Tag: Ireland

BAT Laments Inaction Against ‘Menthol’

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BAT has admonished Ireland’s tobacco regulator for failing to take action against competitors selling new products that may be in breach of the EU ban on menthol cigarettes, reports The Irish Times.
There is “no rationale for the HSE to further delay” its action against tobacco companies that may be breaching the ban, BAT wrote in a letter to the Health Service Executive (HSE) this week. “We are concerned that inaction is leading to more products appearing on the market.”
The HSE said a year ago that it would investigate tobacco companies for allegedly breaching the Europe-wide ban on menthol flavors, which some have allegedly tried to circumvent with techniques exploiting loopholes while marketing them as menthol substitutes.
Japan Tobacco International, for example, launched Silk Cut Choice Green, which it admitted still contained traces of menthol. The company insists Silk Cut Choice Green complies with rules because the cigarettes don’t taste or smell of menthol. Philip Morris, the maker of Marlboro, also launched a new brand targeted at smokers of its old Marlboro Green but says the new product is legal and menthol-free. BAT did not launch a menthol substitute.
Despite its year-long investigation, the HSE’s Tobacco Control Office has yet to issue any findings.
Ireland’s market for the flavored cigarettes was worth up to €250 million ($304.92 million) before the ban came into force last May.
Tobacco Reporter detailed the industry’s efforts to serve former menthol smokers in the EU with alternative products in June 2020.
June 7, 2021
Ireland: Forest slams outdoor smoking ban

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Forest Ireland has slammed a government health plan that aims to extend the smoking ban to outdoor areas.
“There is no justification for banning smoking in outdoor spaces,” said John Mallon, spokesman for Forest Ireland, in response to the Healthy Ireland Strategic Action Plan 2021–2025, which was published May 11. “Smoking in the open air poses no health risk to anyone other than the smoker. Coming out of the pandemic, the last thing the hospitality industry needs is the threat of smoking being prohibited outside pubs, cafes and bars.”
The action plan would “promote and oversee implementation of the Tobacco Free Ireland Policy,” which includes “progress[ing] and expand[ing] the creation of tobacco-free spaces in community settings,” along with other targeted actions.
“Tobacco is a legal product, and smokers have a right to light up in outdoor spaces without restrictions designed to force them to quit,” Mallon said in a Forest press note. “The war on smoking has become a war on ordinary people who just want to be left alone to live their lives as they choose without excessive government intervention.”
May 13, 2021
Irish Health Body Calls for Flavor Ban

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The Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI) has called for a ban on all flavorings for e-liquids available for purchase in Ireland, reports the Irish Medical Times. The group says its goal is to protect children from the device that simulates tobacco smoking.
The RCPI Policy Group on Tobacco wants to prohibit all liquid flavorings, apart from tobacco flavor. The group is also calling for increased regulation and future taxation on e-cigarettes.
A review into e-cigarette use by Ireland’s Health Research Board found that e-cigarettes were associated with adolescents starting to smoke tobacco cigarettes, which could potentially lead to serious harm.
“These findings have important public health ramifications and do not support recommending e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation tool,” said Des Cox, chair of the RCPI Policy Group on Tobacco.
The board recommended that people use nicotine replacement therapies and/or medications prescribed by their general practitioner instead of e-cigarettes when trying to quit smoking.
October 14, 2020
Poll: Irish ‘Understand’ Black Market Purchases

Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive
An overwhelming majority of adults in Ireland think that purchasing cigarettes and tobacco from the black market or other countries is “understandable” given the high cost of tobacco sold legally domestically.
According to a survey conducted by iReach for the smokers’ group Forest Ireland, 70 percent of adults agree that it is “somewhat understandable” (40 percent) or “very understandable” (30 percent) that smokers might choose not to buy cigarettes and tobacco from legitimate retailers in Ireland.
That view was supported by 85 percent of smokers and two-thirds (67 percent) of non-smokers. Only one in five (20 percent) of all adults found it not understandable.
The survey, which was conducted Sept. 24-30, also found that 65 percent of adults think the current level of tobacco duty—almost 80 percent on an average pack of cigarettes in Ireland—is either too high (22 percent), a little high (11 percent) or about right (32 percent).
Only one in four (25 percent) think tobacco duty is too low (21 percent) or a little low (4 percent).
Forest Ireland is urging the government to reject calls to increase the tax on tobacco. In its submission ahead of next week’s Budget, the group called on Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe to “give smokers a break.”
“A further tax hike will encourage even more smokers to buy tobacco abroad or on the black market because there is very little stigma associated with such transactions,” said Forest Ireland spokesman John Mallon.

October 8, 2020
Ireland: Call to Strengthen Menthol Ban

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The government of Ireland wants to strengthen the four-month-old EU ban on menthol cigarettes to stop tobacco companies side-stepping it. The Health Service Executive (HSE) is investigating tobacco companies over the issue.

Introduced on May 20, the EU measure aims to prevent “characterizing flavors” in cigarettes to make them less attractive to children and help smokers quit.

Japan Tobacco International (JTI) has admitted it still adds some menthol to products, including a new Silk Cut Choice Green that was among a suite of new brands it introduced into the Irish market after the ban. However, JTI insists it is in full compliance with the ban because, it claims, the additive doesn’t make its new brand taste or smell of menthol.

JTI’s new brands scooped up 5 percent of Ireland’s €1.8 billion ($2.12 billion) cigarette market in their first month, according to industry data.

After complaints from anti-smoking groups and rival tobacco companies that retired their menthol blends, the HSE said in June it would cooperate with European authorities on the issue.
Across Europe, tobacco companies have been introducing alternatives to their discontinued menthol brands. Governments have criticized tobacco companies for trying to get around the ban.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly noted the directive is being reviewed at EU level and said he would strongly support any revisions to the directive that would ensure that the provision in relation to the menthol ban is “robust.”

The market for menthol cigarettes was worth €250 million prior to the ban.
September 8, 2020
PM: Irish Menthol Ad Was A Mistake

Peter Nixon, managing director of Philip Morris for the U.K. and Ireland.
Photo: Dave Parker
Philip Morris has told Irish retailers it made a mistake in labeling its new Marlboro Bright brand as a “menthol blend’ in a trade press advertisement, reports The Irish Times.

The company introduced Marlboro Bright after menthol cigarettes became illegal across the European Union on May 20. The new brand replaces the company’s old Marlboro Green cigarettes.

Writing in Retail News, Peter Nixon, the managing director of Philip Morris for the U.K. and Ireland, said the advertisement should not have run.

The ad for retailers had described Marlboro Bright as “the Marlboro menthol blend—without methylation.”

Nixon said “methylation” was a typo that should have read “without menthol.” He insisted Marlboro Bright is a traditional cigarette without menthol and thus in compliance with the ban.

Public health advocates have been watching the tobacco industry’s actions closely in the wake of the EU ban. Earlier, Japan Tobacco International (JTI) was criticized for continuing to use menthol during the manufacturing process of its Silk Cut Choice Green brand.

JTI insisted this is legal as long as the additive does not result in a characterizing smell or taste in the cigarettes other than tobacco.

The Health Service Executive is investigating if any tobacco companies are in breach of the menthol ban.

The Irish market for menthol cigarettes was worth €250 million ($282.82 million) prior to the ban.
June 23, 2020
Irish Health Authorities Probe Menthol Successor Products

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Ireland’s Health Service Executive is investigating whether cigarette makers are breaching a recently enacted EU ban on menthol cigarettes, reports The Irish Times.
The move comes after Minister for Health Simon Harris accused tobacco companies of “undermining” the ban by exploiting loopholes in the new rules.
Cigarette manufacturers throughout the EU have been introducing substitute products targeting former menthol smokers, but critics contend some of the new products fall foul of the ban. Japan Tobacco International’s (JTI) Silk Cut Choice Green variant, for example, still contains low level of menthol, but the company insists this is legal as long as the cigarettes have no other smell or taste than tobacco.
JTI says it shared in advance the ingredients for its new menthol-added product with the relevant authorities in Ireland and the EU. “So there is full transparency throughout this process,” the company said.
Philip Morris International launched Marlboro Bright, which it sells as a “menthol blend without mentholation.”
Meanwhile, Irish retailers, who commit a criminal offence if they sell menthol-flavored cigarettes, have started contacting manufacturers asking for confirmation that the substitute products they introduced after the menthol ban are legal.
The Irish market for menthol cigarettes was valued at €250 million ($284.27 million) prior to the EU ban.
June 10, 2020
Caught on camera
A study by researchers at the Limerick Institute of Technology, Ireland, has found that ‘diversity is ostensibly lacking’ in images used as part of the EU’s Tobacco Products Directive, according to a story by Sarah Burns for The Irish Times.
Among 42 anti-smoking images used on cigarette packages and in campaigns, none ‘distinctly include’ members of a racial or ethnic minority, they found.
‘All visible models, or body parts of models, used in the campaigns are Caucasian,” the researchers concluded.
March 6, 2019
Smokers get raw deal
Tobacco smoking costs the Irish state 140 times more each year than the amount spent trying to get people to give up the habit, according to a story by Sarah Burns for The Irish Times and quoting the Irish Heart Foundation.
About €11.8 million was reportedly spent in 2017 on smoking cessation measures including medications, services, the national quit-line and media campaigns, while it was estimated that costs related to the impact of smoking totaled €1.65 billion.
These figures, which were based on a reply to a parliamentary question and an assessment of the economic cost of smoking in Ireland commissioned by the Department of Health, were published by the Foundation on National No Smoking Day.
The amount spent helping people to quit was less than one percent of the almost €1.4 billion smokers paid in tobacco tax during 2017, the Foundation said.
“Nowhere near enough is being done to help the estimated 80 percent of smokers who want to quit,” said Chris Macey, the Foundation’s head of advocacy. “Tax increases have played an important role in reducing smoking rates in Ireland but could be even more effective if a higher proportion of the proceeds was spent on cessation services.”
“It isn’t fair to place a large additional tax burden on people because of their addiction to nicotine and then fail to invest properly in helping them overcome it when many are desperate to quit.”
Macey said that putting more resources into smoking cessation services would help to reduce the number of deaths from tobacco-related illness in Ireland, which he said was 16 per day.
March 6, 2019
Breathing difficulty
Pregnant women should be breath-tested during antenatal visits to check whether they are smoking, according to a story by Paul Cullen for The Irish Times quoting the findings of a new study.
The study, conducted among women attending the Coombe hospital in Dublin, Ireland, found that women who hid their smoking habit missed out on vital monitoring of their pregnancies and ended up having more problems as a result.
It found a ‘substantial number’ of women with high carbon monoxide levels – an indicator of smoking – had not declared their tobacco use.
An increased level of breath carbon monoxide (BCO) was said to have been associated with lower birth weight of babies and an increased risk of adverse pregnancy and neonatal outcomes.
The authors, with the Coombe and University College Dublin, said this finding strengthened the case for universal BCO screening at the first antenatal visit.
A high reading should result in referral of the woman to smoking cessation services and close monitoring of the baby, they said.
February 27, 2019