Tag: flavor ban

Top Court Declines to Hear Flavor Ban Appeal

Image: Tobacco Reporter archive
The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 27 declined to hear an appeal by three Reynolds American Inc. subsidiaries seeking to overturn the county of Los Angeles ban on flavored tobacco products, reports Law360.
R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co., American Snuff Co. and Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. had petitioned the high court in October to take another look at the case after the full 9th Circuit upheld a lower court’s dismissal of the suit.
The RAI companies said the 9th Circuit had twice before erred in allowing sales bans at the state and local level that were preempted by federal law.
While the federal Tobacco Control Act grants state and local municipalities broad authority to regulate the sale of tobacco products, it does not allow them to completely prohibit the sale of those products for failing to meet state or local tobacco product standards, the companies argued.
In dismissing their initial suit, District Judge Dale S. Fischer in 2021 found that the ban doesn’t regulate tobacco product standards. The judge said the ordinance is protected by the federal law’s preservation clause, which allows states and localities to prohibit the sale of tobacco products even if those bans are stricter than federal law.
The companies appealed, calling the ban unconstitutional and saying state and local governments can’t bar the sale of tobacco products because they disagree with federal tobacco standards.
L.A. County countered that the ban doesn’t pose an obstacle to federal policy since the FDA announced it intends to ban menthol cigarettes and all flavored cigars.
February 28, 2023
Registration Open for Menthol Ban Seminar

Interested parties can now register for the Jan. 12 U.S. Food and Drug Administration seminar covering the ban of menthol flavors in tobacco products. “The Scientific Basis of Proposed Tobacco Product Standards to Prohibit Menthol as a Characterizing Flavor in Cigarettes and Flavors in Cigars” is the first FDA tobacco-related seminar of the year.
The presentation will provide an overview of the scientific evidence that informed the development of these proposed rules, with an explanation of the external peer review process the FDA utilized for review of the highly influential scientific assessments for these proposed rules.
Bridget Ambrose, director of the Division of Population Health Science in the Office of Science at the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, will be the speaker. Ambrose has over 20 years of experience in tobacco control and regulatory science, with specialized experience in longitudinal analyses of tobacco use.
December 29, 2022
California’s Flavored Tobacco Ban Begins

Image: Tobacco Reporter archive
California’s controversial ban on flavored tobacco begins today, reports ABC10. A week ago, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company’s contention that the new state law conflicted with federal law.
Flavored tobacco products, such as e-cigarettes, menthol cigarettes, flavored cigars and more, can no longer be sold in stores.
“If they wanted to ban flavored tobacco or regulate it, I feel they should have selected certain stores to be authorized to retail it. It’s saved so many lives, helped so many people get off cigarettes,” said Carlo Sharmoug, owner of Ziggy’s Smoke Shop in Stockton.
Sharmoug says in his 14 years in business, his store has never once sold tobacco to a minor.
Lindsey Freitas, an advocacy director representing California and Hawaii for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, says California’s tobacco rates among teens at one point began to decline until e-cigarettes appeared.
“They started being sold in flavors like grape and cherry and gummy bear. And all of a sudden, we saw our youth tobacco rates increasing again,” said Freitas.
Smoke shops like Ziggy’s say California will lose out on millions in tax revenue and believes product will be sold on the black market. However, Freitas disagrees, saying the savings in medical treatment in California alone will be huge.
December 21, 2022
Netherlands Flavor Ban Effective Next Year

Image: and.one | Adobe Stock
The Netherlands will ban all e-cigarette flavors except tobacco effective Oct. 1, 2023, reports NL Times, citing a government amendment to the Staatscourant. The ban extends to pre-filled e-cigarettes and disposable vapes as well.
The ban was announced in 2020, and will also include banning packaging that depicts anything other than tobacco and restricting rules for naming products.
The RIVM, a public health institute, created a list of 16 ingredients that manufacturers can use to make tobacco flavors.
December 1, 2022
China: Flavored Vape Ban Takes Effect

Image: Arcady
China’s ban on flavored vapor products takes effect on Oct. 1 along with other new vaping product standards that were decided on earlier this year, reports Vaping360.
In November 2021, Chinese law was amended to bring the vapor industry under control of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA), which regulates China’s tobacco products.
Vapers are rushing to buy and hoard flavored vapor products before the ban takes effect on Saturday, according to Vaping360. It is not clear yet if the ban will create a large black market in the country; China is known to punish illicit sellers harshly.
Products meant for export will not have to meet Chinese standards unless the destination country does not have its own specific standards.
China’s new rules also require domestic e-cigarette manufacturers and traders to obtain a license before operating their business, according to The Global Times.
E-cigarettes cannot be sold to customers under 18, and the sale points cannot be near schools or kindergartens. Warning signs must also be placed at the e-cigarette sale points, and self-service sales are banned.
Manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers of e-cigarettes, vaporizers and e-liquid are required to conduct their business on specific platforms that are subject to STMA supervision.
The rules also forbid the advertising of e-cigarettes in the mass media or in public places.
The iiMedia Research Institute expects China’s e-cigarette market to be worth RMB25.52 billion ($3.57 billion) by the end of 2022 and RMB45.43 billion by the end of 2023.
September 28, 2022
Los Angeles Bans Sale of Flavored Tobacco

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The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to end the sale of nontobacco-flavored tobacco products—including flavored e-cigarettes, menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars.
The council’s action will make Los Angeles the largest city in the country to end the sale of flavored tobacco products, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK). Los Angeles joins over 120 California communities that have taken similar action.
The legislation will now move to Mayor Eric Garcetti, who is expected to sign it, according to Filter. If passed, the ban would go into effect in January 2023.
Mitch O’Farrell, the councilmember who introduced the legislation, tweeted after the vote went through, “We just took a huge step forward against Big Tobacco’s deadly agenda in Los Angeles. This morning, I led the City Council’s unanimous approval of a prohibition on the sale of flavored tobacco to everyone 21 and younger in LA, making us the largest city in California and the nation to take this kind of action against these products.”
The ban applies to people of any age, however, not just those 21 and younger.
The ordinance also applies to zero-nicotine vapor products, but it does not, however, apply to hookah. “Normally, proponents and supporters of flavor bans will object heavily to … exemptions for hookah tobacco and lounges,” said Stefan Didak, a California-based vape advocate. “More often than not, an attempt at passing a ban fails because they withdraw their support.”
“However, several of the major groups—including Annie Tegen, the vice president of state advocacy for CTFK—praised the council ahead of their vote on the amendments and congratulated them on doing the right thing,” Didak said. “Not a single word of dismay about the exemption for hookah lounges. I thought that was very much out of character.”
Hookah lounge owners and retailers protested the ban, stating that it would eliminate a cultural tradition. It’s also speculated that the CTFK may have overlooked the exception of hookah in order to gain what they see as a big win with the LA ban, especially after years of back and forth trying to pass said ban.
June 3, 2022
Sweden Wants to Prohibit Flavored Vapes

The Swedish government has proposed a ban on nontobacco-flavored vapes, including menthol, according to Vaping360.
The proposed law includes nicotine and non-nicotine e-liquid and regulates all synthetic nicotine products, setting the purchase age to 18. If the law is passed, the sale of flavored vape products will be banned effective Jan. 1, 2023.
The bill is currently being reviewed by the Council on Legislation, which considers the legal validity of proposed bills before they are considered by legislators. Parliament will vote on the bill as early as March 22.
If the bill is passed, Sweden will be the eighth European country to prohibit flavors, following Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ukraine, Denmark, Lithuania and the Netherlands.
March 4, 2022