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.
Pending a final vote next week, San Francisco is expected to ban vaping and smoking tobacco in apartments, but only after exempting cannabis in response to a backlash from marijuana advocates.
The Board of Supervisors voted 10-to-1 to approve legislation intended to protect renters from the harms of secondhand smoke in buildings with three or more units on Tuesday night,, The Examiner reported.
Credit: Mohamed Hassan
“The problem is smoke easily moves between units and there is no way to contain it,” said Board President Norman Yee, who introduced the proposal. Yee had wanted to ban cannabis smoke as well, but couldn’t get the votes. The legislation prompted an outpouring of opposition from cannabis advocates.
Supervisor Rafael Mandelman succeeded in amending the proposal in an 8-to-3 vote to provide a blanket exemption for cannabis smoke, before ultimately voting for the proposal.
He said that state law treats tobacco smokers and cannabis smokers differently and without the exemption there would be no legal place for people to smoke cannabis. There are handful of consumption lounges in The City but they are closed during the pandemic.
“Tobacco smokers unable to smoke in their apartment building can go out to the curb or find other public space,” Mandelman said. “There are other public spaces where they are allowed to smoke. Cannabis smokers don’t have that alternative and so I think it is important that we fully exempt cannabis from this legislation.”
Yee had previously amended the initial proposal to exempt those who use cannabis for medicinal reasons with proof of a doctor’s recommendation but opposed the full exemption along with Supervisors Ahsha Safai and Gordon Mar.
He said that while there are benefits from using cannabis “there are still health risks in exposure to secondhand cannabis smoke” and it would be “harmful for young kids and people that have respiration issues.”
Supervisor Dean Preston, the only nay vote, said the board should take more time to work out the issues raised by tenant groups, including concerns over how the ban would largely impact long-term tenants who signed leases before it became the standard for landlords to put no-smoking provisions into the agreements. His motion to postpone the vote, however, was defeated in a 5-to-6 vote.
The Department of Public Health is charged with enforcing the ban. Violators could face fines of up to $1,000 per day. A violation can not be grounds for an eviction under the terms of the legislation.
Dozens of other cities and counties in California already have in place similar no-smoking bans in apartments including San Mateo, Daly City, Berkeley and Santa Clara County.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) decision to regulate e-cigarettes as tobacco products has been upheld in a federal court. The ruling rejects challenges from the e-cigarette industry claiming the agency had violated the U.S. Constitution’s Appointments Clause.
Photo: Skypixel | Dreamstime.com
A unanimous panel of the D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that the regulation did not run afoul of the Appointments Clause because the FDA official who promulgated it was not appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, according to Westlaw Today.
Jonathan Wood of the Pacific Legal Foundation, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said he and his clients were “disappointed” and considering next steps. “The Appointments Clause is an essential constitutional protection for democratic oversight and accountability,” he said. “Yet the court’s decision all but assures that agencies will suffer no consequences when they violate this clause.”A spokeswoman for the FDA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The appeal came from a group of vape shops including Michigan-based Moose Jooce and manufacturers of the liquid used in e-cigarettes, all represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a conservative legal group.
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.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington, D.C. agreed that the ratification overcame any Appointments Clause issues, and the plaintiffs appealed. Circuit Judge Judith Rogers, writing for a unanimous panel Tuesday, agreed, rejecting the plaintiffs’ arguments that Gottlieb was required to conduct a new review before ratifying the rule, and noting there was no evidence in the record that he had not.
“Commissioner Gottlieb’s ratification, for the reasons discussed, cured any potential Appointments Clause defect arising from Associate Commissioner for Policy Kux’s issuance of the Deeming Rule,” she wrote.
Circuit Judge Cornelia Pillard and Senior Circuit Judge David Sentelle joined in the opinion. E-cigarettes are handheld electronic devices that vaporize a fluid that often contains the addictive substance nicotine. The devices have been grabbing market share from traditional tobacco companies.
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.
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.
Philippine Senate President Vicente Sotto III – Credit: Current PH
In the Philippines, Senate President Vicente Sotto III wants safer nicotine products, such as e-cigarettes and heat-not-burn (HnB) products, to be allowed to competitively compete with traditional tobacco. During a senate hearing last week, the senator asked the country’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to guarantee that the guidelines it will issue for vapor and HnB products are compliant with the law that allowed the sale of safer nicotine alternatives.
Sotto made the call during recent deliberations on the proposed budget of the Department of Health (DOH), where he stressed that FDA regulations for these nicotine alternatives should not make it difficult for them to compete against cigarettes to lessen the number of smokers in the country, according to an article on philstar.com. “We don’t want it to appear that introducing a cigarette product to the Philippines is easier than introducing a heated tobacco product or a vapor product,” Sotto said.
The FDA was tasked to draft the general guidelines for the implementation of Republic Act 11467, which imposed higher taxes on cigarettes and e-cigarettes; and Executive Order No. 106, which bans the manufacture and sale of such products that are not registered or that are adulterated with other substances.
Sotto said he has received letters from some sectors, particularly the e-cigarette consumer groups, expressing concerns over the FDA’s draft guidelines on vapor products and HnB. “Here in the Senate, we, as usual, are concerned with the implementing rules and regulations and guidelines of some government agencies. It has been a big issue with us, because some agencies appear to go beyond what the enabling law provides,” he said.
He warned that FDA regulations might make it more difficult for vapes and HnB to compete against cigarettes, and therefore defeat the purpose of such products to lessen smoking in the country.
He stressed that HnB products are better than cigarettes. “We don’t want the youth and those who don’t smoke to suddenly think of using e-cigarettes and heated tobacco. What we want is for those who smoke to shift to heated tobacco or e-cigs,” Sotto said.
Sotto said studies have shown that 80 percent of people who switched to HnB products never went back to smoking cigarettes again. “I was in London over a year ago and I saw the differences. We have to admit that [HnB] is far different from cigarettes; [HnB] does not have second-hand smoke, but actual cigarettes have,” Sotto said.
Sen. Pia Cayetano, who was sponsoring the DOH budget, said she will remind the FDA that the Senate “is very conscious of their not exceeding their authority. They should just be guided by the law.” Cayetano said she and Sotto “are of like minds that our biggest concern is the youth and what I learned when I went to London was that the reason that in London they can really push for e-cigs is because they have already been successful in preventing the youth from smoking cigarettes.”
Sotto recognized that the government needs to properly regulate these electronic nicotine delivery systems or ENDS and HnB. He, however, pointed out that certain ingredients considered essential for these products are proposed to be prohibited on the FDA draft guidelines.
“For example, there is the prohibition on the use of glycerol and propylene glycol. These are aerosol formers for these products, so if they are banned, the products will not work anymore. If there is no aerosol to inhale, it will make these products unusable, so in other countries they are not banned in e-cigarettes,” he said.
Cayetano said the FDA only pointed out and banned those that are poisonous. She clarified that “they do not ban the other products or ingredients needed to produce that aerosol.”
Vype ePen 3, British American Tobacco’s (BAT) flagship vapor product, can provide smokers with similar levels of nicotine as standard cigarettes, according to new research. If used exclusively, ePen3 could help smokers avoid many of the risks associated with smoking, BAT said in a statement.
The Scientific Reports study compared both Vype ePen 3 and Vype ePen 2 to combustible cigarettes. It assessed a variety of e-liquids and nicotine strengths for each product and how nicotine concentration and delivery device combined to affect user preference.
Results from the study show that Vype ePen 3 was superior to Vype ePen 2 for nicotine delivery and ranked significantly higher for user satisfaction, with the newer device scoring nearly double for likability compared to its predecessor.
The study showed that the maximum concentration of nicotine in the blood after using the Vype ePen 3 (18 mg/mL protonated nicotine) was on average twice that achieved using Vype ePen 2 (18 mg/mL unprotonated nicotine).
David O’Reilly
“We know that for many smokers, nicotine levels are an important factor in choosing a vaping product, particularly when initially switching,” said David O’Reilly, BAT’s director of scientific research.
“They want it to work for them, delivering the nicotine they want in a device they like. We think we have achieved this with Vype ePen 3 and hope that through continued product innovation we can encourage and enable those who would otherwise continue to smoke to switch to a reduced-risk alternative which has been scientifically substantiated.”
This study is a part of a comprehensive program of scientific research designed to assess and substantiate the reduced-risk potential of noncombustible products.
Recreational marijuana is legal in the U.S. state of Arizona as of today. Proposition 207, also called the Smart and Safe Arizona Act, was approved by Arizona voters and will legalize marijuana possession and use by adults 21 and older.
Credit: Alex Person
The new takes effect today, Nov. 30, and also allows for the creation of establishments to sell recreational marijuana. However, not all of Arizona’s cities are excited about the new rules. Scottsdale could be the latest Arizona municipality to ban most recreational marijuana sales and cultivation within city limits before Prop 207 goes into effect.
Scottsdale’s City Council will consider a new ordinance to heavily restrict recreational marijuana sales in the city and ban its use on public property. The proposed ordinance would prohibit the sale and transportation of recreational marijuana except by a licensed medical marijuana dispensary.
Scottsdale would also ban marijuana testing facilities except for independent third-party labs that are certified and already authorized by the state. Prop 207 allows medical marijuana dispensaries to apply for state permission to sell recreational weed.
Cities must allow existing dispensaries to “to operate a nonprofit medical marijuana dispensary and a marijuana establishment cooperatively at shared locations,” the new law states. Scottsdale’s proposed ordinance would also ban the use of marijuana in public spaces, including bars, common areas at apartment buildings, entertainment venues, hotels, restaurants and stores.
Council’s approval of the ordinance would put Scottsdale among a small but growing list of Arizona cities and towns choosing to impose similar bans. Both Gilbert and Sahuarita approved their own bans in October before voters even approved Prop 207.
Payson Town Council also passed its own ordinance in October allowing existing medicinal dispensaries to sell recreational pot and giving the Council strict oversight over new recreational outlets, according to the Payson Roundup.
The proposed Scottsdale ordinance appears positioned to pass when it goes before Scottsdale Council on Monday. The ordinance was placed on its consent agenda, which is typically reserved for non-controversial items that require no discussion.
Councilwoman Kathy Littlefield indicated she would support the measure. “I believe limiting recreational marijuana sales to existing medical dispensaries is reasonable and within the context of the law,” she said.
Even if Council approves the ordinance, the city could amend it at a later date to allow recreational marijuana operations. According to a City Council report, the quick implementation of Prop 207 necessitates the adoption of strict restrictions at the local level.
City staff is recommending the proposed ordinance as a stopgap until it can further study the impact of expanded use on the city. “Scottsdale should consider implementing the full prohibitions and regulations Proposition 207 allows now…and come back later to potentially add additional recreational marijuana uses and allowances in the future once the City can better study and analyze how to safely and effectively do so in a way that does not disrupt the public peace, health or safety,” the report states.
The ordinance is already having a trickle- down effect in Scottsdale. On Nov. 18, the applicant behind a proposed medical marijuana dispensary in the city’s Entertainment District asked the city Planning Commission to delay a hearing on the project, citing the pending ordinance.
Simbarashe Mutsine started smoking uncured tobacco at the age of 16. Now aged 43, Mutsine is bed ridden and battling for his life. He has been in and out of hospital suffering from a cocktail of health complications that doctors blame on his smoking habits, writes Everson Mushava in Zimbabwe’s The Standard.
Photo: Vchalup | Dreamstime.com
The Chinhoyi tobacco farmer has been experiencing respiratory complications and his blood pressure has also been high for some time. Doctors fear the worst saying arteries that carry blood to his heart muscle have been narrowed by clots caused by chemicals contained in cigarette smoke.
Mutsine has symptoms of coronary artery disease and can suffer a severe heart attack anytime, the doctors said. As if that was not enough, the father of five has also developed type two diabetes mellitus.
“We have lost hope, we have tried all we can but I think he is losing the war,” Mutsine’s sister, Chenayi said, looking dejected. “We thought he was bewitched, but the doctors blame his sickness on smoking. He has since stopped smoking because of ill-health, but there has been no change. We are placing everything in God’s hands.”
Mutsine is not alone in his troubles. According to the World Health Organization, tobacco smoking accounts for over seven million deaths worldwide, of which about five million will be men. Of the 7.1 million deaths recorded in 2016, 6.3 million were attributable to cigarette smoking while the other 884 000 were as a result of second-hand smoke.
The only hope is in a smoke-free future.
The carnage can be stopped.
American tobacco giant, Philip Morris International (PMI), through science and research, has already made a breakthrough that can save million lives and also bring relief to many countries, Zimbabwe included, whose economies are partly sustained by the golden leaf.
PMI has already produced a heating tobacco system; IQOS, which is unique in that it heats tobacco, but does not burn it. The electronic IQOS device generates a nicotine-containing aerosol by heating tobacco-filled sticks wrapped in paper.
Heating of the tobacco in controlled temperatures will significantly reduce the production of harmful chemicals produced through combustion. This was acknowledged by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), who in July gave Phillip Morris the greenlight to market its IQOS in the USA.
Since 2016, international tobacco giant has been committing itself to science and research to transform its business towards healthier, smoke-free alternatives to nicotine delivery. The company aims to get at least 40 million of its adult customers to stop cigarette smoking and switch to one of the alternatives aimed at ultimately achieving a “smoke-free future.”
“A lot of people think it’s the nicotine in cigarettes that causes morbidity and mortality. But it’s not. Nicotine is addictive, but it’s not the primary cause of disease,” Andre Calantzopoulos, PMI chief executive officer told the Harvard Business Review in July. “The Food and Drug Authority (FDA) has clarified that. The problem is combustion. If you can eliminate combustion, then you significantly reduce the harmful chemicals the product emits compared to cigarette smoke. The best thing a smoker can do, of course, is to stop nicotine consumption altogether. But a billion people still smoke, so the next best thing you can do is to convince them to change their behaviour by creating products that they can switch to. That is what we are doing.”
He added: “Well, if you do a phase-out too early, you create unintended consequences, including contraband and so on. But with the right demand and supply measures, I think we can eliminate cigarettes in certain countries within reasonable time horizons – 10, 15 years.”
Asked if he had confidence that the transformation would be successful, Calantzopoulos said: “Why would I engage my company in a multibillion-dollar transformational exercise if I didn’t believe that it was the right thing to do?”
According to WHO, although tobacco products pose major public health problems, tobacco products remain one of the consumer products that are virtually unregulated in respect of contents and emissions.
Due to the challenges associated with the regulation of tobacco products, countries have been hesitant to implement regulations in the area because of the highly technical nature of policy interventions involved.
The tobacco industry also poses a challenge in translating science into regulation.
Experts believe failure to regulate tobacco products has presented a missed opportunity towards achieving a smoke-free future.
However, reduced risk tobacco products are still regulated in the same way as traditional cigarettes in order to prevent people especially in low-to-medium-income countries from accessing products that could reduce the harm that cigarettes pose to their lives.
A bill to federally legalize marijuana will receive a full floor vote in the U.S. House of Representatives this week, a top Democratic leader in the chamber announced on Friday.
Credit: Christina Winter
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said the chamber will take up the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act some time between Wednesday and Friday, according to a story in Marijuana Moment. The floor schedule announcement comes weeks after the leader first confirmed that the House would advance the proposal before the year’s end.
The bill is first expected to go before the House Rules Committee today, which prepares legislation for floor action and decides which amendments can be made in order for consideration by the full body.
Hoyer previously said that the chamber would vote on the legislation in September, but that plan was postponed following pushback from certain centrist Democrats who worried about the optics of advancing cannabis reform before passing another coronavirus relief package. Several moderates ended up losing their reelection races this month on the same day that voters in several red states approved legalization measures, however, raising questions about their strategic thinking on the politics of marijuana.
“I’ve been working on this issue longer than any politician in America and can confidently say that the MORE Act is the most comprehensive federal cannabis reform legislation in U.S. history,” Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) said in a press release. “Our vote to pass it next week will come after people in five very different states reaffirmed the strong bipartisan support to reform the failed cannabis prohibition. National support for federal cannabis legalization is at an all-time high and almost 99 percent of Americans will soon live in states with some form of legal cannabis.”
“Congress must capitalize on this momentum and do our part to end the failed policy of prohibition that has resulted in a long and shameful period of selective enforcement against communities of color,” he said.
The House approving the bill during the presidential transition could also raise the pressure on President-elect Joe Biden to embrace legalization—a policy he’s declined to adopt despite supermajority support among Democratic voters.
As currently written, the MORE Act, whose lead sponsor is Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), would federally deschedule cannabis, expunge the records of those with prior marijuana convictions and impose a federal five percent tax on sales, revenue from which would be reinvested in communities most impacted by the drug war.
The legislation would also create a pathway for resentencing for those incarcerated for marijuana offenses, as well as protect immigrants from being denied citizenship over cannabis and prevent federal agencies from denying public benefits or security clearances due to its use.
All of those provisions are subject to change through amendments over the coming week. Earlier this year, the House voted to protect states with legal marijuana.
