Tag: cigarettes

  • Tobacco Product Prices Up in Cuba

    Tobacco Product Prices Up in Cuba

    Credit: Timothy S. Donahue

    Beginning on April 12, Cuban tobacco users experienced higher retail prices for cigarettes and cigars. The brands are the domestic tobacco products sold in local stores used by Cuban residents, not tourists.

    According to the report, the prices of cigarette-style brands like Criollo, Titanes, and Popular are now CUP 30 ($1.25) per pack of 20. H. Upmann Clásico, a short cigar sold with and without filters, is CUP 50, and Popular Auténtico is now CUP 60. (It should be noted that an American dollar on Cuba’s black market averages about CUP 300 to $1; this would put the price of a 20-pack of Populars at about $0.10.)

    Minister of Finance and Prices, Vladimir Regueiro, told Cuban media that the current cost does not cover all the costs and expenses related to the production and commercialization of the tobacco products.

    In a press conference, he added that the measure would “contribute to reducing the fiscal deficit in the country, and new financial resources may be mobilized from the state budget to support the social expenses of priority sectors.”

    He also said that tobacco is not a necessity for the population and that the responsibility of the State and the government is to guarantee an appropriate level and assortment of food products.

  • Teen Cigarette Use Declined Over 30 Years

    Teen Cigarette Use Declined Over 30 Years

    Image: pikselstock

    Cigarette smoking among U.S. adolescents (grades nine to 12) from 1991 to 2021 significantly decreased, according to a new study from Florida Atlantic University’s (FAU) Schmidt College of Medicine published in Ochsner Journal online ahead of print.

    Study findings include:

    • Ever use cigarettes significantly decreased from 70.1 percent in 1991 to 17.8 percent in 2021, an almost fourfold decline.
    • Occasional cigarette use significantly decreased from 27.5 percent in 1991 to 3.8 percent in 2021, a greater than sevenfold decline.
    • Frequent cigarette use significantly decreased from 12.7 percent to 0.7 percent, a greater than eighteenfold decline.
    • Daily cigarette use declined from 9.8 percent in 1991 to 0.6 percent in 2021, a greater than sixteenfold decline.

    While all grades experienced a significant decline in cigarette use, 12th graders consistently reported the highest percentage of occasional smokers compared to the other school grades, even in 2021. This finding suggests that while smoking has decreased across all age groups, older adolescents might still be more prone to experimenting with cigarettes than their younger counterparts.

    “The substantial decrease in cigarette use among U.S. adolescents spanning three decades is an encouraging public health achievement,” said Panagiota “Yiota” Kitsantas, senior author, professor and chair for the Department of Population Health and Social Medicine at the FAU Schmidt College of Medicine. “This decrease underscores the importance of continued vigilance, research and intervention to further reduce tobacco use and its associated harms.”

    Overall, inequalities in cigarette use among adolescents by gender have been present for decades. However, by 2021, discrepancies in smoking cigarettes by gender were diminished.

    With respect to race/ethnicity, by 2021, the decreases in cigarette consumption were even more pronounced among Black and Asian adolescents while the rates among white and Hispanic/Latino youth remained higher but were still significantly lower than the 1997 rates.

    “These results show reassuring trends, but they also suggest residual clinical and public health challenges that will require targeted interventions,” said Charles H. Hennekens, co-author, First Sir Richard Doll Professor of Medicine and senior academic advisor at the FAU Schmidt College of Medicine.

    “Quitting smoking significantly reduces risks of cardiovascular disease beginning within a matter of months and reaching the nonsmoker status within a few years, even among older adults. However, for lung and other cancers, reductions do not even begin to emerge for years after quitting and even after 10 years remain midway between the continuing smoker and lifelong nonsmoker. Thus, for reducing cardiovascular disease risks, it’s never too late to quit, but to reduce risks of cancer, it’s never too early.”

    Study co-authors are Maria Mejia, first author and an associate professor at Baylor College of Medicine; Robert S. Levine, professor of family and community medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and an affiliate professor at the FAU Schmidt College of Medicine; and Adedamola Adele, a recent biomedical science graduate at the FAU Schmidt College of Medicine.

  • Individual Stick Warnings Coming

    Individual Stick Warnings Coming

    Image: Tobacco Reporter archive

    Canada will soon require that health warnings be printed directly on individual cigarettes—becoming the first country in the world to take this approach, according to the Government of Canada.

    The new Tobacco Products Appearance, Packaging and Labeling Regulations will be part of the government of Canada’s continued efforts to help adults who smoke to quit, to protect youth and nontobacco users from nicotine addiction and to further reduce the appeal of tobacco. Labeling the tipping paper of individual cigarettes, little cigars, tubes and other tobacco products will make it virtually impossible to avoid health warnings altogether. In addition, the regulations will support Canada’s Tobacco Strategy and its target of reaching less than 5 percent tobacco use by 2035, according to a government press release.

    These regulations will come into force on Aug. 1, 2023, and will be implemented through a phased approach that will see most measures on the Canadian market within the year. Retailers will carry tobacco product packages that feature the new health-related messages by the end of April 2024. King-size cigarettes will be the first to feature the individual health warnings and will be sold by retailers in Canada by the end of July 2024 followed by regular size cigarettes, little cigars with tipping paper, and tubes by the end of April 2025.

    Other measures include strengthening and updating health-related messages on tobacco product packages; extending the requirement for health-related messaging to all tobacco product packages; and implementing the periodic rotation of message.

    The new regulations will be published in the June 7, 2023, edition of the Canada Gazette—Part II. In the interim, copies of the full regulations are available upon request by contacting pregs@hc-sc.gc.ca.

  • Singapore: Smoking Cost Up

    Singapore: Smoking Cost Up

    Image: Tobacco Reporter archive

    The cost of cigarettes and alcoholic beverages in Singapore has increased by 11 percent from the previous year, according to the latest data from the Singapore Department of Statistics, reports The Star. 

    The price increase follows a 15 percent excise duty increase for tobacco products included in the government’s 2023 budget.  

    Singapore’s key consumer price gauge rose 5 percent in March, slightly lower than the forecast 5.1 percent increase.  

    The Monetary Authority of Singapore said that core inflation will remain elevated in the next few months but should progressively ease in the second half of 2023 and end the year significantly lower. 

  • Fines and Jail for Undeclared Manufacture

    Fines and Jail for Undeclared Manufacture

    Image: MasterSergeant | Adobe Stock

    A Belgian court handed out fines and prison sentences to several companies and individuals for undeclared cigarette manufacturing, reports The Brussels Times.

    The illegal cigarettes were manufactured and stored in a warehouse in Gosselies that was placed under surveillance in 2022. Another warehouse was discovered in a furniture factory in Anderlecht.

    A truck carrying 16 pallets of undeclared cigarettes manufactured in Belgium was checked near Jabbeke.

    The company running the Gosselies manufacturing was fined €36,710,000 ($39,580,338), and its head was also fined that amount as well as receiving a one-year prison sentence.

    Another company was fined €36,710,000 along with a suspended prison sentence for the amount exceeding €36,600,000. All manufacturing and transport equipment was confiscated.

    The other accused were fined €36,710,000 and received suspended prison sentences of six months, nine months and two years for the amount exceeding €36,600,000.

  • South Korea: Cigarette Sales Up

    South Korea: Cigarette Sales Up

    Image: Tobacco Reporter archive

    Cigarette sales in South Korea increased by 1.1 percent in 2022 compared to the prior year, according to the finance ministry, according to The Korea Herald.

    In 2022, smokers purchased 3.63 billion packs of cigarettes compared to 3.59 billion in 2021.

    Sales decreased 16.8 percent from 2014, the year before the government raised cigarette prices by 80 percent to help reduce smoking.

    Heat-not-burn product demand increased by 21.3 percent while conventional cigarette demand dropped by 1.8 percent.

  • Companies to Post ‘Corrective Statements’

    Companies to Post ‘Corrective Statements’

    Image: Wirestock | Adobe Stock

    Tobacco companies will have to start displaying signs with “corrective” statements about the health effects and addictive nature of cigarettes at U.S. points of sale in the second half of 2023, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ), reports Fox News. A court order requiring the statements will take effect July 1, 2023, after which tobacco companies will have three months to start posting the statements for 21 months in English and Spanish.

    The order “resolves the government’s long-running civil racketeering lawsuit against the largest United States cigarette companies,” according to the DOJ. The racketeering lawsuit was filed in 1999 and ended in 2005; however, the DOJ said the new court order is the last of several corrective remedies related to that case.

    Altria Group, Philip Morris USA, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and four cigarette brands owned by ITG Brands are subject to the order. An estimated 200,000 of 300,000 retail stores in the U.S. that sell cigarettes have agreements with the tobacco companies. The order requires the companies to amend their agreements, requiring corrective statements to be placed at the stores on color signs that are eye-catching. Messaging will include adverse health effects of smoking, the addictive nature of nicotine and adverse health effects of secondhand smoke, among others.

    “Justice Department attorneys have worked diligently for over 20 years to hold accountable the tobacco companies that defrauded consumers about the health risks of smoking,” said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta. “Today’s resolution implements the last remedy of this litigation to ensure that consumers know the true dangers of the smoking products they may consider purchasing.”

    “This is an important moment in the history of cancer control in the United States,” said William Klein, associate director of the National Cancer Institute’s behavioral research program. “Smoking causes about 30 percent of all cancer deaths in the United States, and therefore, the court-ordered corrective statements appearing at the point of cigarette sale will help support our mission to reduce the burden of cancer. We are grateful to our colleagues at the Department of Justice for having completed this significant work.”

  • FDA Ignored Evidence in ‘Deeming’ Premium Cigars

    FDA Ignored Evidence in ‘Deeming’ Premium Cigars

    Photo: Viacheslav Yakobchuk

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration ignored evidence about health risks in considering premium cigars to be subject to same law as cigarettes, a federal judge ruled on July 5, reports Reuters.  

    The litigation focuses on the 2016 Deeming Rule, in which the agency identified a wide range of tobacco products, including premium cigars, to be subject to its regulatory authority along with cigarettes under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

    The FDA rule requires cigar makers to register their products annually, provide ingredient lists for each product and submit products for laboratory testing—procedures the premium cigar industry considers impractical for its handmade, “artisan” products.

    The Premium Cigar Association and Cigar Rights of America challenged the Deeming Rule, arguing that, unlike cigarettes and e-cigarettes, premium cigars do not appeal to young people and are not associated with addiction. They cited studies showing that young people are unlikely to use premium cigars, that users of premium cigars are unlikely to smoke them frequently and that infrequent cigar use is not associated with increased mortality.

    U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington DC agreed that the FDA had not adequately considered the studies cited by the plaintiffs, instead asserting that there was “no evidence” that premium cigars were less harmful.

    “Where, as here, an agency speaks in absolute terms that there is no evidence, it acts arbitrarily and capriciously when there is in fact pertinent record evidence and the agency ignores or overlooks it,” the judge wrote.

    Judge Mehta asked the FDA and the industry groups to submit briefs on whether he should vacate the FDA’s decision or simply remand the matter back to the agency.

  • Study: Vapes Have Higher Health Costs Than Smokes

    Study: Vapes Have Higher Health Costs Than Smokes

    Photo: Tobacco Reporter Archive

    The use of electronic cigarettes costs the United States $15 billion annually in healthcare expenditures—more than $2,000 per person a year—according to a study by researchers at the University of California San Francisco School of Nursing.

    The study, published on May 23 in Tobacco Control, is the first to look at the healthcare costs of e-cigarette use among adults 18 and older, according to the release.

    “Our finding indicates that healthcare expenditures for a person who uses e-cigarettes are $2,024 more per year than for a person who doesn’t use any tobacco products,” said lead author Yingning Wang of the UCSF Institute for Health and Aging.

    According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, combustible cigarette smoking-related illness in the United States costs more than $300 billion each year, including more than $225 billion for direct medical care for adults.

    The researchers based their estimates of healthcare costs and utilization on data from the 2015–2018 National Health Interview Survey. Healthcare utilization included nights in the hospital, emergency room visits, doctor visits and home visits.

    “Healthcare costs attributable to e-cigarette use are already greater than our estimates of healthcare costs attributable to cigar and smokeless tobacco use,” said Wang. “This is a concerning finding given that e-cigarettes are a relatively new product whose impact is likely to increase over time.”

  • Rising Oil Prices May Affect Cigarette Sales

    Rising Oil Prices May Affect Cigarette Sales

    Photo: Destina | Adobe Stock

    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.