Tag: United Kingdom

  • Vapor trial

    Vapor trial

    Chemical analysis has revealed no detectable difference between the vapors produced by an electronic cigarette (Vype ePen) and a novel hybrid device containing tobacco (iFuse), according to a British American Tobacco press note.

    ‘Previous research revealed that the levels of nearly all tested toxicants in Vype ePen vapor are much lower than in cigarette smoke,’ the note said.

    ‘The Royal College of Physicians is among those who say that smokers should switch to e-cigarettes to reduce harm and help them quit smoking. However, some consumers say that they want more tobacco taste.’

    To remedy this, researchers at BAT have created a hybrid device, iFuse, that combines the workings of an e-cigarette with a tobacco component. This device heats tobacco rather than burns it.

    ‘An e-liquid is heated and a vapor is produced that passes through a pod containing tobacco,’ said BAT. ‘Although the tobacco is only gently heated (around 35ºC) by the vapor, this is sufficient to release the tobacco flavour. Consumer testing revealed that this produces a great tasting vapor.

    ‘Analysing the general vapor composition using non-targeted chemical screening, the scientists could find no significant difference between the vapors generated by the novel hybrid tobacco product and the tobacco-free control product (Vype ePen).’

    BAT said also that the iFuse vapor had been assessed for some known cigarette smoke toxicants and substances formed by electronic vaping products, and compared to the control Vype ePen, a reference cigarette (Kentucky 3R4F) and air blanks.

    ‘Of the 113 compounds tested, only 26 were quantified in the vapor from the hybrid tobacco product,’ the press note said. ‘The classes and levels of toxicants generated by the hybrid tobacco product were similar to those from the control e-cigarette, Vype ePen, and were 92 to >99 percent lower on a per-puff basis than those in smoke from the reference cigarette. Many of the analytes quantified in the hybrid tobacco product vapor were at levels comparable to those in air blanks.’

    Dr. James Murphy, head of reduced risk substantiation at BAT was quoted as saying that, overall, the novel hybrid tobacco product provided a great tobacco flavor but maintained a toxicant profile similar to that of Vype ePen with significantly lower levels of some key toxicants compared to cigarette smoke.

    The results were published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicity (DOI: 10.1016/j.fct.2017.05.022)).

  • New product trialled

    New product trialled

    Philip Morris International said yesterday that it had released its second Scientific Update for Smoke-Free Products, a regular publication on its research efforts to develop and assess a range of potentially reduced-risk alternatives to cigarettes.

    ‘This issue of the Scientific Update focuses on novel approaches to e-vapor products,’ the company said in a note posted on its website. ‘Technology and innovation can improve user experience and continuously enhance a product’s potential to present less risk of harm than smoking. The focus of the issue details the product design and manufacturing behind MESH, the new generation of e-vapor technology PMI is currently test marketing in Birmingham (UK). MESH is one of the four smoke-free product types developed by PMI, along with IQOS.’

    Professor Manuel Peitsch, PMI’s chief scientific officer, was quoted as saying that PMI was working to transition progressively its existing cigarette business to smoke-free products. “By offering a diverse portfolio of innovative and scientifically substantiated alternatives, we believe we can accelerate the switching of an even greater number of adult smokers who would otherwise continue to smoke and have a positive impact on public health.”

    Meanwhile, Michele Cattoni, PMI’s vice president Technology and Operations, was quoted as saying that technological innovation was at the heart of PMI’s efforts to create a smoke-free future. “We have developed an e-vapor product which, like our other smoke-free technologies, incorporates the highest manufacturing and design standards to ensure the consistency and quality of the generated vapor.”

    PMI says that beyond the development behind PMI’s MESH proprietary technology, the Update provides an overview of its assessment to date. ‘The issue also covers the latest studies, key peer-reviewed publications and presentations at scientific conferences,’ it said. ‘It is an important complement to PMI’s ongoing efforts to share its latest science, which include a dedicated website (www.pmiscience.com).

    ‘PMI’s extensive research and assessment program is inspired by the well-recognized practices of the pharmaceutical industry and in line with guidance of the US FDA for Modified-Risk Tobacco Products (MRTPs).

    ‘The company today employs over 400 world-class scientists, engineers and experts who conduct rigorous research, including laboratory and clinical studies, as well as ground-breaking systems toxicology. The assessment program also includes studies on actual product use and correct understanding of product communications, as well as post-market research.’

    The Scientific Update is at: https://www.pmiscience.com/news/smoke-free-products-scientific-update.

  • Smokers work around TPD

    Smokers work around TPD

    According to the UK’s Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association (TMA), new research has shown that even before major changes to the UK tobacco market were due to come into full effect on May 20, people were increasing their purchases of cheap, black market tobacco products.

    ‘In a series of questions put to consumers over the last five months as the new measures were being phased in, the … TMA has tracked the impact of these regulations on smoker behaviour and found a growth in people buying from non-UK duty paid sources,’ the TMA said.

    The key findings of the TMA’s research were:

    • A 14.5 percent increase in smokers buying packs of 20 cigarettes from illicit sources and abroad during the past five months;
    • A 91.7 percent increase in smokers buying larger packs of hand-rolling tobacco from illicit sources and abroad;
    • A 31.6 percent increase in smokers buying online from social media and websites advertising cheap illicit tobacco;
    • A 22.1 percent increase in smokers buying any tobacco product from abroad, thereby avoiding UK duty.

    The survey found, too, that the average price paid for a pack of 20 cigarettes from an illicit supplier was £5.96 – £1.39 less than the £7.35 that the government has used to set the minimum excise tax on a pack of 20 cigarettes.

    “It is clear from this research that plain packaging and the small packs ban, measures imposed by Europe and adopted by the UK government, are already having an impact on smokers’ behaviour as they seek out cheaper alternatives from the black market and abroad,” said Giles Roca, director general of the TMA, commenting on the findings. “It’s no surprise that our research points to a rise in the illicit market – this is exactly what happened in Australia when plain packaging was introduced in 2012.

    “On banning small packs, which are particularly popular in the UK, independent research confirmed that such a move will cost the treasury £2.1 billion in the first year, costing 11,190 jobs whilst even those in public health agree that it will lead to people smoking more, not less, tobacco.

    “On plain packaging, a recent major independent review of 51 studies found no evidence that it acted to prevent youth-uptake – the chief justification why the measure was introduced in the UK. Whilst figures from France, that introduced plain packaging in January 2017, show cigarette consumption actually increased compared to last year when branding was allowed. In March alone the French bought four million packets of cigarettes, over four percent more than during the same period last year.

    “These measures were introduced [in the UK] not based on evidence or hard fact but on the dogma of various health lobby groups. Given these measures originated in Brussels, the government should commit to review each and every one of them following Brexit.”

  • UK urged to go own way

    UK urged to go own way

    New EU regulations governing vaping products sold in the UK are ‘stringent and ill-conceived, and should be reviewed and overhauled as part of the Brexit process for the good of the country’s public health’, according to the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA).

    To ensure that the UK realised the massive potential health benefit of vaping for those seeking to stop or reduce smoking, and to save the government billions of pounds in National Health Service (NHS) costs, there was a need for an overhaul of Article 20 of the EU’s Tobacco Products Directive, which come into force on May 20.

    The UKVIA said that while it welcomed those aspects of the new EU regulations that provided certainty and clarity on quality and safety issues pertaining to vaping products, the provision of product information and the testing of products and their vapor emissions, it was questioning what it termed ‘the level of ill-conceived restrictions on nicotine strengths and e-liquid bottle sizes and advertising bans akin to those for cigarettes’.

    The association said it believed such ill-conceived regulation would impact the continuing growth of the vaping market, which was today worth more than half a billion pounds in consumer purchases – purchases that reflected the enormous demand from smokers for less harmful alternatives to smoking.

    ‘Vaping is currently enjoyed by some three million smokers in the UK, over half of whom now describe themselves as “former smokers”,’ a UKVIA press note said. ‘Based on the NHS’s valuation of £74,000 for every smoker that stops smoking,  a total saving of £111 billion for the nation’s coffers is already being realised.’

    Charles Hamshaw-Thomas, a UKVIA board member (pictured), was quoted as saying that a huge potential public health prize could be lost if the UK government didn’t act swiftly. “We are very concerned about several of the new EU regulations which pay lip service to the potentially seismic public health opportunity which is widely recognised as being on offer,” he said. “Excessive restrictions, almost identical to those for tobacco products, make no sense if all smokers and the wider public are to be made aware that vaping is much more healthier than smoking.

    “There is huge demand from smokers for less harmful alternatives to cigarettes. In August 2015, Public Health England reported that vaping is likely to be at least 95 percent less harmful than smoking; and since then a growing consensus has emerged in the public health community that vaping products are life changers. It’s critical therefore that the government, in the world of Brexit, ensures that the UK’s regulatory base and framework for vaping and reduced-risk nicotine products is fit for purpose and that the industry is incentivised to develop and promote new and ever better products so that a smoke free world becomes a reality.

    “We are calling for Article 20  to be overhauled at the earliest possible opportunity in the Brexit process.”

    Meanwhile health behaviourist, Peter Hajek, Professor of Clinical Psychology at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, said that vaping would now be regulated much more strictly than conventional cigarettes were regulated. This would make it fiddly, less helpful for dependent smokers and more expensive. And it would discourage further product improvements. There was no logical justification for any of these measures.

    “In a nutshell, the EU TPD protects cigarettes from their much less risky competitor and will be damaging to public health,” he said. “If there is any leeway to ignore or scrap this part of the Directive, now or in the future, it should be taken.”

    The UKVIA press note said that many stop smoking services across the UK were beginning to declare themselves as ‘vape friendly’, by advocating vaping products as a quitting aid. But many feared the new rules would act as a barrier.

    “We are concerned that aspects of the Tobacco Products Directive work against helping people stop smoking, by making life for vapers more difficult – sub-optimal strength nicotine, small bottles, small tanks – and by preventing positive messages being shared among those who have been frightened off vaping by a hostile propaganda war,” said Louise Ross, Stop Smoking Service Manager in Leicester.

  • New rules seen as infantile

    New rules seen as infantile

    The smokers’ group Forest says that new tobacco regulations coming into force in the UK ‘infantilise’ consumers and will make no difference to public health.

    The new rules, which must be fully implemented by this weekend, include a minimum pack size of 20 cigarettes, a minimum pouch size of 30g of rolling tobacco, a ban on branded packaging for cigarettes and rolling tobacco, and the imposition of larger health warnings.

    “The new regulations treat adults like naughty children, said Simon Clark, the director of Forest, which campaigns for smokers’ rights. “They infantilise consumers by attacking freedom of choice and personal responsibility.

    “Adults and even teenagers are under no illusions about the health risks of smoking. Consumers don’t need larger health warnings to tell them what they already know.

    “Banning smaller packs is a pathetic attempt to target the less well-off in the hope they will be forced to quit, but smokers will soon adapt and buy the larger packs instead.

    “If you’re trying to cut down it will be harder now because the option of buying a smaller number of cigarettes has been taken away.”

    Clark was scathing also about standardized packaging.

    He described as absurd the idea that people smoked because of the packaging and said there was no evidence that plain packaging had any impact on youth smoking rates, and without such evidence there was no justification for the policy.

    “The new regulations are a disgraceful attempt to denormalize both the product and legitimate consumers,” Clark said.

    “There’s no evidence they will have the slightest impact on public health.

    “Politicians and tobacco control campaigners are grasping at straws if they think people will give up something they enjoy just because the packaging has changed.”

    Clark said the new government [the UK is holding a general election next month] should review the measures as soon as the UK has left the European Union.

    “With the exception of plain packaging all these regulations were imposed on the UK by the EU’s Tobacco Products Directive,” he said.

    “Brexit will give the government the chance to review the impact of these policies and, where necessary, amend or repeal regulations that deliberately discriminate against millions of adult consumers.”

  • Vaping on the advance

    Vaping on the advance

    The UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) has said that it is delighted with the results of a survey showing that more than half of Great Britain’s 2.9 million vapers no longer smoke.

    Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) has today published the findings from its annual Smokefree GB survey into the use of electronic cigarettes and vaporisers in Great Britain, a survey that is conducted by YouGov on behalf of ASH.

    The survey data show that an estimated 2.9 million adults in Great Britain currently use electronic cigarettes and that, for the first time, more ex-smokers (1.5 million) than current smokers are using e-cigarettes.

    “We are delighted that ASH and YouGov have confirmed that the British people are voting with their feet and switching from smoking to significantly less harmful vaping products,” said Doug Mutter of the UKVIA in a press note.

    “Public Health England is clear that vaping is at least 95 percent less harmful than smoking.

    “If we can now convince the UK’s nine million remaining smokers to switch to vaping, this will produce huge benefits for our nation’s health and the NHS’ [National Health Service’s] finances.

    “Unfortunately, the public are still receiving a barrage of mixed messages about vaping. This, coupled with excessive tobacco-style regulation coming from the EU, puts at risk the seismic public health prize that vaping represents.

    “It is time for the government to seize the public health opportunity on offer, and the chance presented by Brexit, to finally address one of our society’s most intransigent public health problems – smoking related diseases.”

  • Farm worker abuses alleged

    Farm worker abuses alleged

    Leaders of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) reportedly challenged British American Tobacco during its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in London last week over what FLOC described as human rights abuses on BAT contract farms.

    In a note on its website, FLOC said that BAT, which was planning to pay US$49 billion to acquire the rest of Reynolds American, was asked about its failure ‘to be transparent and take concrete action despite numerous reports detailing human rights abuses’ on its contract farms.

    This year was said to have marked the seventh year that FLOC had attended the shareholders meeting.

    ‘During the 2014 AGM, BAT chairman Richard Burrows claimed that there were no labor or human rights violations in the BAT supply chain,’ the note said.

    ‘Since then, independent research groups including SwedWatch and Human Rights Watch have published reports detailing serious human rights abuses on BAT contract farms in Bangladesh and Indonesia respectively, echoing what FLOC has been reporting for years from the fields of North Carolina.

    ‘In BAT’s own corporate audit report, they admitted instances of worker death by heat stroke, workers being sprayed by pesticides, and poor housing conditions, among other issues.’

    After the meeting, FLOC leaders were said to have met directly with BAT executives to discuss the issues and ‘real solutions’ in more depth.

    But FLOC said that while BAT had stated that it had wanted to work with FLOC to resolve issues in the BAT supply chain, human rights violations would continue until BAT agreed ‘to guarantee freedom of association and implement a practical mechanism that allows farmworkers to denounce abuses and act as their own auditors!’

    The note is at: http://www.floc.com/wordpress/floc-speaks-out-against-abuses-in-bat-supply-chain/

  • Looming health concerns

    Looming health concerns

    The fundamental right to health in the UK will be lost if the government proceeds with its plan not to convert the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights into UK law, as announced in the white paper on the Great Repeal Bill, according to an editorial in the British Medical Journal by Peter Roderick and Allyson M. Pollock

    ‘The value of this charter was shown last year, in both EU and UK courts, when the tobacco industry unsuccessfully challenged the new rules on plain packaging of cigarettes,’ the editorial said.

    ‘One of the industry’s arguments was that the rules violated its rights. Both the EU Court of Justice and the High Court in London used the right to health in article 35 of the charter as a counter weight to that argument.

    ‘Mr Justice Green made the strongest judicial statement yet in the UK on this critical point: [Tobacco regulations] are health measures. This is an area of legislative activity to which immense importance is attached and legislatures and decision makers are habitually accorded a wide margin of appreciation. Health is recognized as a fundamental right. Article 35 of the Fundamental Charter identifies access to health care as a fundamental right but also [original emphasis] makes a statement as to the weight to be attached to this right, namely “high.”‘

    The editorial said that the government’s proposal not to maintain the fundamental rights charter meant that after Brexit it would not be possible for a UK judge to use article 35 or other charter rights when interpreting UK laws that had derived from the EU. ‘These include laws to protect public health such as on pesticide residues in food, health and safety at work, management and disposal of hazardous substances, regulation of medicinal products, and air and water quality,’ it said. ‘The change will considerably weaken the ability of judges in future to uphold the law if it is challenged by industry in the courts.’

    The editorial is at: http://www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j2013.

  • Imperial’s volume down

    Imperial’s volume down

    Imperial Brand’s total tobacco volume during the six months to the end of March, at 126.3 billion stick-equivalents, was down by 5.7 percent on that of the six months to the end of March 2016. Stick-equivalent volume is said to include cigarette, fine-cut tobacco, cigar and snus volumes.

    During the same period, the company’s Growth Brand volume was increased by 3.2 percent, from 70.7 billion to 73.0 billion.

    Imperial’s tobacco net revenue during the six months to the end of March, at £3,716 million, was increased by 9.3 percent on that of the six months to the end of March 2016, £3,399 million.

    Tobacco adjusted operating profit increased by 5.7 percent to £1,667 million, while logistics adjusted operating profit increased by 20.6 percent to £82 million, and total adjusted operating profit increased by 6.3 percent to £1,740 million.

    Adjusted earnings per share increased by 7.9 percent to 1121.9p, while the dividend per share was up by 10.0 percent to 51.7p.

    Commenting on the interim results, chief executive, Alison Cooper, said Imperial was delivering encouraging improvements in share trends in many of its priority markets after significantly stepping up investment behind its “strategy and quality growth”.

    “The volume and share gains we achieved with our Growth Brands in the period were particularly pleasing,” she said.

    “Our performance is underpinned by the rollout of our Market Repeatable Model, which provides an effective and consistent approach for delivering sustainable quality growth in markets.

    “We are deploying this model in e-vapour and believe it can also be successfully applied to drive growth in other consumer adjacencies.

    “As expected, first half revenue and profit were impacted by the considerable increase in investment. “In a challenging industry environment, we are delivering against our strategy and remain on track to meet full year earnings expectations at constant currency.

    “Cash conversion remains strong and we are delivering another dividend increase of 10 percent.”

  • E-liquids allergy guide

    E-liquids allergy guide

    British American Tobacco has published what it calls the first practical guide to the allergy-safe use of ingredients, such as flavourings, in e-liquids.

    In a press note issued yesterday, the company said that, as with the use of many flavouring or fragrance-containing consumer products, ‘vaping’ e-liquid had the potential for causing an allergic reaction.

    ‘An allergic reaction is an overreaction by the body’s immune system to compounds that a person is ‘allergic’ to,’ the press note said. ‘Even if a compound has the potential to cause such a reaction (i.e. it is an allergen), that doesn’t mean it will. Whether an allergic reaction is likely, will depend on the person’s immune system and the amount of the compound used in a product.’

    However, some substances were more likely than were others to cause allergic reactions, said BAT.

    Flavourings were an important part of the vaping experience and some flavourings were known allergens. But currently, there were no specific allergy-related regulatory restrictions under either the Tobacco Products Directive in Europe or regulations administered by the Food and Drug Administration in the US.

    Researchers at BAT had therefore devised a practical approach to assessing and managing the allergy risk associated with e-liquid flavourings and other ingredients (Regulatory Pharmacology and Toxicology http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.yrtph.2017.04.003). The guide is said to be a follow-up to the company’s blueprint for the safe use of flavourings in e-cigs, which was published in Regulatory Pharmacology and Toxicology in 2015 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yrtph.2015.05.018).

    The most common allergy was contact sensitization arising when, for example, nickel jewellery touched the skin. Much less common was respiratory allergy, or ‘chemical asthma’.

    “Although respiratory allergy is much less common than skin allergy, the potential adverse effects are much more severe,” said Dr. Sandra Costigan, principal toxicologist at BAT. “Chronic inhalation of respiratory allergens can lead to symptoms ranging from mild breathing difficulties to fatal anaphylaxis.”

    ‘For skin allergens, the researchers propose a method for estimating the exposures to e-liquid ingredients and quantitatively assessing the risk,’ the press note said. ‘This has then allowed them to work out a concentration of an allergen that is not expected to cause allergy in the person vaping the e-liquid.

    ‘For skin allergens, putting this into practice is relatively straightforward, as an approach to prevent contact sensitization is well established: The stronger the allergen, the lower the supportable concentration in e-liquid.

    ‘Additionally, the researchers say any known allergen should be labelled as an ingredient if it is present at 0.1 percent concentration or higher, even if it is established that it can be used safely at a higher concentration. This will help those consumers who already know themselves to be sensitive to certain ingredients to make product choices.’

    For respiratory allergens, the authors used a cocoa extract as a case study, because cocoa is used quite commonly in e-liquids. The case study showed the tolerable levels identified for the cocoa extract were not sufficiently high to allow it to perform as an effective flavouring in e-liquid. In the guide, the researchers discuss why this is likely to be an issue for other respiratory allergens as well. And they recommend that respiratory allergens are not used at all.

    Furthermore, quoting the low occupational exposure guidelines related to respiratory allergens (aimed at protecting workers against respiratory allergy from unintended exposure to allergens in the workplace), the researchers said it was prudent to exclude all known respiratory sensitizers from e-liquids. As an additional safeguard, if natural extracts were used as flavourings and there was no specific data on whether those extracts were respiratory sensitizers or not, only protein-free versions should be used. This was because most respiratory allergens from natural extracts came from the protein parts.

    Food allergens were yet another type of allergen and the researchers recommended the presence of any potential food allergens (that are not already excluded for being respiratory allergens) should be labelled.

    ‘No two people have the same immune response, which is why it is important to tell people about allergens in a product even if all your data says most people shouldn’t experience a problem,’ said Costigan.