Tag: Featured

Stories featured at the top of tobaccoreporter.com

UKVIA Pleads to Keep Vape Shops Open

Photo: VPZ
The U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) is calling on the government to reconsider classifying vape shops as essential retail, as parts of the U.K. enter restrictions under tier 4 and with potential lockdowns following in the new year.
John Dunne
“It’s not just about providing a lifeline to vape businesses but also to vapers and smokers for whom vaping represents a life changing decision, especially at this time of year,” said John Dunne, director general of the UKVIA, in a statement.
“As smokers make New Year resolutions, we should remember that earlier this year Public Health England acknowledged the contribution played by vaping in helping smokers quit and the Royal College of Physicians has found that e-cigarettes are effective in helping people to stop smoking. Recent research has again highlighted that vape products are much more effective than NRTs [nicotine-replacement therapies] in helping smokers give up.”
Dunne said that vape retail stores are well equipped to be COVID compliant. “Our stores do not deal with the high volumes of traffic like other outlets and are easily able to control the number of customers in a store at any one time,” he said.
“We want to make sure that smokers who might be aiming to quit in the New Year, and those who already vape, can continue to gain access to vape devices, e-liquids, and specialist advice that our members can offer.”
December 28, 2020
Turkey Lowers Tax on Tobacco Products

Photo: Torpong Tankamhaeng from Pixabay
Turkey has lowered the special consumption tax on cigarettes and tobacco products to 63 percent, reports Reuters, citing the Official Gazette
The special consumption tax was previously 67 percent. The fixed tax amount will remain unchanged from levels announced in July for the first six months of 2021.
The move could help ease upwards pressure on inflation. Alcoholic beverages and tobacco make up 6.06 percent of the inflation basket. Cigarettes make up a large part of that component.
December 25, 2020
Botswana Tops Regional Smoking League

Photo: Michael Siebert from Pixabay
Botswana has among the highest adult tobacco use rates in sub-Saharan Africa, a recent report shows.

About 240,000 of the country’s adults aged 15 years or older used tobacco, representing a tobacco use rate of 17.6 percent, according to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS). This tobacco use rate is the highest of any country in the region that has carried out a GATS survey. The report shows 82.2 percent of adults purchased single cigarettes, which are more affordable than packs for consumers with low incomes.

According to the GATS report, 12.2 percent of adults who worked indoors were exposed to tobacco smoke in enclosed areas at their workplace, and nearly two in three adults were exposed to secondhand smoke in bars or nightclubs.

Anti-tobacco groups urged the government of Botswana to reject tobacco industry interference in health policy and to pass legislation to exclude tobacco companies and their allies from the policy process.

“Tobacco companies like British American Tobacco Botswana actively lobby to weaken life-saving tobacco control laws because they know such policies have been widely proven to work,” said Bintou Camara, director of Africa programs at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “The company also promotes its deadly business in Botswana through partnerships with retailers and other businesses under the guise of empowering small and medium enterprises.”
December 24, 2020
Bidi Stick Fastest Growing Closed System

Photo: Kaival Brands
Bidi Vapor’s Bidi Stick has become the fastest-growing closed system vaping product in the U.S., the company announced.

Based on Goldman Sachs’ recent equity research report on the Nielsen data for total nicotine volumes, the Bidi Stick is now the second-largest disposable electronic nicotine-delivery system (ENDS) offering based on retail sales for the last 52-week period.

The Bidi Stick increased its absolute-dollar market share of the disposable ENDS market share from 7.4 percent during the 52-week period ending on Oct. 27, 2020, to 24.2 percent of retail sales during the 52-week period ending on Nov. 28, 2020.

According to the Goldman report, total dollar sales growth has surged to 1,845 percent to lead the category for the 12-week period ended Nov. 28, 2020.

“The Bidi Stick is an electronic nicotine-delivery system designed for current adult smokers and is manufactured and marketed with sustainability and socially responsible practices in mind,” said company founder and CEO Niraj Patel.

“We even incentivize our customers to recycle with a one-of-a-kind rewards program. We are also hyper-vigilant in making sure the Bidi Stick does not get into the hands of young people but only those adult smokers over 21 looking for alternatives to cigarettes.”
December 24, 2020
UAE To Require Digital Tax Stamps for Vapor

Photo: Jörg Peter from Pixabay
Starting Jan. 1, shisha and vapor products will have to carry digital tax stamps (DTS) in the United Arab Emirates, reports the Khaleej Times, citing the Federal Tax Authority (FTA) said.
These products cannot be sold, transported, stored or possessed without the tax stamp.
According to the FTA, the DTS system will improve tax collection and enable stakeholders to analyze the supply chain to better control illicit tobacco products.
In addition, the DTS system allows for the implementation of compliance standards and facilitates inspection and control at customs outlets and local markets.
The digital stamps will be placed on the packages of tobacco products and registered in the FTA database. The DTS contains data that can be read with a special device to make sure all taxes due have been paid.
The tax stamp legislation had previously been scheduled to come into effect on June 1, 2020. However, authorities postponed the deadline to address challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic.
December 23, 2020
Trump Sends Covid Relief Bill Back to Congress

Photo: Stevanovicigor | Dreamstime
U.S. President Donald Trump has sent back to Congress a Covid-19 relief bill that included language to ban the U.S. Post Office (USPO) from mailing vapor products. Deriding the bill as a “disgrace,” Trump called on Congress to increase stimulus payments from $600 to $2,000 and to get rid of “wasteful and unnecessary items.”
It was not immediately clear whether the president regards the USPO provision as wasteful or unnecessary.
Trump’s position could threaten to torpedo the carefully drafted bill—a move that could lead to a government shutdown and send the economy into a tailspin if he carried through with a veto. However, few observers expect the president’s message to prompt a renegotiation of the measure, which passed with big veto-proof majorities.
In addition to prohibiting USPO shipments, the Congress bill subjects e-cigarettes to other rules that currently govern online cigarette sales. Among other things, online retailers will be required to use private shipping services that collect an adult signature at the point of delivery, collect all applicable local and state taxes, and send each taxing state’s tax administrator a list of all transactions with customers in their state.
Critics said the legislation would place a considerable burden on vapor companies.
December 23, 2020
E-Cigs Aid Cessation Only in Clinical Settings

Photo: Vchalup | Dreamstime
In the form of mass-marketed consumer products, e-cigarettes do not help smokers quit cigarettes, according to a new study published Dec. 22, 2020, in the American Journal of Public Health by researchers from the University of California San Francisco.
The authors examined both observational studies, which question people “in the wild” without specific guidance to quit, and clinical trials, in which smokers trying to quit were given free cigarettes under medical supervision.
While e-cigarettes led to more quitting than some other therapies in clinical trial settings, the authors noted no such effect in observational studies.
Richard Wang
“It’s important to recognize that in clinical trials, when certain e-cigarette devices are treated more like medicine, there may actually be an effect on quitting smoking,” said study leader Richard Wang.
“But that needs to be balanced against the risks of using these devices. Also, only seven e-cigarette devices were studied in the clinical trials. Whether the effect observed with these seven devices is the same or different than that of the thousands of different e-cigarette products available for sale is unknown.”
The 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act charges the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with allowing e-cigarettes on the market only when manufacturers can prove their tobacco-based products are “appropriate for the protection of public health.” The FDA is currently evaluating thousands of applications to sell e-cigarettes.
“If e-cigarette consumer product use is not associated with more smoking cessation, there is no population-level health benefit for allowing them to be marketed to adults who smoke, regardless of the relative harm of e-cigarettes compared with conventional cigarettes,” said Wang.
“Moreover, to the extent that people who smoke simply add e-cigarettes to their cigarette smoking—becoming so-called dual users—their risk of heart disease, lung disease, and cancer could increase compared with smoking alone.”
December 23, 2020
Covid Bill Restricts Shipping of E-Cigarettes

Photo: dference from Pixabay
The Covid-19 relief bill passed by the U.S. Congress on Dec. 21 prohibits the U.S. Postal Service from delivering packages containing e-cigarettes, reports The Winston Salem Journal.
It also subjects e-cigarettes to other rules that currently govern online cigarette sales. Among other things, online retailers will be required to use private shipping services that collect an adult signature at the point of delivery, collect all applicable local and state taxes, and send each taxing state’s tax administrator a list of all transactions with customers in their state.
Critics said the legislation would place a considerable burden on vapor companies.
Stefanie Miller
“We see this policy as mainly advancing the trend we’re already seeing in the market—which is that the large, well-capitalized manufacturers will be poised to pay the costs to be in compliance with the new more burdensome policies,” said FiscalNote analyst Stefanie Miller.
“Meanwhile, smaller manufacturers and retailers likely fall short and will be forced to exit the market.”
“If the increase in shipping costs wasn’t enough, the bill also imposes huge paperwork burdens on small retailers, and backs it up with threats of imprisonment for even innocent mistakes,” American Vaping Association President Gregory Conley said in a statement. “This is not a law designed to regulate the mail-order sale of vaping products to adults; it’s an attempt to eliminate it.”
The new rules could go into effect as soon as 120 days.
December 22, 2020
New Graphic Health Warnings in Korea

Image: Ministry of Health and Welfare
South Korea will require cigarette manufacturers to print nine new graphic health warnings from Dec. 23, reports The Korea Herald.
The new warnings include images depicting lung cancer, oral cancer, heart disease and stroke. The current images of laryngeal cancer and sexual dysfunction will not be replaced as they are thought to be highly effective, officials said.
The changes are intended to boost effectiveness of the warning against smoking and tobacco use by replacing the existing warning pictures that had been used for too long, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
Under the Enforcement Decree of the National Health Promotion Act, the warning images and messages on cigarette packs should change every two years. The current images had been displayed on the tobacco packs since Dec. 23, 2018.
Tobacco sales and smoking rate among adult males have steadily decreased since the installation of warning pictures and phrases on cigarette packs in 2016.
The ministry also plans to introduce standardized packaging in South Korea.
December 22, 2020
Olczak: Investors Underestimating PMI

Jacek Olczak
(Photo: PMI)
Investors are underestimating Philip Morris International’s (PMI) smoke-free future, according to Jacek Olczak, the company’s chief operating officer and CEO in waiting.
Philip Morris stock has risen just under 1 percent year to date, lagging far behind the S&P 500, a measure of the broader market.
In an interview with Barron’s, Olczak said that IQOS is the most advanced reduced-risk product on the market, with the most rigorous science behind it. He highlighted the company’s valuable first-mover advantage in many markets, which should also help it rebuff competition from smaller rivals.
PMI hopes to sell between 90 billion and 100 billion heated-tobacco units in 2021, a 20 percent to 30 percent increase from this year and a target that the company is closing in on.
Olczak also has high hopes for Veev, a vaping product that has already rolled out in New Zealand. To prevent underage use, the Veev device can be activated only by users who can verify their age. According to Olczak, this extra, built-in layer of protection should give “a level of confidence to regulators in various geographies, that they can offer a solution to adults while [excluding] audiences that shouldn’t have access.”
Olczak said PMI has successfully overcome many of the challenges presented by Covid-19, including supply chain shutdowns. Increased focus on digital sales of IQOS has helped the company build valuable relationships directly with consumers. The resulting shift from a business-to-business to a business-to-consumer model is differentiating PMI from the competition.
As part of a long-planned leadership transition, Olczak will take over for Andre Calantzopoulos in May 2021.
December 22, 2020