Tag: EU

  • Forest: Banning Menthol Will Not Stop Children Smoking

    Forest: Banning Menthol Will Not Stop Children Smoking

    Simon Clark | Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    The EU ban on the sale of menthol cigarettes will needlessly restrict adult smokers’ choices while doing little to prevent underage smoking, according to smokers’ rights group Forest.

    Responding to claims by the anti-smoking group Action on Smoking and Health that the ban on “child-friendly” menthol cigarettes is long overdue, Forest said there is no evidence that banning menthol cigarettes will stop children smoking.

    “The ban on menthol cigarettes is a gross restriction on consumer choice that will do nothing to stop children smoking, said Simon Clark, director of Forest.

    “Evidence from Canada, where menthol cigarettes were first banned in 2015, suggests that the ban had no overall impact on youth smoking rates because younger smokers simply switched to non-menthol cigarettes,” said Clark.

    “Many adults have smoked menthol-flavored cigarettes for decades,” he added. “This week that small pleasure will be taken away from them and the only people who will benefit are the criminals who supply the black market with illegal and counterfeit goods.”

    Menthol cigarettes will be banned in the European Union starting tomorrow.

    The ban will also outlaw flavored cigarettes, skinny cigarettes and flavored rolling tobacco. The measure is part of the EU Tobacco Products Directive and aims to stop younger people from smoking as well as curb smoking rates among current smokers.

  • Juul Labs to Exit South Korea, Five EU Markets

    Juul Labs to Exit South Korea, Five EU Markets

    Juul Labs said today it would end operations in South Korea, a year after it entered the market. The company states the cause was its inability to gain market share amid government health warnings.

    In a statement, Juul Labs stated that since the beginning of the year it was working through a restructuring process aimed a re-establishing a viable business in South Korea by significantly reducing costs and making changes to its products.

    “However, these innovations will not be available as anticipated,” the statement said. “As a result, we intend to cease our operations in South Korea.”

    In October last year, South Korea’s health ministry advised people to stop vaping because of growing health concerns, especially after a case of pneumonia was reported in a 30-year-old e-cigarette user that month, according to Reuters news article.

    The announcement prompted convenience store chains and duty free shops to suspend the sale of flavored liquid e-cigarettes, including those made by Juul Labs.

    In December, South Korean health authorities said they had found vitamin E acetate, which may be linked to lung illnesses, in some liquid e-cigarette products made by Juul Labs, but the company denied using the material, according to Reuters.

    Juul Labs launched a product portfolio that was specifically developed for the Korean market in May 2019, but “our performance has not met expectations in terms of meeting the needs of our Korean adult smokers to successfully transition from combustible cigarettes,” according to the statement. “We have learned through this process and are focused on innovating our product portfolio.”

    Juul Labs is also reportedly ready to withdraw from a handful of EU markets as well, claiming the regulatory environment has become overly hostile to the device.

    According to BuzzFeed News, Juul will soon remove its products from shelves in Austria, Belgium, Portugal, France, and Spain.

    The news outlet reports the European Union’s strict requirement that e-cigs contain no more than 20 milligrams of nicotine makes it difficult for Juul to do business there.

    Austria, Belgium, and Portugal are very small markets for Juul, but the leading e-cig manufacturer generates significant sales from France and Spain. It will exit France by the end of the year, but withdraw from the other countries in July, paring its presence in global markets to a narrow selection that includes Germany, Italy, Russia, and the U.K.

  • A Pointless Exercise

    A Pointless Exercise

    The EU’s upcoming ban on menthol cigarettes serves no purpose.

    By George Gay

    According to Hannah Devlin, science correspondent of The Guardian, astronomers are to sweep the entire sky for signs of extraterrestrial life for the first time, using 28 giant radio telescopes in an unprecedented hunt for alien civilizations (Feb. 15, 2020, page 3). Toward the end of her piece, Devlin quotes the theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking as having warned against attempting alien contact, suggesting the outcome for humans would not necessarily be good. But she quotes, too, Andrew Siemion, the director of the Berkeley Seti center, as saying that he thought such contact should be attempted, and adding that, “I think without a doubt, we would.”

    I think both comments are right up to a point. It is unarguable that the outcome of such contact would not necessarily be good for humans, but history has taught us that, whatever the risk, scientists somewhere would not hold back from making the attempt. Scientific knowledge is no bar to stupidity.

    I cannot think in terms of light years, so I find it impossible to imagine making contact with life forms in other galaxies. But I do find it instructive, often in what turns out to be a cautionary way, to consider what extraterrestrials might make of us earthlings if, because of their super-advanced technology, they could view us in real time through a telescope. What might they say to one another, I wonder? “Hey, come and look at these jerks! Their environment is going down the toilet, and what are they doing? They’re worrying about menthol cigarettes! These are supposed to be intelligent beings! Let’s not go there.”

    I think that the EU is a great experiment in international cooperation, and I am sad—and if I were younger I would be angry—that the U.K. is leaving it, but ridiculous legislation such as its ban on the production and sale of menthol cigarettes sometimes makes it difficult for people such as me to defend the institution against its detractors. In the great scheme of things, what is the point of banning menthol cigarettes?

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    Background

    Well, before I attempt to answer that question, a couple of notes about what the ban entails and how it came about. The production and sale of menthol cigarettes and cigarettes with capsule-containing filters are to be banned within the EU from May 20, 2020, as is the sale of roll-your-own (RYO) tobaccos sold with mentholated filter tips and/or papers. However, RYO tobacco and “accessories,” such as mentholated filter tips and papers, may all be sold separately.

    This regulation has been a long time coming. Its origins go back to a December 2012 proposal by the European Commission to update the EU’s Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) and, a year later, to the EU Parliament’s support for stiffening the rules against tobacco and related products, and, de facto, against committed tobacco users. Early in 2014, the TPD2 was approved by the Parliament and adopted by the EU Council; and it entered into force in May of that year. Aspects of TPD2 were challenged, but it was declared valid by the European Court of Justice in May 2016. Most of the provisions of TPD2, including a ban on the sale of cigarettes with characterizing flavors except menthol, came into effect in May 2017, following a year’s sell-through period. There is no sell-through period in respect of menthol cigarettes.

    Now, let’s return to the question above: what is the point of the ban? Well, according to some commentators, it is aimed at reducing smoking; but this must be hokum. Trying to reduce smoking by banning the sale of menthol cigarettes is like trying to reduce alcohol consumption by banning the sale of wine with characterizing flavors other than grape—such as peach wine.

    Meanwhile, the EU put forward as part of its justification for the ban what the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had concluded in 2013: that menthol cigarettes pose a public health risk above that seen with nonmenthol cigarettes. It also quoted the FDA as saying that menthol use is likely associated with increased smoking initiation by youth and young adults; that menthol in cigarettes is likely associated with greater addiction; and that menthol smokers are less likely to successfully quit smoking than their nonmenthol-smoking counterparts.

    Of course, the EU did not point out that the FDA was so concerned about menthol cigarettes in 2013 that it did nothing about them.

    Reading the above, I was amused by the way the FDA, this self-styled bastion of rigorous science, apparently throws the word “likely” about as if it were confetti at a wedding. And I found myself not convinced by what seemed to me to be some muddled thinking. If the FDA thinks it’s necessary to say that it’s possible “to successfully [my emphasis] quit smoking,” rather than “to quit smoking,” I take it that it believes also that it is possible to unsuccessfully quit smoking. But whereas you might make an unsuccessful attempt to quit smoking, you cannot unsuccessfully quit smoking—not in this galaxy.

    I have trouble also with the concept of “greater addiction.” The word “addiction” has become so malleable in the minds of a lot of people that it is now like mental chewing gum. No more than I can imagine a million light years, can I imagine how degrees of addiction would be measured in a scientifically rigorous manner.

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    Other risks

    The EU aligns with the FDA also on smoking initiation among young people. One of the EU’s original justifications for the ban cited scientific studies that have shown that flavors such as menthol facilitate inhalation and may play a role in smoking initiation. I would have thought scientific studies that purport to show that something may be the case should be binned, but, having said that, I am ready to believe that it is possible that menthol does aid smoking uptake by the young. However, there are laws to prevent the sale of all types of cigarettes to these people, and it seems unbalanced to spoil the enjoyment only of adult smokers of menthol cigarettes because the authorities in the EU’s member states are failing to enforce laws that apply to all cigarettes, especially given the fragility of the scientific studies referred to above.

    After all, the EU seems not to take issue with another product that has been linked with cancer and that young people consume—the younger ones at the behest of adults. In fact, according to the headline above another story that appeared in the same newspaper as Devlin’s report, the EU has been under attack for spending more than €200 million ($225.78 million) on the promotion of meat. As writer Daniel Boffey points out in his piece, “Scientists have provided evidence of a link between cancer and diets involving pork, beef and lamb products.”

    And how those extraterrestrials must be laughing. Boffey points out too that the livestock sector is responsible for about 14.5 percent of human-derived greenhouse gas emissions. How can it be in the interests of young people for the EU to spend millions of euro promoting something that is linked with cancer and that is helping to flush the environment down the toilet? It is young people, not older adults, who are going to have to settle, at best, for a life squatting on the toilet’s event horizon.

    But it isn’t really about the young, is it? How can we have the temerity to maintain, against all the evidence, that we want to protect young people? And I’m not talking only of governments here, I’m calling out ordinary people. One example. In my country, the U.K., voters have recently given a huge parliamentary majority to a party that, during the past 10 years, has overseen a big increase in child poverty and that will almost certainly cause more such poverty during the next five years—a party led by a person who many commentators say is unable or unwilling to account for how many children he has. Elsewhere, the abuse of children in the U.K. is accepted to the point that those in authority often look the other way, and it is even “celebrated” in one of our poetic forms, the limerick. I don’t know what became of the young chaplain from Kings, but some of the leaders of his church sit, by right, in our second chamber, the House of Lords; I presume, to provide us with spiritual guidance. This is way beyond irony.

    I would not argue that the EU should concentrate on nothing but the environment. But it should certainly take off the table any nonessentials and put all available hands to the environment pump. The climate crisis is not a future event. It is already upon us.

    By comparison, the menthol-cigarette ban is pure faff. I presume that it has been devised by people who haven’t moved against gooseberry and elderflower wine because most of them consume alcohol. They want to put a stop to a pleasure that they cannot understand. You can see this in the rules about roll-your-own tobacco. Allowing the sale of menthol papers and tips as separate items but not in conjunction with tobacco seems to be aimed at inconveniencing smokers. The EU’s bureaucrats should be put to work on critical projects. Announcing the European Green Deal is all well and good but, from what I read, making it work is going to be a huge challenge. The carbon scammers will already be jostling for position.

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    Accommodation

    Inevitably, products have been appearing on the market aimed at helping menthol-cigarette smokers through the difficult time being ushered in by the May 20 ban. One, a menthol-infusion card that smokers can slip into a pack of regular cigarettes or fine-cut, is particularly clever, mimicking as it does the RYO accessory exemption, and thereby presumably staying well within the spirit and the letter of the law. Ironically, menthol smokers might end up preferring this system because they can tailor their preferred menthol level by adjusting the length of time they leave the cards in the pack. And of course, menthol smokers can help themselves after May 20 by putting regular cigarettes, together with some menthol crystals bought from their local pharmacies, into a sealed jar and leaving them there for a time based on their preferred menthol strength.

    Despite the fact that I see the menthol cigarette ban as being unnecessary and unfair, discriminating against and collectively punishing a minority group of smokers, you have to accept that what is done is done and try to make the most of it. I suppose you have to hope that those menthol-cigarette smokers in the EU who do not want to take advantage of the new DIY methods react by quitting or switching to menthol vaping.

    But it’s those extraterrestrials who will have the last laugh. They will hardly be able to contain themselves as more EU energy is expended on TPD3 while the environment tips over the event horizon to the strains of “Goodnight Irene.”

    George Gay is Tobacco Reporter’s European editor, but his territory spans the globe. Based in London, George has covered the tobacco industry since 1982, initially for a U.K.-based publication and since 2004 for Tobacco Reporter. George’s understanding of industry issues, combined with his keen sense of observation and dry wit, have earned him a loyal following among Tobacco Reporter’s readers.
  • Nicotine not an EU target

    Nicotine not an EU target

    The EU Commission has no intention of proposing that the nicotine content of cigarettes should be reduced.

    In a preamble to a question submitted to the Commission before the November meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP) to the World Health Organization’s Framework Conference on Tobacco Control, the Italian MEP Alberto Cirio said that among the ‘political options’ on the table at the CoP was a reduction in the nicotine content of tobacco.

    ‘As this is something that can only be achieved, according to the latest scientific research, by treating the dried leaves with chemical additives or by using genetically modified organisms (GMOs), the use of which is not permitted everywhere, the consequences on health and the jobs of those who make a living from growing tobacco are uncertain,’ Cirio said.

    He then asked whether the Commission could clarify:

    1. ‘If it is true that this option is on the table;
    2. ‘If suitable impact assessments have been carried out, as per the “Better law-making” agreement;
    3. ‘What the limits of the negotiating mandate given to the Commission are, or at least if a decision on this matter would fall under its mandate or not.’

    In reply, the Commission said the reduction of the nicotine content of tobacco products was ‘currently not foreseen in the EU’.

    At the CoP meeting the possibilities to reduce the addictiveness of tobacco products were discussed in general terms based on a report prepared for that meeting.

    ‘As a result, it was decided that a meeting involving experts, regulators and stakeholders should be convened to discuss this matter further,’ the Commission said.

    ‘The possibility to reduce the nicotine content of tobacco products was presented at a lunchtime seminar at that session, referring to an advisory note published by the WHO Study Group on Tobacco Products Regulation.

    ‘While Directive 2014/40/EU on Tobacco Products regulates certain aspects of addictiveness in tobacco products (Articles 7.9, 7.11), the Commission has at the moment no intention to propose any additional measures going beyond the scope of Directive 2014/40/EU.’

  • Central European coalition criticizes TPD

    A joint declaration adopted May 17th by Polish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Romanian and Bulgarian agriculture ministers criticizes the European Commission’s draft Tobacco Products Directive, especially the proposed ban on slim and menthol cigarettes, reports Europolitics.

    The ministers said that, if approved, the directive would hurt thousands of families that depend on tobacco cultivation for their living. They called on the Commission to “establish support instruments for producers which would compensate for losses incurred due to the implementation of the directive,” and “to guarantee an alternative for those who would like to withdraw from tobacco production.”

    The ministers also opposed the proposal for cigarette health warnings to cover 75 percent of the surface area of packaging, saying this requirement would have negative consequences for the rights of brand owners and increase the possibility of fraud.

  • E-cigarettes under threat in EU

    The European Commission has said that the majority of e-cigarettes sold in the EU would most likely fall under pharmaceutical legislation if the commission’s proposed revisions to its Tobacco Products Directive were to be accepted. The commission has proposed that e-cigarettes would fall under the legal framework for medicinal products if they contained levels of nicotine above certain thresholds.

    It is generally thought that, for cost or technical reasons, most e-cigarette companies would struggle to have their above-the-threshold products authorized under pharmaceutical laws, and that below-the-threshold products would be unacceptable to many consumers.

    “The nicotine threshold has been identified by considering the nicotine content of nicotine replacement therapies that have already received a marketing authorization by Member States,” the commission said in a written answer to two questions raised by the Polish MEP, Filip Kaczmarek.

    “For electronic cigarettes below the thresholds, the commission proposal foresees that they carry health warnings. They would also have to comply with the General Product Safety Directive as … is the case at the moment.”

  • Illicit trade breaks another EU record

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    Boatloads of bootleg

    The illegal cigarette trade in the EU reached a new record high for the sixth year in a row, according to a KPMG report commissioned by Philip Morris International. The study showed the illegal cigarette trade rising to 11.1 percent in 2012 from 10.4 percent in 2011.

    At 31 percent of the national tobacco market, illicit cigarettes had the highest market share in Latvia. Latvia loses an estimated LVL60 million ($111.4 million) to LVL70 million  in annual tax revenue due to cigarette smuggling. KPMG Baltics representative Andris Purins said Latvia’s proximity to Belarus and Russia is exacerbating the black market problem.

    Other strongly affected EU markets included Lithuania, where illicit cigarettes accounted for 27.5 percent of the market; Ireland (19.1 percent), Finland (16.9 percent), the United Kingdom (16.4 percent), France (15.7 percent), Greece (13.4 percent) and Poland (13 percent).

    The U.K., Greece, Italy and Estonia recorded the steepest growth in the illegal cigarette market since 2011, according to the KMPG report.

  • ‘Tobacco Directive will encourage smoking’

    smokers zurich
    Unintended consequences

    Provisions in the proposed EU Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), including standardized packaging and a ban on menthol and slim cigarettes, have the potential to push consumer downtrading and fuel illegal trade, according to a study conducted by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, commissioned by Philip Morris International and reported by Business Wire.

    The report predicts 175,000 job losses, up to €5 billion ($6.5 billion) in lost tax revenue, and an increase in smoking as a consequence of price competition.

    Patrick Mannsperger, Partner at Roland Berger, said the new TPD could affect not just the EU tobacco sector but also the European economy. The tobacco sector generates more than €100 billion in tax revenue every year, and lower revenues will require spending cuts or tax hikes in other areas.

    Illegal trade, which already represents about 11 percent of cigarette consumption in the EU, could grow by 25-55 percent as a result of standardized packaging and the ban on slim and menthol cigarettes, the report said.

    Sales of illegal cigarettes could rise from 68 billion to between 84 billion and 106 billion. Some countries would be particularly hard hit by the TPD. In Poland and Bulgaria, the directive could result in up to 50,000 and 29,000 job losses, respectively, the report added.

    “We hope the EU will reconsider these proposals and replace them with a regulatory framework that is not politically driven, but science-based and effective in reducing the harm caused by smoking without imposing unnecessary burdens on the economy,” said PMI Vice President for Communications Julie Soderlund.

  • Despite EU weakness, German smokers stay strong

    Alison Cooper, CEO of Imperial Tobacco, said cigarette and tobacco sales in Germany were “excellent,” despite the EU’s economic weakness, which hit the British multinational’s half-year profits.

    “We are growing cigarette share, we are growing fine-cut share, and not just at the value end of the market. We have seen growth at the top-end in brands such as Davidoff and Gauloises,” Cooper told CNBC.

    “We have seen excellent performance in that market,” she added.

    However, Imperial Tobacco, the world’s fourth-largest cigarette company, said volumes were hit by difficult trading conditions in the broader EU, from where it makes two-thirds of its earnings.

    Revenue in the six months leading to March 31 stood at £13.4 billion ($20.8 billion), down 4.2 percent on the previous year’s £14.0 billion. Operating profit was down 9.7 percent at £1.2 billion.

    “The performance reflects the weak consumer environment across Europe, challenging competitive situation in the U.S. and the need to step up investment behind its key brands,” said Damian McNeela and Graham Jones, analysts at Panmure Gordon, in a research note released after the earnings announcement.

    Cooper said revenues from key strategic brands, fine-cut tobaccos and snus (similar to American dipping tobacco) had increased, with improved volumes, and the company achieved revenue growth in the UK and Germany, plus Africa and a number of other emerging markets.

    “Excise-driven market dynamics in Russia, and our transition to a new pricing strategy in the U.S. slowed our revenue and profit momentum in non-EU territories, masking the good growth we’re generating in Asia-Pacific and Africa and the Middle East,” Cooper said in a press release issued after the results.

    Despite the weak economic environment, Cooper said consumers are not reducing their tobacco consumption.

    She added that the EU market would remain tough for at least another 12-to-18 months.

  • OLAF report: no evidence against Dalli

    EU anti-fraud office OLAF had no hard evidence that former health commissioner John Dalli tried to solicit a bribe from a tobacco firm.

    The information comes from its confidential report into the Dalli case, part of which was leaked on Sunday, April 28, by the MaltaToday news agency.

    In his cover letter to the paper, dated October 17, OLAF chief Giovanni Kessler said: “There is no conclusive evidence of the direct participation of commissioner John Dalli either as instigator or as mastermind of the operation of requesting money in exchange for the promised political services.”

    Dalli lost his post last year over allegations he used a middleman to ask tobacco firm Swedish Match for millions of euros to change EU legislation, according to a story published by EUobserver.com

    Sale of Swedish Match’s mouth tobacco, snus, is banned in every member state except Sweden. Dalli’s task was – his accusers claim – to lift the ban in exchange for money.

    The deal was allegedly brokered by Silvio Zammit (a Maltese local politician and restaurant owner with close ties to Dalli) and Gayle Kimberley (a Malta-based consultant hired by Swedish Match) at a meeting in February 2012. Dalli says he had nothing to do with Zammit’s scheme.

    While the OLAF report admits there is no incriminating evidence, it still makes Dalli look bad. It says he attempted to muddle evidence and was most likely aware of Zammit’s plan.

    Dalli met Zammit in February just three days before Zammit allegedly asked Kimberley for the money on Dalli’s behalf. Dalli initially denied his Zammit meeting took place, but changed his story later on.

    OLAF also says Dalli met directly with tobacco lobbyists who “have a personal interest in a matter within his portfolio” in breach of the EU commissioners’ code of conduct.

    He first met with Zammit and with the European Smokeless Tobacco Council (ESTOC) in August 2010. He met again with Zammit and Kimberley in January 2012.

    When questioned by OLAF on what went on at the various events, Dalli tried to hide “content relevant to the issue at stake.”

    The OLAF report states “the inconsistency of commissioner John Dalli’s statements together with the findings of this investigation relating to him, could be seen as a serious breach of duty to behave in keeping with the dignity and the duties of his office.”

    It adds: “there are a number of unambiguous and converging circumstantial items of evidence gathered in the course of the investigation, indicating that … Dalli was actually aware of both the machinations of Silvio Zammit and the fact that the latter was using his name and position to gain financial advantages.”

    The report contradicts some recent statements made by euro-deputies. French Green MEP Jose Bove in March this year met with Swedish Match employees Johan Gabrielsson and Cecilia Kindstrand-Isaksson.

    He said they told him the February 2012 meeting where Zammit allegedly asked Kimberley for the bribe never took place. They also told Bove that OLAF instructed Kimberley to lie about it in order to build its case.

    OLAF denies this. Its leaked report faithfully records that Kimberley made “contradictory” statements about her relations with Zammit and Gabrielsson.

    The former head of the commission’s legal service, Michel Petite – whose new employer, law firm Clifford Chance, works for tobacco giant Philip Morris – also played a prominent role in the affair.

    The OLAF report says Petite met with his former colleague — the commission’s top civil servant, Catherine Day – to pass on Swedish Match’s bribery allegations, prompting the OLAF probe.

    The report quotes another Swedish Match employee, Frederik Peyron, as saying: “We started planning for how to report this matter to the relevant EU authorities and contacted Michel Petite at Clifford Chance to receive advice. At our request, he contacted Catherine Day, and we submitted a written report on the matter.”

    For German conservative MEP Ingeborg Graessle, the leaked report shows OLAF itself in a bad light.

    “Despite missing some important pages, the document confirms the impression of a biased and partly amateurish investigation by OLAF,” she said on Monday.

    “The part of the report now accessible is full of speculation, assertions and obviously uncritical repetition of witness accounts,” she added.

    The Brussels-based pro-transparency NGO, Corporate Europe Observatory, agreed with her.

    “It looks as if OLAF has selectively compiled arguments to support that Dalli had behaved inappropriately, without considering the credibility of the witnesses,” it said on Monday.

    It described the Petite-Day relationship as “shocking.”