Tag: Featured

Stories featured at the top of tobaccoreporter.com

‘Vaping Less Likely Long-Time Habit’

Photo: Hazem Mohamad
While the use of e-cigarettes is increasing, vaping is less likely to lead to a long-term habit than smoking, according to a group of 10 interrelated papers prepared for the ongoing Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study.
“The most surprising finding was that while we know cigarette smoking is persistent, and we see use of electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, increasing, especially among young people, what we are not seeing is that e-cigarette use is anywhere near as persistent as cigarette smoking,” says Andrew Hyland, chair of health behavior at Roswell Park and scientific lead on the PATH study.
“Cigarette smokers tend to stay cigarette smokers over time, but e-cigarette users are more likely to discontinue their use over time compared with cigarette smokers. We don’t know why that is.”
Hyland speculates that cigarettes deliver nicotine more effectively than e-cigarettes. Studies have shown that the types of e-cigarettes used during the data-collection period from 2013 to 2016 didn’t deliver nicotine as efficiently as cigarettes.
The study also found that e-cigarette use is associated with attempting to quit smoking. E-cigarette users were 20 percent more likely to try quitting cigarette smoking than adult smokers who did not use e-cigarettes.
May 27, 2020
EU Push to Tax Novel Products Like Tobacco

Photo: Horst Winkler from Pixabay
EU member states will ask the European Commission this week to place electronic cigarettes, heated tobacco products and other novel tobacco products under the EU Tobacco Excise Directive, meaning these products would be taxed just like traditional tobacco products, according to a report by Euractiv.
Although novel tobacco products are regulated under the Tobacco Product Directive from a health perspective, there is currently no EU-wide excise framework.
Some member states tax e-liquids and heated tobacco products at different rates while others do not tax them at all.
In January 2018, the European Commission refrained from proposing harmonized taxation for novel tobacco products, citing a lack of data.
However, in February 2020, the executive published a report expressing concern about the lack of harmonization’s impact on the functioning of the EU internal market.
“The current lack of harmonization of the tax regulatory framework for these products is also restricting the possibility to monitor their market development and control their movements,” the report stated.
The tobacco industry argues that novel tobacco products and electronic cigarettes have significantly reduced health risks compared to traditional smoking and should therefore be taxed at lower levels.
May 27, 2020
WHO Launches Reports on New Products

Photo: WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) has published three reports to inform countries on the current state of scientific knowledge and policy options available for novel tobacco products such as electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), electronic non-nicotine delivery systems (ENNDS) and heated tobacco products (HTPs).
ENDS and ENNDS, commonly known as e-cigarettes, are available in more than 100 countries while HTPs can be bought in about 40 countries.
The WHO insists that many of the new products are harmful to health.
“HTPs expose users to toxic emissions similar to those found in cigarette smoke, many of which can cause cancer, while ENDS on their own are associated with increased risk of cardiovascular diseases and lung disorders and adverse effects on the development of the fetus during pregnancy,” the WHO stated in a press release.
Because of the damaging and addictive nature of these products, the WHO says regulation is crucial to protect populations, particularly youth.
The publication of the briefs coincides with World No Tobacco Day 2020 on May 31. This year’s theme is “protecting youth from industry manipulation and preventing them from nicotine and tobacco use.”
May 27, 2020
Longtime Holdout Germany Plans Ad Ban

Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive
The German government on May 22 announced plans to impose a complete tobacco product advertising ban that would go into effect from January 2022.
Although it is banned for the media, tobacco product advertising is still allowed at point-of-sale and in cinemas.
The proposed new law, which will be discussed in parliament next week, would also prohibit cigarette sampling and ban vapor product advertising beginning in 2024.
Consumer protection minister Julia Klockner said, “Limiting tobacco advertising on the street and in cinemas is long overdue.
Above all, we have to protect young people so that ideally they don’t even start smoking.”
May 26, 2020
South Africa Tobacco Ban May Endure as Lockdown Eases

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
The imminent easing of lockdown rules in South Africa may bring no relief for smokers who’ve been dealing with a tobacco sales ban for almost two months, according to a Bloomberg report.
On May 24, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a further relaxation of South Africa’s coronavirus lockdown from June 1, allowing most of the economy to return to full capacity.
However, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, whose department plays a key role in determining the lockdown rules, argued in favor of extending the ban when restrictions are next relaxed, according to people who listened to a presentation she recently gave to lawmakers.
A medical doctor and former health minister, Dlamini-Zuma has defended her anti-smoking position, noting that sharing cigarettes could spread the virus.
“When people zol, they put saliva on the paper and then they share that zol,” Dlamini-Zuma said last month, using a local term for hand-rolled cigarettes that sometimes contain cannabis.
Even before the ban, South Africa had one of the biggest illicit cigarette markets, which costs the government about ZAR7 billion ($394 million) a year in lost tax revenue, according to a report published and funded by the Tobacco Institute.
About 90 percent of people who wanted to buy cigarettes during the lockdown were able to do so, albeit at inflated prices, an online survey of 16,000 people conducted by researchers from the University of Cape Town found.
May 26, 2020
‘Harm Reduction Is Human Right’

Photo: Horst Winkler from Pixabay
The European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (ETHRA) is calling on policymakers to recognize the benefits of tobacco harm reduction in advance of World No Tobacco Day on May 31.
According to ETHRA, reduced-risk products such as e-cigarettes and snus are providing a gateway out of smoking for millions of Europeans, yet across the continent, consumer access to these products is being denied or is under threat.
Today, the organization launched a manifesto to promote appropriate regulation of innovative solutions for people who wish to continue using nicotine in far safer forms than smoking tobacco, as well as on behalf of the many smokers who may be able to quit through switching to these products in the future.
Among other things, the manifesto calls for access to harm reduction, including tobacco harm reduction, to be recognized as a human right; for consumers of safer nicotine products to be recognized as essential stakeholders in discussions of policy; and for the regulation for safer nicotine products to reflect the risks relative to the risks from smoking.
What’s more, regulators must recognize that having a wide choice of products and flavors is key to the success of safer nicotine products in enabling people to stop smoking, according to the manifesto. Regulation must consider the harm to adults when considering bans intended to protect youth, and tax policy must consider that high taxation of safer nicotine products increases rates of smoking.
Comprising 21 consumer associations in 16 European countries, the ETHRA was created to increase understanding about the benefits of “new” risk-reduced nicotine products and to promote recognition of long-term recreational use of nicotine as an incentive for smoking cessation.
May 26, 2020
Firms Offer Alternatives After Menthol Ban

Photo: Imperial Brands
Tobacco companies are taking advantage of the U.K.’s ban on menthol cigarettes to promote alternative products, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
Philip Morris reportedly described the ban, which began on May 20, as a “huge opportunity” for its business as the 1.3 million menthol smokers in the U.K. consider their options.
According to the bureau, Philip Morris in the runup to the ban hired sales reps to promote its menthol heated tobacco products directly to newsagents, one of the only legal ways it can advertise in the U.K. where almost all tobacco advertising is banned. It also offered promotional menthol kits and trials for new customers, with half-price tobacco sticks in any of its four menthol flavors.
Philip Morris’ competitors have also tried to turn the menthol ban into a sales opportunity. Japan Tobacco has launched a menthol cigarillo, Imperial Brands has designed a mint-infused card that flavors cigarettes with menthol, and British American Tobacco is marketing its mint-flavored vapes.

“The menthol ban is going to be bad news for a lot of smokers, who are going to find smoking less appealing, so it is a big opportunity for smokers to quit,” said John Britton, professor of epidemiology and director at the U.K. Centre for Tobacco & Alcohol Studies at the University of Nottingham.
He said that tobacco companies will “want to minimize the numbers who quit and maximize the numbers who continue to buy products from them.”
May 26, 2020
UKVIA: U.K. Vape Shops Well-Positioned for Reopening

Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive
The entrepreneurial spirit displayed by vape shops during the U.K. government’s 10-week coronavirus lockdown will help them bounce back after the economy reopens, according to the U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA).
On Monday, the government announced it would allow vape shops to reopen June 15.
The UKVIA said it is “immensely proud” of vaping businesses for the responsible approach they have taken during the lockdown.
John Dunne
“The response from the industry to the challenging conditions has been both staggering and exemplary,” said John Dunne, director at UKVIA. “I know that our members that make up a large share of the vaping market have been working around the clock to provide online and home delivery services to the 3.2 million vapers across the country.
Dunne believes that the industry will be well placed to more than meet the social distancing guidance when shops reopen.
“All our retail members have still been ‘open for business’ since the lockdown begun and have introduced social distancing measures that go well beyond the government guidance,” he said. “This should give vapers confidence when going to their local stores.”
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May 26, 2020
U.K. Smoking Rates up Amid Lockdowns

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
Since the start of the coronavirus-related lockdowns, more people in the U.K. are smoking, according to a recent study. About 2.2 million people are smoking more than usual, according to the study, while 4.8 million are smoking the same amount and 1.9 million have decreased the amount they smoke.
Stress and anxiety related to the lockdowns have been the main cause of the rise in smoking rates along with smoking being used as an excuse to go outside. The freedoms that come with working from home have also aided in the rise.
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) has accused the government of taking too long to make a decision over the release of funding meant for a “quit smoking for coronavirus” campaign, which the group feels would help lower the smoking rates.
May 26, 2020
Bangladesh Allows Tobacco Production to Continue

Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive
The industries ministry in Bangladesh has rejected a request from the health ministry to shut down production of tobacco in the country amid the coronavirus outbreak.
The health ministry sent a request earlier this week to the industries ministry to revoke the special permissions granted to tobacco companies to continue producing tobacco products during the country’s lockdown. The industries ministry has stated that doing so would further negatively impact the economy during the coronavirus crisis.
May 21, 2020