Author: Staff Writer

New Study Revives Discredited “Gateway” Theory
Adolescent cigarette smoking has declined over the past several decades, e-cigarette use presents a new risk for nicotine use disorder, according to a new study. Published Nov. 9 in the journal Pediatrics, the new research suggests that e-cigarette use is associated with a higher risk of cigarette smoking among adolescents who had no prior intention of taking up conventional smoking.
“Research is showing us that adolescent e-cigarette users who progress to cigarette smoking are not simply those who would have ended up smoking cigarette anyway,” says Olusegun Owotomo, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., the study’s lead author and a pediatric resident at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC. “Our study shows that e-cigarettes can predispose adolescents to cigarette smoking, even when they have no prior intentions to do so.”
The study uses data collected by the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study, an NIH and FDA collaborative nationally representative prospective cohort study of tobacco use, from 2014-2016. A more recent PATH study has shown the rate of youth e-cigarette use is declining.
Among adolescents who did not intend to smoke cigarettes in the future, those who used e-cigarettes were more than four times more likely to start smoking cigarettes one year later compared to those who did not use e-cigarettes.
November 9, 2020
Bangkok Man Charged With Selling Illegal E-Cigarettes

Credit: Nation Thailand
Over 70 various e-cigarette and vapor related products have been seized in Bangkok, Thailand after raiding the home of a 35-year-old man. Vaping products are illegal for sale in Thailand. The country banned the products in 2014.
Police found 70 electronic cigarettes, several containers of e-liquid and other related products. Police say the alleged dealer sold the e-cigarettes and e-liquid through Facebook and used a private delivery service to ship the products to customers.
Police tracked down the dealer’s address and searched his home, finding e-cigarettes and related products valued at around baht300,000 ($9,839), according to a report in The Thaiger.
The accused was detained and charged with violating consumer protection regulations. Police say he admitted to selling the products.
Earlier this year, a consumer advocacy group asked the government of Thailand to consider science as basis for ending e-cigarette ban.
November 9, 2020
Tobacco Control Urged to Embrace Harm Reduction

Graph: KAC
A new report published by the U.K. public health agency Knowledge Action Change (KAC) demonstrates an urgent need to scale up tobacco harm reduction, which enables smokers to switch to safer nicotine products, eliminating the smoke that causes death and disease.
Titled “Burning Issues: The Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction (GSTHR),” the report reveals that an estimated 98 million people use these products globally, including 68 million vapers, 20 million users of heated tobacco products and 10 million consumers of U.S. smokeless or pasteurized oral snus.
While showing huge demand for safer alternatives, these numbers are dwarfed by the global total of 1.1 billion smokers—a figure that has remained static for two decades despite billions spent on tobacco control. Eight million people die due to smoking-related disease every year.
During the report’s online launch, co-hosted with Lilongwe-based NGO THR Malawi on Nov. 4, the report authors showed that both access to and adoption of safer nicotine products largely remains the preserve of higher income countries, while 80 percent of the world’s smokers live in low- and middle-income countries poorly equipped to implement tobacco control or treat smoking-related disease.
The report further shows how tobacco control policy at the World Health Organization is being influenced by billions of dollars from U.S. foundations campaigning against tobacco harm reduction, while misinformation is discouraging smokers from switching to safer products.
KAC Director Gerry Stimson believes the world’s 1.1 billion smokers deserve better. “Integrated into tobacco control, harm reduction could be a gamechanger in the battle against noncommunicable disease,” he said in a statement. “Global tobacco control policymakers must listen to consumers and deliver policies that genuinely focus on reducing smoking-related deaths by all available means.”
Professor David Nutt argued that to reject the opportunity of tobacco harm reduction “is perhaps the worst example of scientific denial since the Catholic Church banned the works of Copernicus in 1616.”
November 9, 2020
New Zealand Voters Reject Recreational Marijuana

Voters in New Zealand narrowly rejected an effort to legalize recreational marijuana, according to official referendum results released on Friday. Only 48.4 percent the country voted in favor of legalization, the New Zealand Electoral Commission said.
The figure for those opposed to recreational pot narrowed from the 53.1 percent recorded in preliminary data released last week, but still maintained a slim majority, according to an article in the Daily Mail.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who voted in favor of the proposal, has vowed to honor the results of the vote, meaning the cannabis issue is unlikely to be revisited in her current term of office.
However, the closeness of the vote will encourage reform advocates, who argue that disadvantaged groups such as the Maori community are disproportionately targeted under current laws.
The dual referendums were held on October 17, alongside the general election that returned Ardern to power with a landslide majority. Earlier this year, New Zealand banned flavored vapor products.
Ardern did not disclose her position on the recreational cannabis debate during the election campaign, although the 40-year-old did admit to smoking marijuana “a long time ago”.
Advocates of the bid to legalize cannabis expressed disappointment that the Kiwi premier did not reveal her support for the bill until after the vote.
November 8, 2020
Taiwan Considers Ban on Flavored Vapor Products

Credit Remi Yuan
Flavored e-cigarettes and vapor products could be banned in Taiwan in an effort to curb youth use. Taiwan health officials stated that there were over 1,200 registered tobacco (and e-cigarette) flavorings in Taiwan in 2019, with the 10 most common being vanilla, floral and fruity flavors, candy, menthol, almond, caramel, butter, cherry, cinnamon, and rose.
The Health Promotion Administration (HPA) claims four out of 10 juvenile smokers (includes vapers) used flavored cigarettes in 2019, and the products appear to be more popular among girls.
The HPA said youths tend to believe such products pose lesser health risks and that they underestimate the addictive properties of nicotine. The agency has thus included restrictions on floral, fruity, chocolate, menthol, and other additives in the proposed amendment to the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act, according to the Taiwan News.
The amendment, which is currently being reviewed before its legislative reading, will also regulate traditional cigarettes and other tobacco products.
November 8, 2020
Malaysia to Tax E-Cigs and Vapor Products at 10%

Credit: Esmonde Yung
Malaysia will implement an excise duty at an ad valorem rate of 10 percent on all types of vapor and e-cigarette products. Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz says the tax includes all types of electronic and non-electronic cigarette devices, including e-liquids.
“Electronic cigarettes liquid too will be subjected to an excise duty at a rate of .40 sen (cents) per millimeter,” he said during the tabling of the Budget 2021 in parliament today. The tax takes effect on Jan. 1, 2021.
Tengku Zafrul said taxes would be imposed on cigarettes and tobacco products on all duty-free islands and any free zones that have been permitted retail sales of duty free cigarettes, according to a story on thestar.com. He added that the issuance of new cigarette import licenses would also be frozen.
He said that the transhipment of cigarettes activities to selected ports would also be limited.
“We will impose taxes on drawbacks on all imported cigarettes for the purpose of transhipment and re-exports,” he said, adding that transhipment activities and re-exports of cigarettes using pump boats would also not be allowed.
November 6, 2020
Vaporesso First CRC-Compliant Brand in Canada

Credit: Vaporesso
Vaporesso is the first refillable vapor product to pass Canada’s Child Resistant Certified (CRC) regulation. The rule was imposed by the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act (CCPSA).
Vaporesso, which is owned by the world’s largest vapor company Smoore International, received certification for its ZERO and XROS CRC devices. The GTX TANK 22 CRC version compatible with the GEN S, GEN Nano, LUXE II, and SWAG II mods, was also approved.
Similar to the premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) in the United States, Canada’s CRC-compliance is a federal requirement for all vaping manufacturers who want to continue advertising and selling their vaping products in Canada. The regulation serves to prevent children and teenagers from using vaping products, according to a press release.
“Working closely with the official authorities, Vaporesso is committed to leading the industry into strictly complying with all vaping-related regulations,” the release states. “The brand’s purpose is to prevent people who haven’t reached the legal age from using vaping products while maintaining the industry’s healthy development.”
The brand’s ZERO refillable pod system was compliant with the ISO8317 child-proof standard certification before the CRC Act took effect in the vaping industry. As a result, Vaporesso quickly redesigned the GTX TANK 22 into a new CRC-compliant version launched in 2020.
November 5, 2020
Milwaukee, WI Joins Juul Labs Class Action

Milwaukee Public Schools has voted to join a nationwide lawsuit against Juul Labs.
Keller Rohrback and MWH Law Group filed the class-action lawsuit against Juul Labs Inc., alleging that the e-cigarette company’s advertising and product design deliberately targeted minors, and that Altria Group, a part owner of Juul, knowingly supported targeting minors.
A Juul company spokesman said the company has halted advertising, eliminated flavored products other than menthol and submitted documents to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration outlining the products’ “harm reduction potential” and measures to address underage use, according to a story on milwaukeenns.com. A federal judge recently denied the company’s request to halt the class action.
Milwaukee City Attorney Tearman Spencer said the e-cigarette company has done irreparable damage to the progress the city had made in curbing tobacco use before e-cigarettes arrived.
“It took years to get to the relatively low level of youth tobacco use we had in 2017 before this, at great cost to the city,” Spencer said. “It is not fair for MPS or the city to bear the entire cost of undoing what these companies did.”
The Common Council will also vote on whether to join the suit. Spencer said he’s unsure about the timing of the lawsuit, but that if “we are super lucky,” it’ll take a couple of years.
November 5, 2020
BAT: Switching to Glo Reduces Exposure
Smokers who switched completely from smoking cigarettes to using British American Tobacco’s (BAT) Glo tobacco-heating product (THP) substantially reduced their exposure to certain cigarette smoke toxicants over three months, according to a company study published in Nicotine and Tobacco Research.

For many of the toxicants measured, the levels found in participants were similar to those in people who stopped using tobacco completely.

BAT scientists are conducting a year-long controlled study to see what impact switching from cigarettes to Glo will have on general health as well as smoke-toxicant exposure.

According to BAT, the study’s results find that smokers who switch from cigarettes to Glo exclusively significantly reduce the levels of harmful toxicants they are exposed to, potentially reducing their risk of developing smoking-related diseases.

“These initial results regarding Glo are extremely encouraging,” James Murphy, group head of potentially reduced-risk product science at BAT, said in a statement. “Glo provides smokers who wish to continue using tobacco and nicotine products with a potentially reduced-risk alternative to cigarettes. The results are another positive step for BAT as we continue our journey to reduce the health impact of our business by offering consumers a range of enjoyable and potentially reduced-risk products.”

November 5, 2020
Parliament Member Backs Special Status Vape Shops

Mark Pawsey MP (Photo: UKVIA)
U.K. Member of Parliament Mark Pawsey, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Vaping, has called for vape stores to remain open during the Covid-19 lockdown to safeguard public health.
“Given its vital role in smoking cessation, even when compared to NRT [nicotine replacement therapy], the case for vaping’s essential status is growing ever stronger,” said Pawsey.
“Vape retailers do not just provide the tools for harm-reduction, but also the expert advice and support which empowers consumers to make a positive change. Now, more than ever, we should be safeguarding the country’s public health; vaping is an important part of that. Let’s support this sector, and all those who rely on it, by keeping vape stores open.”
Earlier this week, the U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) urged ministers to consider the essential status for vape stores.
Doug Mutter
“I have seen first-hand how U.K. vaping has risen to every challenge this year, with new safety measures, business practices and routines,” said John Dunne, director general of the UKVIA in a statement. “The passion for helping people in this industry is unrelenting, no smoker looking to quit is on their own. However, with government help we can do even more, because for many people the support of a face-to-face experience is vital.
“If the government does not grant essential status to vaping the impact on sales from stores could be as much as 45 percent-50 percent down,” said Doug Mutter, manufacturing and compliance director at VPZ.
November 5, 2020