Blog - Tobacco Reporter

Smoore and Relx Among Top Patent Applicants

Smoore and RELX were among the vaping business’ most prolific patent applicants in 2021, according to the Chinese Enterprise PCT International Patent Application Ranking. Smoore topped the list with 84 international patent applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), the company announced in a press release. RELX filed 74 international patent applications during the year.

Based on the number of PCT international patent applications in 2021, the ranking is published by IPRdaily, an intellectual property publication, and incoPat, a global patent database.

By Dec. 31, 2021, Smoore had more than 3,408 patent applications cumulatively, including 1,674 authorized patent applications. The company’s patent applications relate to atomization and other technologies. In January, the company launched the world’s thinnest ceramic coil vape pod solution. Equipped with a new generation of the Ultra-slim Bionic Film Ceramic Coil, FEELM Air features seven breakthroughs, including in reliability, flavor and interactive experience, according to Smoore.

To date, the company has hired 1,500 R&D experts from different scientific backgrounds and established 10 centers for cross-disciplinary research. Five additional centers are under construction.

The company says it’s committed to protecting its intellectual property. In October 2021, Smoore filed a complaint to the United States International Trade Commission against 38 American and Canadian enterprises and individuals for copying certain features of its oil-vaping cartridges and components technologies.

March 7, 2022

Illicit Trade Up In Massachusetts

Massachusetts law enforcement officials seized nearly 213,000 smuggled electronic nicotine-delivery system products in 2021, according to a report by the Multi-Agency Illegal Tobacco Task Force.

The seizures of vaping products reportedly dwarfed those of untaxed cigarettes, cigars and smokeless tobacco products. Massachusetts banned the sale of flavored cigarettes and vaping products more than two years ago, but those products are still getting into the state through the black market. The law imposed a 75 percent excise tax on the wholesale cost of vaping products.

The task force, which is overseen by the Department of Revenue, has partnered with federal officials to dismantle cross-border smuggling operations and recover millions of dollars in unpaid tobacco and vaping product excise taxes. Under the new law, anyone caught bringing untaxed e-cigarettes or vaping products into the state can be fined $5,000 for a first offense and up to $25,000 for multiple violations.

The provisions also allow police to seize untaxed vaping products as well as vehicles, boats and airplanes. The state collected more than $370 million in cigarette taxes alone in its last budget year, a 23 percent decline over the previous fiscal year, according to the Department of Revenue. The state collected more than $13 million in taxes on vaping products.

While many anti-nicotine groups have praised Massachusetts’ ban of flavored tobacco products, the ban is not the success its proponents make it out to be, according to Ulrik Boesen of the Tax Foundation. While a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that the sale of flavored tobacco in Massachusetts decreased more than in 27 control states in the wake of the state ban, the authors failed to consider the impact of cross-border trade.

According to Boesen, increased sales in neighboring New Hampshire and Rhode Island almost completely made up for the decrease in Massachusetts. “The end result of the ban, in fact, is that Massachusetts is stuck with the societal costs associated with consumption while the revenue from taxing flavored tobacco products is being raised in neighboring states,” Boesen wrote on the Tax Foundation’s website.

March 7, 2022

Brazil Recyling Tobacco Pesticide Containers

Tobacco growers in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul area are eligible to take part in the empty pesticide container collection program from March 7 to May 19. The move is part of a project by the Interstate Tobacco Industry Union, SindiTabaco, and associate companies, in partnership with the Tobacco Growers’ Association of Brazil, Afubra, and now benefits 113,000 tobacco growers and 395 municipalities in Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina.

According to SindiTabaco President Iro Schuenke, the project is one of the various examples in which the sector puts environmental, social and governance principles into practice.

“The pesticide collection program was created before legislation now in force, with the purpose to preserve the environment and farmers’ health and safety through proper disposal of empty pesticide packaging,” said Schuenke in a statement.

In its 21 years of operation, the program has collected 18 million empty pesticide containers and become a benchmark for other sectors in reverse logistics.

Of the containers collected, 93 percent are destined for recycling, providing raw materials to other plastic products, according to program coordinator Carlos Sehn. Containers that cannot be recycled are taken to licensed landfills.

March 7, 2022

Rising Oil Prices May Affect Cigarette Sales

Rising gas prices will likely depress cigarette demand due to consumers having less cash to spend at gas stations, according to CNBC.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has driven oil prices up as the U.S. and other Western countries have imposed sanctions on Russia. On Thursday, West Texas Intermediate crude futures, the U.S. oil benchmark, was trading at prices not seen since the financial crisis of September 2008, and Brent crude hit a high from May 2012.

Gaurav Jain, a Barclays analyst, estimates that a 1 percent increase in oil prices will cause U.S. cigarette volume to decline by 0.1 percent. “The trend seems to suggest that as consumers saved more money at the gas station and went to the attached convenience store, they bought more cigarettes (impulse purchase item). Now as oil prices move higher, the reverse could happen,” Jain wrote in a note to clients.

Jain predicts that U.S. cigarette volume for fiscal 2022 will fall by 5 percent with prices rising 7 percent. It’s also expected that some consumers will switch to other tobacco products, such as e-cigarettes or modern oral nicotine pouches, in search of cheaper alternatives.

March 4, 2022

U.S. States Target Synthetic Nicotine

Georgia, Maryland and Mississippi legislators recently introduced bills in their respective states that would only allow the sale of vapor products that are authorized by or pending authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to a Filter article.

The pieces of legislation would also establish directories to inventory authorized vapor products, which would eventually be made public. On the surface, these bills look like they are reiterating what the FDA is already doing through its premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) process, through which the FDA has denied millions of products. However, many have noted that the bills serve as a roundabout way to ban synthetic nicotine.

Many manufacturers have turned to synthetic nicotine as a way to continue selling their products since synthetic nicotine is not currently regulated.

“The elected officials sponsoring these bills may be under the mistaken impression that their proposals are only targeted at illicit and counterfeit dealers,” Greg Conley, president of the American Vaping Association, told Filter. “The reality is that these bills would shut down licensed small businesses that are operating in full compliance with federal, state and local laws.”

The Republican lawmakers who introduced the bills—Maryland State Senator JB Jennings, Georgia State Senator Jeff Mullis and Mississippi Representative Nick Bain—have all received campaign funds ranging from $500 to $4,800 from Juul Labs, according to Filter. Some feel that Juul and other large companies want to see synthetic nicotine (and competition) diminished.

“To preserve the harm reduction opportunity for adult smokers, Juul Labs supports a fully regulated, science-based marketplace,” a Juul spokesperson said. “Illegally marketed and illicit products and products designed to evade federal and state oversight undermine harm reduction and a responsible e-vapor category.”

March 4, 2022

THR Strategies Have Reduced Smoking Rates

The Asia Harm Reduction Forum 2021 attended by the leading experts in technology, public health policy and science met to discuss the tobacco harm reduction (THR) strategies deployed in various countries, according to a press release from the Canadian Vaping Association.

“We have known the risks from smoking for many decades. We have known that it is the smoke, not the nicotine, that is responsible. We also know that we can deliver nicotine in ways that have minimal risk,” said David Sweanor, chair of the Center for Health Law, Policy and Ethics and an adjunct professor of law at the University of Ottawa. “As a result, Sweden’s rates of tobacco-related illness and death are by far the lowest that you can see in the European Union. Their smoking rates are now low enough that many people would call it a smoke-free society. When Norway allowed snus products to be more widely available, cigarette smoking fell by half in just 10 years. When Iceland allowed both vaping products and snus into the market, smoking fell by about 40 percent in just three years.”

For decades, Canada has tried to curb smoking through education and taxation with limited success. Reductions in smoking prevalence had generally slowed, with modest annual declines prior to more mainstream adoption of vaping by smokers. Vaping experienced peak adoption in 2019, which lead to a 7.5 percent decline in cigarette sales.

“Harm reduction is one of the four pillars of Canada’s drug and substances policy. Policy that makes vaping less appealing to smokers, like flavor restrictions and taxation, is out of step with this policy. In effect, Canada has embraced harm reduction in name but not substance,” said Darryl Tempest, Government Relations Council to the Canadian Vaping Association.

March 4, 2022

Sweden Wants to Prohibit Flavored Vapes

The Swedish government has proposed a ban on nontobacco-flavored vapes, including menthol, according to Vaping360.

The proposed law includes nicotine and non-nicotine e-liquid and regulates all synthetic nicotine products, setting the purchase age to 18. If the law is passed, the sale of flavored vape products will be banned effective Jan. 1, 2023.

The bill is currently being reviewed by the Council on Legislation, which considers the legal validity of proposed bills before they are considered by legislators. Parliament will vote on the bill as early as March 22.

If the bill is passed, Sweden will be the eighth European country to prohibit flavors, following Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ukraine, Denmark, Lithuania and the Netherlands.

March 4, 2022

Zimbabwe: New Tobacco Floor

Ethical Leaf Tobacco has opened an auction floor in Mvurwi, according to allAfrica. Farmers in Mvurwi used to travel to Bindura for auction.

Patience Mushore-Chizodza, public relations and marketing manager for Ethical Leaf Tobacco, said the company expects to buy 5 million kg of tobacco, up from 4.6 million kg last year.

“We have adopted a paradigm shift and embraced social marketing through various strategies to empower smallholder tobacco farmers,” Mushore-Chizodza said. “This year, the company has embarked on a plough back initiative in all our four tobacco farming regions by recognizing the best farmers who have shown vigilance and best farming practices.”

Wonder Matizamhuka, Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board technical officer for Mvurwi, warned farmers against side marketing as the start of the season gets closer. “As tobacco floors open on March 31, sell your crop to the company that contracted you,” he said. “Side marketing is a crime, and this year, we will be arresting people.

“Don’t look for middlemen at tobacco floors; a good crop sells itself. Unscrupulous people moving in farms buying your crop are ripping you off. Go with your tobacco to the floors.”

Zimbabwe decentralized tobacco marketing to minimize movements in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

March 4, 2022

Nordic Spirit Launches New Nicotine Pouch

Nordic Spirit has launched a spearmint version and an extra-strong nicotine option for its Bergamot Wildberry flavor, according to Talking Retail.

The extra-strong variant will also be available in the new spearmint flavor. Currently, 70 percent of nicotine pouch sales are made up of strong and extra-strong variants.

“The Nordic Spirit brand has gone from strength to strength since launching in 2019 with its range of nicotine pouches pivotal in driving category growth,” said Mark McGuiness, head of marketing at JTI U.K. “We strive to innovate and meet evolving customer demand, and the new launches do just that—helping retailers take advantage of the increasing market for stronger variants.”

March 4, 2022

Study: India’s E-cigarette Ban is Working

A recent survey shows that 94 percent of Indian vapers have given up e-cigarettes and other electronic nicotine-delivery systems (ENDS) following their ban in 2019, according to the BangaloreMirror.

The survey, designed by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and conducted in collaboration with the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, was disseminated online and targeted those aged 18 to 34. Most respondents were from Karnataka.

The survey also showed that over 56 percent of respondents believed there was a health risk in using ENDS products while 24 percent were unaware of any risks.

March 4, 2022