Author: Staff Writer

Study: French-Speaking Swiss Youth Use E-Cigs

One in eight youth aged 14 to 25 in French-speaking Switzerland is a frequent e-cigarette user, reports Le News.
A study by Unisante, which surveyed 1,362 young people, 59 percent said they had consumed e-cigarettes at least once and 12 percent said they used them frequently (more than 10 days over the past month). Of those that responded, 59 percent said they consume the products when out at night while 40 percent said they consume them at home. The survey showed that 63 percent of respondents preferred e-cigarettes because of the flavors while 40 percent cited lack of tobacco smell and 30 percent cited ease of use.
Disposables are the most popular choice for youth, and 49.4 percent of respondents said their parents knew they used the products. Half of respondents said they’d seen advertising for the products, and two-thirds were aware of the health risks and risk of addiction.
In Switzerland, 19 percent of those aged 15 to 24 smoked combustible cigarettes daily in 2017.
February 6, 2023
Dolly Parton Denies Any Affiliation With CBD Sales

Credit: Joe Hendrickson
Dolly Parton said in a statement that she does not sell Keto oils or CBD gummies that promise to prevent dementia.
The artist and amusement park owner made the announcement via her social media channels yesterday, after rumors claimed she was endorsing these products (realistic-looking ads were posted online, featuring photos of the singer). However, Snopes fact-checked the claims and reported them to be false and “fictional” — and now the Country music superstar has confirmed it.
“Dolly Parton is not affiliated with, has not endorsed and is not associated with any keto or CBD gummy product,” reads her Instagram statement. “She’s more the cake, cookie, and cornbread type.”
The false ads tried to direct readers to buy products like Supreme CBD Gummies, Jolly Nutrition CBD Gummies, and Proper CBD Gummies, according to Yahoo.
February 5, 2023
Lawmakers in Vermont Reintroduce Vape Flavor Ban

Credit: Carsten Reisinger
A bill in the U.S. state of Vermont is gaining traction that would outlaw all flavored vaping and other tobacco products.
Sponsors of the legislation said the bill is an attempt to curve the spike of youth nicotine use and to improve the health of all Vermonters, according to NBC5.
“The health consequences are huge, we know of cardiovascular disease, lung disease, various cancers, and pre-cancerous chronic conditions like emphysema,” said Sen. Virginia Lyons, lead sponsor of the bill.
Lawmakers also acknowledged that while the state may lose money from tobacco tax revenue, it could be made up in healthcare savings with Vermont spending an average of $348 million annually to treat tobacco-caused illnesses.
NBC5 received the following statement on the potential ban from an R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company spokesperson.
“Reynolds is committed to Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) and we believe our portfolio of potentially reduced-risk products can play a critical role in its delivery. We strongly believe there are more effective ways to deliver tobacco harm reduction than banning menthol in cigarettes. Evidence from other markets where similar bans have been imposed demonstrates little impact on overall cigarette consumption.”
Several states in the Northeast have or are considering flavor bans. Connecticut also introduced a bill that would ban flavored e-cigarettes. New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island have barred the sale of flavored vaping products. Massachusetts banned all flavored tobacco items, including flavored cigars, cigarettes and vaping goods.
Vermont’s ban was originally proposed in early 2020 as a way to prevent youth use, but was sidelined after the Covid-19 pandemic began to impact the country.
February 5, 2023
UK Lawmaker to Table Bill to Ban Disposable Vapes

Caroline Johnson
An MP in the United Kingdom is set to introduce a bill into parliament next week that will aim to prohibit the sale of disposable e-cigarettes and vapes.
Caroline Johnson, MP for the Sleaford and North Hykenham constituency which includes Great Gonerby, Barrowby, Marston and Cranwell, wants to introduce this bill after an NHS survey conducted in 2021 and published last year found that nearly one in five (18 percent) of fifteen-year-olds considered themselves e-cigarette users.
Johnson, an NHS children’s doctor and member of Parliament’s Health and Social Care Select Committee, is due to highlight the positive impact a potential ban on disposable vapes and e-cigarettes would have on the country as part of her 10-Minute Rule Bill on Wednesday, February 8.
“Reusable e-cigarettes and vapes remain an important aid to quitting smoking, but I fear that their colorful, child-friendly flavored, disposable counterparts are luring non-smokers into a life of addiction, which risks creating a new generation of nicotine addicts,” said Johnson.
“I look forward to presenting my bill to parliament soon and to highlighting the effects disposable e-cigarettes and vapes are having on our nation’s health and natural environment.”
The Scottish government has officially commissioned an “urgent review of the environmental impacts and management of single-use vapes.”
The review, which comes in response to emerging concerns around the negative consequences of disposable vaping devices, will inform potential policy responses, which could include a ban of the products.
February 4, 2023
Connecticut AG Submits Testimony on Flavor Ban
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong submitted testimony concerning House Bill 6488 stating that he fully supports the state’s proposed ban on flavored vaping and other tobacco products.
He also expressed concern that the “An Act Concerning Cigarettes, Tobacco Products, Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems and Vapor Products” bill as currently written exempts the most widely used flavor—menthol—which must be included in the ban to deter youth addiction.
“Ending the sale of flavored tobacco products, including menthol, will have an enormous impact in reducing the number of people who die or suffer debilitating preventable illness from tobacco use, significantly reducing the number of young people who become addicted to tobacco products, and reversing the youth e-cigarette epidemic,” Tong states. “A comprehensive flavor ban that includes menthol will save thousands of Connecticut lives, protect public health, and advance health equity. It should be implemented immediately.”
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong
Tong stated that his office has a long history of battling tobacco companies “from negotiating the Master Settlement Agreement in the 1990s to the recently announced settlement with Juul, we have focused our efforts on combatting the insidious ways that Big Tobacco has marketed to children.”
The bill is the most recent effort by members of the legislature’s Public Health Committee to take flavored nicotine products off the market in an effort to reduce smoking and vaping among young people. Similar legislation has failed to make it across the finish line during recent legislative sessions.
In May of last year, for the third year in a row, an effort to ban flavored vaping products in Connecticut couldn’t muster enough support.
Connecticut lawmakers heard testimony on legislation that would ban the sale of flavored tobacco and vape products as well as prohibit the use of vapes while in a vehicle with a child.
Connecticut is one of few states in the region that has not adopted a prohibition on flavored e-cigarettes. New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island have barred the sale of flavored vaping products. Massachusetts banned all flavored tobacco items, including flavored cigars, cigarettes and vaping goods.
February 4, 2023
Bloomberg Commits $420 Million to Fight Nicotine

Bloomberg Philanthropies has committed another $420 million over four years to the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use. This fourth investment brings Bloomberg’s total commitment to tobacco control to more than $1.58 billion since 2005.
The Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use is helping cities and countries implement measures such as smoke-free public places, banning tobacco advertising, increasing tax on tobacco products, requiring graphic warnings on cigarette packaging and mass-media public awareness campaigns.
Currently, the initiative spans more than 110 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs)—including China and India, which together account for nearly 40 percent of the world’s smokers.
Critics of Bloomberg’s agenda say his policies fuel corruption and drive countless people back to smoking combustible cigarettes. In a release, the American Vapor Manufacturers Association (AVM) stated that despite his “pretensions and self-aggrandizement, the tragic reality is that Michael Bloomberg is bankrolling a prohibition campaign that aims to stigmatize and outlaw the single most effective smoking cessation method ever devised, nicotine vaping.”
The AVM states that it has extensively documented that Bloomberg’s money is used to coerce public officials, pay lobbyists, and even install personnel in public institutions. “It funds front groups that have no genuine following but peddle demonstrable misinformation to the public,” the release states. “The money is even used to bribe journalists through dark money grants to rig the news coverage of this crucial public health issue. It is thoroughly corrupt and happening at a scale that shocks the conscience.
From the new $420 million in funding, $280 million will be aimed at reducing tobacco use in LMICs and $140 million will target reducing e-cigarette use among teenagers in the United States.
“Over the past two decades, we’ve made major progress in reducing tobacco use and the death and disease connected to it, but it continues to take a devastating toll, and it remains the leading cause of preventable death,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and WHO Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases and Injuries, in a statement.
“This latest investment will help to spread strategies that have proven so effective at saving lives — including smoke-free laws and advertising restrictions—to more nations and communities around the world.”
February 3, 2023
Japan Poised to Allow Medical Marijuana Sales

Credit: Alona
The government in Japan is poised to allow the use of medical marijuana to treat patients with intractable diseases, according to the outline of bills revealed last week.
The government is considering submitting bills including one to revise the Cannabis Control Law during the current Diet (the national legislature of Japan) session, according to Japan News.
The proposed revision would also criminalize the use of marijuana without a prescription.
In countries including the United States and Britain, medicine made from cannabis plants is used to treat patients with intractable epilepsy and other diseases for which existing drugs are ineffective. In Hong Kong, however, THC and non-intoxicating CBD are both banned.
Cannabis plants contain a substance that has an intoxicating effect, which is one of the reasons why the use of marijuana in medicine is prohibited in Japan. The proposed revision would enable such patients to use drugs made from cannabis plants.
On the use of marijuana, there are currently no penalties for using it because farmers who cultivate cannabis with permission from prefectural governors might intake substances from the plant during harvesting.
February 2, 2023
Survey Reveals Scale of Advocacy for Safer Nicotine

Knowledge-Action-Change (KAC) has released a global survey investigating the role and activities of consumer organizations advocating for access to safer nicotine products (SNPs) and tobacco harm reduction.
Carried out by KAC’s Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction project, the research was published in Public Health Challenges.
It reveals that there are 54 active consumer advocacy groups working around the world to raise awareness about, and promote the availability of and access to, SNPs, which include nicotine vaping products (e-cigarettes), Swedish-style snus, nicotine pouches and heated-tobacco products.
The authors of the survey found that the vast majority of organizations (42) were operated entirely by volunteers, most of whom had successfully quit smoking with the help of SNPs.
Only seven of the groups had any contracted or paid staff (13 people globally), and for the last full year, the total funding for all organizations surveyed amounted to $309,810. This is in stark contrast to the millions of dollars spent on campaigns by actors, such as Bloomberg Philanthropies, seeking to limit access to SNPs, such as nicotine vaping products. The paper also notes that none of the consumer advocacy organizations reported receiving funding from tobacco or pharmaceutical companies.

This paper starkly demonstrates the major imbalance in resources available to consumer organizations advocating for access to safer nicotine products and those opposed to tobacco harm reduction, unfairly skewing the debate.
Gerry Stimson, director, KAC
Many of these organizations are members of four regional umbrella organizations covering Latin America (ARDT Iberoamerica), Africa (CASA), Europe (ETHRA) and Asia-Pacific (CAPHRA).
“This survey offered a unique opportunity to map these advocacy organizations for the first time and provide valuable insight into how they are operating all over the world,” said Tomasz Jerzynski, lead author and data scientist for the Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction project. “The sustainability of these organizations is one of the main concerns that has come out of the data. All of these groups face challenges due to their small numbers of core workers and their dependence on volunteers.”
“This paper starkly demonstrates the major imbalance in resources available to consumer organizations advocating for access to safer nicotine products and those opposed to tobacco harm reduction, unfairly skewing the debate,” said Gerry Stimson, report author, director of KAC and emeritus professor at Imperial College London. “It also highlights why consumer groups must be recognized as legitimate stakeholders in the policy sphere.”
February 1, 2023
PMI, BAT Recognized Again for Gender Equality

Philip Morris International and BAT were included in the 2023 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI).
PMI made the index for the third year running, achieving an overall score of 80.6 percent.
“Achieving gender balance at all levels of the company is one of our top priorities, and I am delighted that our efforts are recognized again in this year’s index,” said Silke Muenster, chief diversity officer at PMI. “While we are making significant progress, we know we need to keep our foot on the acceleration pedal. An inclusive workplace that leverages the full talents of both women and men is crucial to our smoke-free vision, making our organization more innovative, resourceful and engaged.”
In 2022, PMI achieved its target of ensuring at least 40 percent female representation in managerial roles and announced a new target to achieve 35 percent of women in senior roles by the end of 2025, among other targets.
BAT, which participated in the index for the first time, received a score of 75 percent. BAT was recognized for creating an inclusive culture for women via its recruiting initiatives, adoption of family-friendly policies, sponsoring programs dedicated to educating women, and support of community programs. Inclusion in the index follows BAT being named as a Global Top Employer for a sixth successive year.
“Recognition in this year’s Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index demonstrates our commitment to addressing gender diversity and highlights our concerted global efforts to provide transparent reporting,” said Hae In Kim, BAT’s director of talent, culture and inclusion. “With more than 50,000 employees worldwide, our diversity and inclusion strategy is truly global, and I continue to be incredibly proud of the collective efforts made by all our employees.”
The GEI measures gender equality performance globally across five pillars as set by Bloomberg: leadership and talent pipeline, equal pay and gender pay parity, inclusive culture, anti-sexual harassment policies, and external brand. The 2023 Bloomberg GEI comprises 485 companies from 45 countries and regions.
February 1, 2023
Milwaukee, Wisc. Wants to Ban New Vape Shops

Credit: FellowNeko
Leaders in the U.S. city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, debated a proposal for an ordinance Tuesday that would prevent some electronic cigarette sales across the city in the future.
“The explosion of vape shops, particularly when concentrated in a small geographic area, may have harmful impacts on the public health, safety, and welfare of our residents,” said Milwaukee’s District 3 Alderman Jonathan Brostoff, according to CBS58.
Part of the Milwaukee Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development Committee meeting Tuesday morning discussed a plan to prevent new vape shops from doing business in the city.
The proposal would prevent new shops from selling e-cigarettes for six months.
During this trial period, officials would also prevent other businesses from opening if they plan on selling e-cigs.
“Part of the goal of this is going to be, ultimately, to look at both concentration and location–for example, proximity to schools, things of that nature,” added an Alderman.
Neighborhood Services Commissioner Erica Roberts said this request would be complicated for a number of reasons.
“There are many different types of uses that would sell this type of product, everything from grocery stores to gas stations, convenience stores…” Roberts expressed.
February 1, 2023