Tag: Featured

Stories featured at the top of tobaccoreporter.com

WHO Alarmed Over Youth Vaping in Europe

Photo: Ethan Parsa from Pixabay
Despite an overall decline in tobacco use among young people in Europe, several countries of the region observed an increase in tobacco use prevalence among young people in the latest round of the Global Youth Tobacco Survey.
While cigarettes remain the most used form of tobacco products, young people are turning to e-cigarettes at what the World Health Organization (WHO) describes as “an alarming rate.” In some countries the rates of e-cigarette use among adolescents were much higher than those for conventional cigarettes, according to the new report. In Poland, for example, 15.3 percent of students smoked cigarettes and 23.4 percent used electronic cigarettes in 2016.
Some countries that monitor e-cigarette use among young people have shown marked increases over the years. In Italy the prevalence of current e-cigarette use increased from 8.4 percent in 2014 to 17.5 percent in 2018. In Georgia it increased from 5.7 percent in 2014 to 13.2 percent in 2017, while in Latvia it was 9.1 percent in 2011 and 18 percent in 2019.
Contrary to health advocates who acknowledge the tobacco harm reduction potential offered by new “tobacco” products, the WHO views e-cigarettes and heated tobacco as a tobacco industry ploy to preserve and expand its markets.
“However, with good guidance, research and a rigorous implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, a path can be built towards a tobacco and nicotine-free future,” the global health body wrote on its website.
December 3, 2020
Youth Smoking Down Despite More Vaping

Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive
Cigarette and smokeless tobacco prevalence among U.S. adolescents declined more rapidly between 2012 and 2019 than in previous periods, according to a new study.
An analysis by the University of Michigan (UM) and Georgetown University shows that past 30-day and daily use of both cigarettes and smokeless tobacco fell more rapidly since 2012, even as e-cigarette use began to increase—leading to historical low levels of both cigarette use and smokeless tobacco among teens in the United States.
“While the increases in e-cigarettes are indeed concerning and is something we need to address and reverse, the decreases in other tobacco products, in particular, cigarettes—the most concerning form of tobacco use—are accelerating,” said lead researcher Rafael Meza, associate professor of epidemiology and global health at UM’s School of Public Health, in an article on the UM’s website.
Utilizing data from the nationally representative Monitoring the Future survey at the UM from 1991 to 2019, Meza and his colleagues examined the use prevalence of tobacco products in the last 30 days among key sociodemographic groups.
They found that daily smoking prevalence among 12th grade boys increased 4.9 percent annually 1991 to 1998 but saw annual declines of 8 percent between 1998 and 2006 and 1.6 percent from 2006 to 2012. However, from 2012 to 2019, prevalence declined at a 17 percent annual rate. Overall, daily smoking prevalence among 12th graders fell to about 2 percent by 2019.
David Levy
“This is an astoundingly low rate, and our goal from a public health perspective should be to keep smoking at this rate or lower,” said researcher David Levy, of Georgetown University’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Meza said the results are important because while e-cigarettes are concerning on their own, there have been concerns that the increase in vaping could result in an uptick in the use of other tobacco products that could potentially upend the declines seen over the past decades.
“But in contrast, what we found is that the decline in smoking has accelerated,” he said.
December 3, 2020
Japan Cigarette Sales Plunged After HTP Entry

Photo: Colleen Williams
Between 2015 and 2019, total cigarette sales in Japan dropped by 34 percent, which can be associated with the commercial launch of heated tobacco products (HTPs), according to a white paper prepared by Frost & Sullivan and Philip Morris International (PMI).
Titled Tobacco Harm Reduction and Novel Nicotine and Tobacco Products: Evidence from the Japanese Market, the report covers the impact of the commercial launch of novel nicotine and tobacco products (NNTPS) on tobacco use in japan and discusses the regulatory approach that the Japanese government is taking with regard to these products. It focuses on the Japanese market because HTPs have been commercially available in the country since 2013, and Japan is the largest market for HTPs, despite the absence of a formal THR policy to encourage this.
“The commercial availability of HTPs in Japan is associated with a significant drop in conventional cigarette sales, well ahead of the previous rate of decline,” explains Mark Dougan, consulting director, healthcare, Frost & Sullivan.
“Moreover, even after HTPs became available, sales of all tobacco products (HTPs and conventional cigarettes) continued to fall. Although there is mixed evidence, data from the 2019 National Health Survey indicates that 76 percent of consumers who use HTPs do so exclusively. Only 24 percent of HTP users maintain dual-use.”
According to Dougan, the Japanese government is differentiating HTPs from conventional cigarettes in regulations such as taxation, health warnings and indoor use restrictions, with HTPs generally receiving less-stringent regulatory settings than conventional cigarettes.
Frost & Sullivan also noted that the availability of HTPs has had a low impact on the initiation of tobacco use by never-smokers and re-initiation by former smokers. In addition, HTPs are also less likely to cause household fires than conventional cigarettes, which are the leading cause of household fires in Japan.
The remarkable recent decline of smoking Japan was also covered during the recent GTNF by Hiroya Kumamaru, a cardiovascular surgeon and vice director of AOI International Hospital in Kawasaki.
December 3, 2020
Regulation of E-cigs as Tobacco Upheld

Photo: jessica45 | Pixabay
A U.S. federal appeals court has upheld the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) decision to regulate e-cigarettes as tobacco products, reports Westlaw Today.
Several vape shops and e-liquid manufacturers, represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a conservative legal group, had challenged the FDA’s decision claiming it violated the Constitution (Moose Jooce et al v. FDA).
They argued that the FDA’s then-associate commissioner for policy, Leslie Kux, who issued the 2016 rule deeming e-cigarettes to be tobacco products, lacked the authority to do so because she was a career employee, not a principal officer appointed by the president.
The FDA countered that the authority had been delegated to Kux by the agency’s commissioner. Furthermore, it said, her authority did not matter because the rule was ultimately ratified by two different FDA commissioners, most recently FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb in April 2019.
A unanimous panel of the D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the regulation did not run afoul of the Constitution’s Appointments Clause.
Jonathan Wood of the Pacific Legal Foundation said he and his clients were disappointed by the ruling and considering next steps.
December 3, 2020
U.N. Reclassifies Cannabis as Less Risky

The United Nations (UN) has voted to reclassify cannabis as a less dangerous drug, reports The New York Times. The decision pertains to cannabis used for medicinal purposes.
Cannabis has been listed on Schedule IV of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs alongside drugs like heroin. The decision removes cannabis from this list.
The vote passed 27 to 25, with the U.S. and European nations among those in favor and China, Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan and Russia among those opposed.
The change will open the door to more medical cannabis research. Local governments will still decide how to regulate cannabis, but many governments look to bodies like the U.N. for guidance.
“This is a huge, historic victory for us; we couldn’t hope for more,” said Kenzi Riboulet-Zemouli, an independent researcher for drug policy who has closely monitored the vote and the position of member states.
The proposal was first presented in 2019, but because the decision was highly politicized, a final vote had been delayed.
December 3, 2020
BAT Launches Vapor Information Hub

Photo: BAT
The BAT Group (BAT) has launched VapeExplained.com, a digital information hub providing adult smokers and vapers with factual answers to the questions most commonly searched for online.
Based on search engine analytics regarding vaping queries, VapeExplained.com helps adult smokers and vapers make informed decisions about vaping. The site also provides important information on the role these products can play as a potentially reduced-risk alternative to smoking.
To find answers about vaping, smokers and vapers are increasingly turning to the internet. In 2020, there were more than 700,000 monthly internet searches for questions about vaping in the U.S. and U.K. Of these, approximately 70,000 searches specifically ask about the dangers of vaping.
Kingsley Wheaton
According to BAT, VapeExplained.com is built on the company’s vast technical expertise of over 1,500 scientists and engineers and the experiences of offering vapor products in over 26 countries around the world.
“VapeExplained.com is where smokers and vapers can find clear, simple, fact-based information from a well-known source,” said Kingsley Wheaton, BAT’s chief marketing officer, in a statement. “I hope this helps them to make more informed decisions about vaping.”
The site will be available in the U.K. and the U.S. and will expand into other countries in 2021.
December 3, 2020
U.S. Graphic Warnings Postponed Again

Illustration: FDA
A Texas federal court Wednesday further postponed the effective date of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) new requirement for graphic warning labels on cigarette packs to January 2022, reports Law360.
In his ruling, U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker sided with the tobacco industry, which argued that questions over the validity of the rule remain unanswered. A hearing for pending motions for summary judgment and motion for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for next week,
In November, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Liggett Group and ITG Brands, along with cigarette retailers, asked for the postponement. The companies argued they would suffer irreparable harm if they were forced to spend millions of dollars to comply with a rule that will soon be invalidated.
“These expenditures of resources for the purpose of meeting the rule’s requirements constitute irreparable harm because plaintiffs cannot recover money damages should the rule and/or the graphic-warning requirement in the Tobacco Control Act be invalidated,” the companies stated.
Barker has already pushed the rule’s effective date back once due to the coronavirus pandemic, at the request of tobacco companies and the FDA. In a May 8 order, the judge delayed the effective date from June 18, 2021, to Oct. 16, 2021.
In March, the FDA released a final rule requiring new graphic warnings for cigarettes that feature some of the lesser-known health risks of smoking, such as diabetes, on the top half of the front and back of cigarette packages and at least 20 percent of the area on the top of cigarette advertisements.
The warnings include statements that tobacco smoke can harm children and that smoking can cause bladder cancer and neck and head cancer.
In April, the cigarette manufacturers and retailers sued the FDA, arguing that the graphic warning requirements amount to governmental anti-smoking advocacy because the government has never forced makers of a legal product to use their own advertising to spread an emotionally charged message urging adults not to use their products.
December 3, 2020
Graphic Labels for New ‘Tobacco’ Products

Photo: Manfred Schindler from Pixabay
The Philippine government has ordered manufacturers, importers and sellers of vapor products and heated-tobacco products (HTPs) to print graphic health warnings on their packaging within 18 months, reports Business World. Sale of these products is now limited to those over the age of 21.
The implementation of the graphic warnings is part of the country’s “sin tax” laws.
The Department of Health will issue templates for the warnings, including for inserts and other advertising, outside packaging and labeling, and other packaging from domestic and overseas manufacturers.
The Department of Health and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will act as the regulating agencies for manufacturers, importers and sellers of vapor products and HTPs, with authority over packaging, advertising and distribution. The FDA will also conduct scientific studies on the health impact of these products.
The Department of Budget and Management will determine how the tax funds from these products will be allocated and released to tobacco-producing provinces.
The Department of Finance and the Bureau of Internal Revenue will determine the rules for setting floor prices.
December 2, 2020
New Infringement Suit Against IQOS

Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive
Healthier Choices Management Corp. (HCMC) has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Philip Morris USA and Philip Morris Products over the IQOS tobacco heating product.
Among other products, HCMC markets vapor products, including the Q-Cup, a small quartz cup that heats cannabis or CBD concentrate.
“We look forward to proving our allegations of infringement in this matter and intend to continue to move forward against any and all companies that infringe upon our intellectual property in both the tobacco and cannabis categories,” said Jeff Holman, CEO of HCMC, in a statement.
IQOS is already the subject of two other patent infringement proceedings filed by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co (RJ). One is proceeding before the International Trade Commission and seeks to stop the importation of IQOS into the United States; the other is a patent infringement action currently pending in the Eastern District of Virginia. R.J. Reynolds’ patents are unrelated to and unaffiliated with the patents asserted in the HCMC case.
Philip Morris USA parent Altria Group rejects RJR’s claims and has countersued the company, alleging that RJR’s own electronic nicotine delivery systems products infringe multiple patents owned by Philip Morris International (PMI) and Altria Group.
In April, British American Tobacco (BAT) sued PMI in the United States and Germany for patent infringement. BAT’s claim focuses on IQOS’ heating blade technology, which the company says is an earlier version of the technology used in BAT’s Glo tobacco heating devices.
December 2, 2020
Johnson Nonexecutive Director at Imperial

Photo: Jakub Jirsák | Dreamstime
Imperial Brands has appointed Alan Johnson to the board as a nonexecutive director with effect from Jan. 1, 2021.
Johnson has a financial background in consumer goods and retail, having held a number of senior finance positions at Unilever during a 30-year career, including chief audit executive and chief financial officer of the Global Foods Division.
He was previously chief financial officer and then a nonexecutive director at food retailer Jeronimo Martins until April 2016. Johnson is currently president and chair of the board of the International Federation of Accountants and a member of the board and chair of the audit committee of the International Valuation Standards Council.
Johnson will also join Imperial Brands’ Succession and Nominations Committee and Audit Committee with effect from Jan. 1, 2021.
December 2, 2020