Tag: Australia

Pending Ban Triggers Run on Nicotine Vapes

Photo: Ethan Parsa from Pixabay
Australians have started stockpiling e-cigarettes after their government announced it would ban imports of most vapor products, reports the Daily Mail.
From July 1, it will be illegal to import e-cigarettes and refills containing nicotine liquids or salts.
New Zealand’s leading retailer of vaping supplies, Shosha, recorded a 130 percent spike in sales from Australia since the announcement. Shosha also experienced a 44 percent increase in foot traffic compared to the same time last year.
Under Australia’s new regulations, individuals would need to visit a doctor and be issued a prescription to purchase their nicotine containing e-cigarettes or refills.
Even valid prescription holders would still be prohibited from purchasing the devices from overseas themselves.
The ban on importing nicotine e-cigarettes and refills would be in line with existing bans on their sale in each state and territory.
The prohibition would last 12 months while the government conducts a public consultation on the regulation of nicotine products by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
The regulation would see nicotine products added to the Poisons Standard making them prohibited permanently with the exception of tobacco cigarettes and smoking-cessation products such as gums and patches.
The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) has protested Australia’s ban, saying it will deprive millions of vapers and existing smokers of their rights to access better alternatives to combustible cigarettes.
“Smokers in Australia have been denied access to a proven harm reduction tool and vapers in Australia have yet again been dealt a potentially fatal blow which will see many of the 300,000 strong vaping community go back to smoking cigarettes,” CAPHRA Executive Director Nancy Loucas said in a statement.
The group pointed to studies showing that e-cigarettes are 95-percent less harmful than combustible tobacco because they do not involve combustion. “It has been known for decades that tar, and carcinogens found in tobacco smoke, cause the death and disease associated with smoking, and not nicotine,” CAPHRA stated.
June 24, 2020
Australia Extends Nicotine Vape Ban

Photo: Haiberliu from Pixabay
E-cigarettes containing nicotine will remain illegal in Australia for at least another year, reports The Daily Mail.
The federal government is extending a ban on the importation of such products unless prescribed by a doctor.
The ban will remain in place for 12 months to allow for public consultation on the regulation of nicotine products by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
Under the ban, Australians would still be able to vape nicotine if their doctor provides a prescription.
They would get their e-cigarettes or refills via a permission granted by the health department to a doctor or medical supplier who would be able to import the goods using a courier service or by cargo service.
The goods cannot be imported through international mail.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) welcomed the decision, saying that vaping is not a healthy alternative to smoking.
“Nicotine is a highly addictive substance and there is no level of tobacco use which is safe,” AMA Vice President Chris Zappala said.
June 22, 2020
Australian Regulator Rejects Tobacco Heating Products

Photo: PMI
Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) on June 10 in an interim decision rejected a request by Philip Morris Australia to adjust nicotine regulations in a manner that would allow the company’s heat-not-burn product (HTP) reach store shelves.
Currently, only combustible tobacco products such as cigarettes and cigars are permitted to be sold in Australia.
Philip Morris (PM) spokesperson Simon Breheny called the decision disappointing. “It puts Australia at odds with many other countries who have decided to regulate heated-tobacco and smoke-free alternatives,” he said.
“The right decision was made,” said Becky Freeman, a researcher from Sydney University’s School of Public Health. “They [HNB products] are not some miracle product that reduces smoking.”
While Breheny noted that PM will not challenge the interim decision, he maintained that a regulatory mechanism is the appropriate way forward. “People who are looking for these alternatives will continue to make the case for why they are important,” he said.
The TGA is scheduled to release its full final decision in August.
June 12, 2020
Australia’s Plain Packaging Justified, Says WTO

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
The World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled on Tuesday that Australia’s plain packaging laws are justified, rejecting complaints by Honduras and the Dominican Republic that they are unfair restrictions on trade.
In December 2012, Australia became the first country to require tobacco companies to strip their products of all branding. Cigarettes have since been sold in drab, brown packs with large graphic health warnings but no logos or other distinguishing features. Brand names are printed in generic fonts.
Following the introduction of the measure, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Indonesia—all major tobacco-producing countries—challenged Australia’s measure at the WTO.
The complainants argued that Australia’s Tobacco Plain Packaging Act constituted an unjustified barrier to trade, but the WTO panel found Australia’s measures were not more restrictive than was necessary to achieve the public health goal of reducing smoking.
Honduras and the Dominican Republic appealed against the panel’s findings.
The World Health Organization’s (WTO) appellate body said on Tuesday that it had found no errors in the earlier panel’s conclusions and that it rejected the complainants’ request for Australia to change its packaging rules.
Anti-tobacco activists welcomed the WTO verdict. “This ruling is yet another victory for Australia and global health and a resounding defeat for the tobacco industry, which has fiercely fought plain packaging laws,” said Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “This ruling puts to rest any remaining questions about plain packaging under international trade law.”
Myers also suggested that the plaintiffs received technical and financial support from British American Tobacco (BAT) and Philip Morris International to bring their complaints.
The tobacco industry has long argued that plain packaging is an ineffective and disproportionate measure.
“Naturally, we are disappointed with the ultimate findings of the report,” said a spokesperson for BAT, which was not part of the case. “However, it is important to note that decisions from the WTO panel or appellate body do not set a global precedent when it comes to this measure and will only be binding to the parties involved in this dispute.”
BAT also noted that the report is not an endorsement on the effectiveness of plain packaging. “The appellate body actually dismissed the panel’s finding that plain packaging reduced the consumption of tobacco products,” the company wrote in a statement.
Plain packaging is now required in at least 15 countries, and many other governments are in the process of formally considering the policy.
Tuesday’s ruling was the last by the WTO’s appellate body, which serves as a supreme court in international trade disputes but has ceased to function after the United States blocked new appointments. The result is that the Geneva-based WTO can no longer effectively intervene to settle disputes.
June 10, 2020
Problem cannot be patched
Taxpayers in the state of South Australia will pay for nicotine substitutes for prisoners as the state moves to make its jails smoke-free, according to a story by Rebecca Puddy at abc.net.au.
The Department for Correctional Services has estimated that 80 percent of South Australia’s 2,800 prisoner-population comprises smokers, with 75 percent smoking daily.
Under the current smoking rules, prisoners can buy their own cigarettes and tobacco from canteens.
A $2 million bill for nicotine patches and lozenges will form part of the $6.2 million cost to taxpayers of keeping cigarettes out of the state’s prisons in the years to 2022, with additional funding set aside for health and security measures, staff costs and quit support.
The smoking ban has received bipartisan support and strong backing from Cancer Council SA and the Public Service Association, the union representing the state’s prison guards.
Under the current structure, SA Health pays for NRT in prisons that have not enacted a smoking ban but will hand over this cost to the Department for Correctional Services when the ban is introduced at the end of the year.
Under the rules to be introduced as prisons become smoke-free, taxpayers will foot the bill for the first six weeks of a nicotine replacement program, with prisoners required to pay one quarter of the cost for the next three weeks, and 50 percent of the cost for the final three weeks.
Cancer Council SA spokeswoman Alana Sparrow said the Government had worked with stakeholders to develop a “good evidence-based approach”, learning from the experiences of other states.
“We have looked at evaluations in different states and territories – in some it has worked extremely well but we are also learning from the experiences in other states like Victoria,” she said.
A 2018 study of former prisoners in Queensland found 94 percent relapsed to smoking within two months of their release, with 72 percent doing so on the day of their release
March 22, 2019
Call for end to vaping ban
The authors of a new report have recommended that vaping products should be primarily regulated in Australia as consumer goods rather than as therapeutic, medicinal or tobacco products.
The report, Legalising Vaping in Australia, was published on Saturday by the McKell Institute, and was the subject of a story posted on the website of the Australian Harm Reduction Association.
In the report’s executive summary, the authors said that ‘legalising vaping has enormous potential to improve public health, particularly for disadvantaged smokers who are disproportionately affected by smoking-related diseases’.
‘We recommend that vaping products should be primarily regulated as consumer goods rather than as a therapeutic, medicinal or tobacco product,’ they said.
‘Regulation should aim to maximise the benefit for adult smokers while reducing any potential risks to users and harm to the wider population, especially young people who have never smoked.
‘Regulation should be proportionate to the risk of vaping.
‘The authors strongly recommend that Australia’s successful tobacco control policy continues and is supplemented by two changes: first, ending the de facto ban on vaping; and second, re-introducing appropriately funded mass media campaigns and supporting counselling to increase quitting rates.’
The McKell Institute is described as an independent, not-for-profit, public policy institute dedicated to developing practical policy ideas and contributing to public debate.
The report’s co-authors are: Dr. Alex Wodak AM, Conjoint Associate Professor Colin Mendelsohn.
March 12, 2019
Catch-as-catch-can
A story in pharmacynews.com.au has thrown some cold water – but not much – on a widely-reported UK study (see Quitting with e-cigarettes, January 31) that found that nicotine-containing electronic cigarettes were almost twice as effective as nicotine patches and gum in helping smokers quit their habit.
But there was a ‘catch’, the story said. A year after quitting tobacco 80 percent of those who had switched to e-cigarettes were still vaping, while nine percent who had used nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) were still using NRT.
But that seems to be the limit of the cold water.
The findings were significant because the NRT users tended to cease treatment prematurely and had higher rates of relapse, Dr. Ryan Courtney (PhD) of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre in Sydney, NSW, was quoted as saying.
“Vaporised nicotine products seem to have quite high user acceptability in terms of the act of using your hands, the sensory-motor aspects,” said Courtney, who is also a senior lecturer in health behaviour science at the University of NSW. “And [users] do actually get enjoyment out of using vaporised nicotine products.”
But he said the long-term health risks of vaping were unknown, and that GPs and patients should continue to exercise caution.
“From a harm-reduction approach, vaporised nicotine products frequently do present as a potentially safer option, but there haven’t been the long-term studies that have looked at outcomes,” he said.
February 6, 2019
Nicotine poses little risk
A report from the Australian Poisons Centres has confirmed that accidental ingestion of nicotine e-liquid is extremely rare and is usually mild and self-limiting, according to the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association (ATHRA).
In a note posted on its website, ATHRA said the findings supported the case for legalising and regulating nicotine for vaping as a safer alternative to smoking.
The study in the Medical Journal of Australia yesterday reported on 202 calls to Australian Poisons Centres for e-cigarette and e-liquid exposure over an eight-year period from 2009 to 2016. Calls were said to have increased as vaping became more popular, but still represented only 0.015 percent of all calls received – fewer than one in five thousand calls.
Thirty eight percent of the calls were for children, and there were 12 cases of deliberate self-administration by adults for self-harm.
Most subjects had only mild symptoms. Twelve had moderate symptoms, usually vomiting and sedation. There were no serious reactions or deaths reported.
ATHRA said the Australian findings were similar to Poisons Centre reports from the US and Europe, which also found that accidental exposure to nicotine e-liquid was usually mild and short lived.
‘Although nicotine is potentially toxic, serious reactions from accidental ingestion are rare and most cases make a full and quick recovery,’ the ATHRA note said. ‘Most swallowed nicotine is not absorbed into the bloodstream and much of the remainder is broken down rapidly in the liver.
‘Suicide attempts with even very large doses usually result in prompt vomiting. Thankfully there is usually a full recovery but very rare fatalities have occurred in adults and children.
‘Nicotine poses no risk to vapers if used in the standard doses as intended.’
January 29, 2019
Tobacco business attacked
An oncologist of Melbourne, Australia, is on a mission to break the links between the tobacco and global-finance industries, according to an interview conducted by Madeleine Morris at abc.net.au.
Morris, in introducing the oncologist, Dr. Bronwyn King, who is also the CEO of Tobacco Free Portfolios, said that the global finance industry still worked hand-in-glove with the tobacco industry. Big insurers insured it, big banks lent to it, and many superannuation funds invested their members’ money in it.
In fact, King was prompted to act when, 10 years ago, her financial adviser told her that her superannuation fund – along with most others – invested in cigarette companies.
“If we invented the finance system today, banks wouldn’t automatically lend money to tobacco companies, and super funds or global pension funds wouldn’t invest in tobacco companies and insurers wouldn’t insure them,” King was quoted as saying. “We simply have to undo what has been established as a status quo…
“Seven million people across the world have died as a result of tobacco in the past year alone. Just imagine if a brand-new industry was launched today and, by the end of next June, that industry’s products had killed seven million people.” [The interview appeared to be dated January 22; so it wasn’t clear why it was implied that ‘next June’ was a year away.]
Morris said that, during the past year King had been around the world six times; and to New York and Paris five times each. “She’s on a mission to convince major financial institutions to drop their investments in cigarette companies,” said Morris.
The extracts from the interview are not included in chronological order above. The interview, as presented, is here.
January 23, 2019
Bungling at best
Queensland Health has been misinforming people that avenues allowing them to vape legally with nicotine in Australia are not open to them in Queensland, according to a report by the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association (ATHRA).
The report helpfully explains some of the laws governing vaping in Australia, which can seem opaque.
‘Although there are ways to legally vape with nicotine in Australia, Queensland Health has been telling smokers that they do not apply in Queensland,’ the ATHRA said. ‘This behaviour is bungling at best, or dishonest at worst.
‘Whatever their beliefs, governments have a responsibility to ensure accurate information is provided to consumers. Queensland Health’s opposition to vaping is no justification for deceiving the public to further its agenda.
‘Some Australian pharmacies can prepare nicotine liquid for vaping for a smoker who has a nicotine prescription and wants to quit. This is known as “compounding” and is legal in all states and territories under Commonwealth law (Therapeutic Goods Regulations 1990) …’
Queensland Health is said also to have misled the public for several years about importing nicotine from overseas.
‘Under the Therapeutic Goods Administration Personal Importation Scheme, smokers in all states can import nicotine legally to help them quit smoking if they have a doctor’s prescription,’ the ATHRA said.
January 21, 2019