 1980. He held positions, including executive vice governor of the province.
Ling was the head of China Tobacco from May 2013 until his retirement in July 2018. He was placed under investigation in October 2023.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee will hold a public meeting on June 26, 2024, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time at the FDA White Oak Campus in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Among other topics, the committee will discuss the renewal of a risk modification order submitted by Swedish Match USA for several loose snus and portioned snus products sold under the General brand name.
Philip Morris International is drawing fire for sponsoring doctors’ education, reports The Guardian.
According to the newspaper, the multinational has been supporting medical education programs on quitting smoking and harm reduction in South Africa, the Middle East and the United States. The sponsored courses allow participants to collect credits showing they are engaging in post-qualification learning.
Nicholas Hopkinson, a professor of respiratory medicine at Imperial College London, lambasted PMI’s medical sponsorships. “Based on its market share (around 15 percent), and the global death toll from smoking (more than 8 million annually), Philip Morris kills at least a million people every year,” he was quoted as saying. “The idea that it should have any role in medical education is grotesque.”
Hopkinson called for bodies that provide or regulate medical education to “produce explicit statements and policies that tobacco industry involvement is completely forbidden.”
A PMI spokesperson said the company believes science-based education on the topic of tobacco harm reduction is vital to improve public health.
PMI provides educational grants for science-based programs that are run independently from PMI and follow accredited standards, including a further independent third-party academic review, he said.
“Funding is clearly labelled and attributes support from PMI. We do not control the content, and it is unfounded to claim the programs are to promote PMI products. Our activities comply with all applicable laws.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has uploaded the first update to its recently created Searchable Tobacco Products Database, which provides an overview of tobacco products and vapor products that may be legally marketed in the United States.
Due to timing factors associated with the initial launch, the products included in this update cover a longer time period (January through mid-April 2024) than will typically be included in the future. The agency intends to update the database every month.
The current database updates include the addition of several tobacco products that were issued a substantial equivalence or exempt order, a number of tobacco products that were determined to be preexisting tobacco products through voluntary submissions, and links to redacted and 508-compliant order letters, decision summaries and other documents for various authorized products that were already in the database.
Kenya’s health ministry is gathering public feedback on a proposal that would require cigarette manufacturers to print new graphic health warnings on packs of nicotine products, reports The Standard.
The new rules will require tobacco manufacturers to display labels covering 80 percent of the packaging of cigarettes, nicotine pouches and e-cigarettes.
“The objectives of the graphic health warnings are to increase knowledge about risks associated with tobacco use, to deter initiation to tobacco, to reduce tobacco consumption and persuade tobacco users to quit and to break the challenges of languages and the inability to read text-only messages,” said the Ministry of Health in a public notice.
Some 8.6 percent of Kenyans smoked in 2020, according to World Health Organization data. The government wants to reduce this figure to less than 5 percent by 2025.
Tobacco industry representatives contend that the proposed measure does not appropriately distinguish between cigarettes and smoke-free nicotine products, such as nicotine pouches, which they tout as less hazardous than cigarettes.
“There is a need for legislation in Kenya to separate tobacco products from nicotine products and for an appreciation of the role played by alternative nicotine-delivery products,” an unnamed official was quoted as saying. “The current graphic health warnings campaign does not distinguish between the two products.”
Around the United States, statehouses from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania., to Tallahassee, Florida., are being flooded with tobacco industry lobbyists, according to a new report from the anti-smoking advocacy group Action on Smoking and Health.
According to the latest edition of the group’s Tobacco Industry Lobbyist and Lobbying Firm Registration Tracker, released Thursday, at least 950 lobbyists represent cigarette, vape, and snus companies in statehouses around the country, according to an article from StatNews.
The number of lobbying registrations tied to tobacco companies jumped over 10 percent from 2023 to 2024.
ASH’s overall tally, based on publicly available lobbying registration data, is likely an undercount because several states only require lobbying firms, not individual lobbyists, to register with them.
South Korea’s law designating public facilities, including crowded outdoor plazas, as nonsmoking areas is constitutional, according to the Constitutional Court.
In an April 25 ruling, reported by the Korea JoongAng Daily, the court held that the National Health Promotion Act, which requires all public facilities, including outdoor spaces, to be designated as nonsmoking areas, does not violate the Constitution.
Article 9 of the National Health Promotion Act designates public facilities that are 1,000 square meters or more as nonsmoking areas.
The law was challenged after a smoker fined for lighting up outside of the Bexco convention center in Busan filed a legal case arguing that it was excessive to designate such open areas as nonsmoking areas.
The case eventually made its way to the Constitutional Court, which held that even public outdoor areas can’t be considered completely free from the risk of secondhand smoke, noting that it is difficult to completely block cigarette smoke even if there are separate nonsmoking and smoking areas.
The court noted that the need to protect people who do not want to breathe in secondhand smoke is greater than the need to guarantee smokers’ freedom to smoke.
