Author: GTNF Trust Staff

The introduction to the city council of Chicago, US, of a measure aimed at banning flavored nicotine cartridges used with electronic cigarettes has been condemned by experts at the free-market think tank, The Heartland Institute.

The measure has been put forward by Alderman Ed Burke.

‘Alderman Ed Burke’s proposed ordinance is nothing more than preening for moralizing anti-fun busybodies,’ said Jesse Hathaway, research fellow, budget and tax policy at the institute.

‘Selling e-cigarettes to individuals under the age of 18 is already illegal in Illinois, so the ordinance’s aims are already addressed by existing laws.

‘Prohibiting the sale of flavored vaping products won’t save any lives, but it may stop people currently addicted to cigarettes from switching to less-harmful alternatives or even kicking the nicotine habit.

‘If Burke’s goal is to promote public health, restricting access to flavoring in e-cigarettes advances the ball in the wrong direction.

‘If Burke’s goal is to look like he’s doing something to gain accolades from the puritan anti-e-cig crowd without actually doing anything useful, then this is perfect.’

Meanwhile, Lindsey Stroud, state government relations manager at the institute, said the role of flavors in electronic cigarettes and vaping devices was crucial – and a motivating factor that had enabled thousands of smokers to quit combustible cigarettes, according to 72 percent of the respondents to a 2015 Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives study of 19,000 observations.

‘While attempting to “protect the children,” Alderman Burke ignores the role of tobacco harm reduction (THR) products for adults and is attempting to limit the choices available to help alleviate these individuals from cigarette addiction,’ said Stroud.

‘Rather than placing restrictions on products that have been proven to aid individuals who desire to quit smoking, policy makers should promote the unencumbered use of THR products.’

South Korea’s health authorities have indicated that they will announce this month the findings of their investigation into whether heat-not-burn (HNB) products deliver potentially harmful substances.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said it would make its announcement before June 13.

The ministry launched its investigation in August into three HNB devices – Philip Morris Korea’s IQOS, British American Tobacco’s Glo, and KT&G’s lil.

‘The investigation is focused on the amount of harmful chemicals such as nicotine and tar released in e-cigarettes,’ the story said.

A scientist and health advocate says it is important that the European Parliament is presented with the available evidence that heated tobacco products ‘remain both harmful and highly addictive’.

Writing an opinion piece in The Parliament Magazine, Professor Charlotta Pisinger said that no product that damaged the lungs and human health should be promoted to young people across the EU, especially in the ways these new products were presented.

‘As Chair of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Standing Committee on Tobacco Control, I will present my research findings to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on the 30th May, alongside MEP Gilles Pargneaux and the European Network for Smoking and Tobacco Prevention (ENSP), on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day,’ she said.

‘Independent research suggests that there is a substantially higher health risk than claimed by the tobacco industry.

‘I have discovered that tobacco companies have not informed the public that some harmful substances – such as particulate matter, tar, acetaldehyde (a carcinogen), acrylamide (a potential carcinogen) and an acrolein metabolite (toxic and irritant) – were found in high concentrations in their studies.

‘Some studies also found much higher concentrations of formaldehyde (a potential carcinogen) in heated tobacco products than in conventional cigarettes.’

New Heated Tobacco Products: No Smoke, No fire? hosted by MEP Gilles Pargneaux is due to be held from 13:30 to 15:30 on May 30 at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, room Louise Weiss N3.5. Registration is at: https://forms.ersnet.org/new-heated-tobacco-products.

Philip Morris SA has urged the South African government to create an exemption in its new tobacco bill that would enable the company to provide consumers with information about its heated tobacco device, IQOS, according to a story in The Business Day.

The Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill, gazetted for public comment on May 9, contains provisions that prohibit all tobacco product advertising.

If enacted in its current form, it would prevent PM from providing consumers with information about IQOS, said Neetesh Ramjee, head of corporate affairs for reduced-risk products.

“The current legislation allows the minister to exempt certain products,” said Ramjee. “It would make sense to insert this clause into the new bill. If we don’t have this mechanism, people will stay on cigarettes.”

Current tobacco legislation permits PM to provide smokers with information about IQOS: for example, in leaflets attached to cigarette packs, but under the new bill, this would be prohibited.

“Eventually we want to get out of the cigarette business,” Ramjee said.

“We are trying to provide alternatives that will meet people’s needs.”

The new bill paves the way for stringent tobacco laws that would for the first time bring electronic cigarettes into the regulatory fold. E-cigarettes are unregulated because they don’t contain tobacco.

Philip Morris said it was seeking legislation that drew a distinction between conventional tobacco products, such as cigarettes, and those that posed less of a risk to consumers.

The World Health Organization, which has welcomed the bill, said the emissions from heated tobacco products and e-cigarettes contained toxins, metals, nicotine and other harmful and potentially harmful substances.

‘Evidence to date suggests that [they] generally contain lower levels of toxic substances found in cigarette smoke, but there is insufficient independent scientific evidence to conclude that they are less harmful than conventional tobacco products, the WHO said in a statement.

The Canadian federal government’s new Tobacco and Vaping Products Act will force tobacco companies to use standardized packaging, but it also opens a world of advertising possibilities for e-liquids and e-cigarettes, according to a story by Jackie Sharkey for CBS News.

The new law, which received royal assent last week, legalized and regulated what had been a “bold, black market,” said David Hammond, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s chair in applied health and professor at the University of Waterloo.

Though technically illicit, the story said, nicotine e-liquid was available at vape shops and other stores in most cities across the country, though most big international companies had stayed out of the market.

But with legalization, Hammond predicts Canadians will see big multi-national companies move into the marketplace, along with their advertisements.

“For the first time in decades, you could see TV or front-page newspaper ads for recreational nicotine products,” he said.

Hammond, who testified before Parliament while the law was being drafted, said advertising was the most contentious part of the new Tobacco and Vaping Products Act.

In fact, the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) is recommending stronger regulations for the advertising components of the act, something Health Canada is considering through consultations.

There is a lot at stake.

“[Companies] will not be able to make a health claim immediately, but Health Canada is working on regulations to that effect,” said Rob Cunningham, senior policy advisor for the CCS.

Imperial Brands yesterday published a report giving – for the first time – an overview of the progress it is making in respect of next generation products (NGPs) and outlining its views on a number of key related issues.

The report, From Tobacco to Something Better, is expected to be updated in the future to keep it relevant to what is a quickly-evolving sector.

The 17-page report looks at Imperial’s NGPs timeline, the public health opportunity presented by NGPs, the risk spectrum, products, including snus and heated-tobacco devices, vapor research and development, and regulation.

In an introduction, Imperial’s chief executive, Alison Cooper (pictured), said Nerudia, Imperial’s innovation arm, was “focused on creating a compelling pipeline of innovative products and its entrepreneurial spirit is proving to be a winning addition to our own vibrant culture”.

“In assembling the right components for success, we have deliberately favoured the vapor (EVP) opportunity as it’s by far the largest NGP category,” she said.

“With the technology and scientific insights available to us today, we have never been better placed to be able to transition smokers from cigarettes to something better.

Meanwhile, Matthew Phillips, Imperial’s chief development officer, is quoted in the report as saying that tobacco will be Imperial’s core business for many years to come, generating the funds to invest in NGP.

“But over time that balance will shift and you will see NGP making a material and sustainable contribution to our financial delivery, as we accelerate the transition of smokers to something better,” he said.

While the number of people in the US who tried electronic cigarettes increased between 2014 and 2016, the number of people who used these products fell, according to a storyby Tom Snee, of the University of Iowa, citing the results of a new study.

In the story, posted on the futurity.org website, Snee said that researchers had analyzed national data from more than 101,000 people in the US who had participated in the annual National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

‘Since 2014, the NHIS has asked adult participants whether they currently use e-cigarettes every day, some days, or not at all,’ he said.

‘The findings, which appear in the Journal of the American Medical Association, show that the number of adults who tried e-cigarettes increased – from 12.6 percent in 2014 to 13.9 percent in 2015 and 15.3 percent in 2016.

‘However, during the same time period, the number of people who said they currently use e-cigarettes “every day” or “some days” decreased – from 3.7 percent in 2014 to 3.5 percent in 2015 to 3.2 percent in 2016.

Alliance One International said yesterday that its indirect subsidiary, Canada’s Island Garden (CIG), would undergo a ‘significant expansion’ to support the growth of its Canadian cannabis line.

The expansion, involving the construction of state-of-the-art plant, would increase CIG’s production capacity of medicinal cannabis, Alliance said. And it would increase production capacity for recreational cannabis as and when sales for the recreational market were legalized.

‘Phase 1 of the expansion, which includes a 166,000-square-foot greenhouse and 54,000-square-foot warehouse, is a $27 million (C$35M) investment,’ it said. ‘The warehouse is being constructed to also accommodate Phase 2 of the expansion, which would add an additional 90,000 square feet of greenhouse space.

‘Phase 1 will increase the facility’s annual production capacity from 1,200 kg to 18,000 kg and is expected to be complete in spring 2019. ‘Assuming completion of Phase 2, Canada’s Island Garden would have a total annual production capacity in excess of 35,000 kg.

‘Both the Phase 1 and Phase 2 expansions are designed to feature the latest technological advancements in horticulture and cannabis production to allow for the production of a premium-quality and sustainable product for consumers in Canada, optimized to create comprehensive transparency and traceability, from plant to final product, while also including security protections to maintain proper control of the facility.’

Meanwhile, Alliance said that CIG had unveiled a new ‘FIGR’ brand, which reflected ‘the scientific rigor and decades of agronomic excellence for which it is known’.

‘Since the acquisition of 75 percent of Canada’s Island Garden by Canadian Cultivated Products, a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of Alliance One, the Canadian companies have been working on a new naming and branding concept. Canadian Cultivated Products will be rebranded to FIGR Cannabis, Canada’s Island Garden to FIGR East and Goldleaf Pharm, a sister company in Simcoe, Ontario, to FIGR Norfolk.

‘FIGR products are intended become available to the public in Canada as soon as sales in the recreational adult market are legalized. Sales to medical patients in Canada will remain under the current branding of Canada’s Island Garden.’

With about three weeks to go until the start of the fifth Global Forum on Nicotine, the organisers say that there is still time to register for what is scheduled to be the biggest Forum yet.

The 2018 Forum will include the event’s biggest-ever conference program with more than 55 speakers, the second International Symposium on Nicotine Technology, and a film festival.

It is scheduled to be held at the Marriott Hotel, Warsaw, Poland, on June 14-16.

Calling electronic cigarettes toxic and unsafe is absurd, according to Alex Berezow, senior fellow of biomedical science with the American Council on Smoking and Health.

In a piece published on the Council’s website, Berezow made the point that, not that long ago, if a company had invented a far safer way to deliver nicotine to addicted smokers, politicians would have been celebrating.

But today, partisanship had ruined just about everything.

‘I knew something was amiss when I spotted an advertisement in a Seattle light rail car,’ Berezow said. ‘The ad warned potential vapers not to be “fooled” by e-cigarettes, which it said were toxic, addictive, and unsafe. Yes, they are addictive (because they contain nicotine), but calling them toxic and unsafe is absurd. Compared to regular cigarettes, vaping devices are 95 percent safer, according to the UK’s NHS.

‘In other words, if Seattle smokers follow their own public health department’s advice, they are likelier to die. Why on earth would a public health department give such terrible advice? Because the debate over vaping isn’t about science; it’s about ideology.’