The Netherlands’ junior health minister Paul Blokhuis is drawing up rules to govern the use of heat-not-burn products, according to a story in dutchnews.nl.
There are currently no restrictions on the use of such products, which don’t fall under the current tobacco laws.
Under Blokhuis’ plans, the sale of these products would become subject to an age limit, and, reportedly, bans would be imposed on ‘advertising and new packaging’.
These sorts of products were treated as a clever alternative to ordinary cigarettes, Blokhuis told MPs during a briefing. But users were still inhaling cancer-causing ingredients and other dangerous substances he said.
The minister said he planned to take action against the products because he did not want people to get the idea that using them was a sensible option.
“The only sensible option is not smoking,” he said.
Adults in Canada will soon have easier access to e-cigarettes and vaping supplies — and be exposed to more ads promoting them — now that the federal Liberal government has passed legislation formally legalizing and regulating the practice, according to an article in The Reminder.
Once the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act receives royal assent in the coming days, it will prohibit the sale of vape products to minors, ban flavors aimed at young people and prohibit marketing that features testimonials, health claims or “lifestyle” themes, the article states.
It also allows the legal manufacture, import and sale of vaping products both with and without nicotine, Health Canada said Wednesday. Other provisions will come into force 180 days after the bill becomes law to give manufacturers and importers time to comply, according to the article.
Manufacturers that want to market their products with therapeutic claims, such as for smoking cessation, will still require the agency’s blessing before their products can be imported, advertised or sold in Canada.
Some experts cheered the vaping regulations, saying they give legitimacy to something that could prove a boon for smokers who are trying to quit. Others fear the restrictions could keep those very same people from exploring its potential as a less-harmful alternative to cigarettes, the article states.
Where they agree, however, is that Canada continues to lack sufficient research into vaping and its potential effects.
The law essentially treats vaping like smoking, with similar regulations, said David Sweanor, an adjunct professor at the University of Ottawa’s Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics, according to the article.
It prevents companies that make so-called “non-combustion” products from informing smokers about significantly less hazardous options, Sweanor said, and fails to adequately distinguish between the relative risks of cigarettes, and e-cigarettes and other alternatives, the article states.
There is no evidence that, one year after its full implementation in EU member states, the revised Tobacco Products Directive (TPD2) has reduced smoking rates, according to the smokers’ campaign group Forest EU.
TPD2 measures were said to have included an immediate ban on packs containing fewer than 20 cigarettes, a ban on flavored cigarettes (except menthol, which will be banned in 2020) and severe restrictions on the ability of smokers to access e-cigarettes.
TPD2 also increased the size of health warnings to 65 per cent of the front and back of every pack of cigarettes, with additional warnings on the top of the pack.
“The regulations are excessive, even by the European Commission’s standards,” said
Guillaume Périgois, director of Forest EU. “Smokers are being treated as second class citizens in a disgraceful attempt to denormalize both the product and their habit.
“Larger pictorial warnings are problematic since the Commission itself is now on record having called into question the proportionality of larger health warnings in delivering public health gains. If they are clearly visible, smaller warnings are just as effective as larger warnings in the eyes of the consumer.”
Calling for the Commission to explore alternative models of achieving public health gains that didn’t ostracize smokers, Périgois said the Commission needed to look at new approaches, for instance supporting member states in the provision of education programs or in providing a proper framework in which smokers could explore the growing vaping sector.
KT&G said today it would put a new heat-not-burn (HNB) product on the South Korean market next week, according to a Yonhap News Agency story.
The product, called lil plus, will be in stores on Wednesday, the first anniversary of the debut of HNB products on the local market.
Phillip Morris launched IQOS in South Korea one year ago and the company plans to host a media day to mark the anniversary.
KT&G said its choice of roll-out day for the new product was unrelated to the first anniversary of the local launch of IQOS, but industry watchers noted that KT&G had originally been expected to release the new product in June or July.
The story said the launch of the new product appeared designed to take advantage of the need for consumers to replace HNB devices. KT&G was quoted as saying that HNB devices should be replaced after about a year; so the replacement demand within the next three months was estimated at more than 500,000.
Meanwhile, industry leader Phillip Morris and British American Tobacco, which sells the glo device, are said to be poised to roll out next-generation products with improved functions, though their launch dates are yet to be announced.
Currently, HNB products account for about 10 percent of all tobacco sales in South Korea, a figure that is expected to reach 30 percent in 2020.
The story said that while tobacco companies did not disclose their shares of the HNB products market, IQOS was estimated to account for 50-60 percent, with lil and glo making up the rest.
According to data from the government and industry sources, 163 million 20-piece packs of HNB products were sold in South Korea between May 2017 and March 2018.
Adults in Canada will soon have easier access to electronic cigarettes and vaping supplies — and be exposed to more advertisements promoting them — now that the federal Liberal government has passed legislation formally legalizing and regulating the practice of vaping, according to a Canadian Press story.
Once the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act receives royal assent in the coming days, it will prohibit the sale of vape products to minors, ban flavors aimed at young people and prohibit marketing that features testimonials, health claims or lifestyle themes.
At the same time, it will allow the legal manufacture, import and sale of vaping products both with and without nicotine, Health Canada said yesterday.
Other provisions will come into force 180 days after the bill becomes law to give manufacturers and importers time to comply.
Manufacturers that want to market their products with therapeutic claims, such as for smoking cessation, will still require Health Canada’s blessing before their products can be imported, advertised or sold in Canada.
Some experts welcomed the vaping regulations, saying they give legitimacy to something that could prove a boon for smokers who are trying to quit. Others fear the restrictions could keep those very same people from exploring vaping’s potential as a less-harmful alternative to smoking.
Where they agree, however, is that Canada continues to lack sufficient research into vaping and its potential effects.
The law essentially treated vaping like smoking, with similar regulations, said David Sweanor, an adjunct professor at the University of Ottawa’s Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics.
It prevented companies that made non-combustible products from informing smokers about significantly less hazardous options, and failed adequately to distinguish between the risks of using combustible cigarettes, e-cigarettes and other alternatives.
But Canadian Medical Association president Dr. Laurent Marcoux welcomed the legislation for its restrictions on promoting and advertising vape products, and said it was still too soon to embrace vaping as a potential stop-smoking aid.
Avail Vapor, a leading premium e-liquid manufacturer and retail business, announced today that California-based hardware and e-liquid brand Glas joined Avail’s manufacturing roster. Avail will now manufacture select e-liquid products from Glas’ Basix line for national and international distribution. The partnership comes through the company’s e-liquid contract manufacturing services division.
In addition, Avail will also begin selling six select e-liquids from Glas’ Basix line in each of its 101 stores. The partnership marks Avail’s fifth unique manufacturing and selling agreement with an international brand. The company now devotes 30 percent of space in its stores to products from other brands.
“We love offering a variety of high-quality e-liquid options from international brands,” said James Xu, CEO of Avail. “These award-winning flavors in the Basix line from Glas have gone through our rigorous manufacturing process and mirror our own quality standards, so we know our customers will enjoy them.”
Avail provides full-service manufacturing – including labeling and packaging – for Glas. Avail has an in-house, state-of-the-art ISO Certified 6 cleanroom in addition to its advanced analytical testing lab located in Richmond, Virginia.
“At Glas we are 100 percent committed to providing top-of-the-line products,” said company founder, Sean Glas. “In our ever-changing industry, we provide peace of mind to our customers who know that we will always go above and beyond industry standards in flavor design and manufacturing quality. We feel the same about Avail, and we are thrilled with this partnership.”
Optimum Vapor Products has joined Giant Vapes. Optimum’s Smart Auto-matching Technology will now be offered through Giant’s online vapor marketplace.
Giant Vapes and owner Mike Runshe have “a stellar reputation in the industry as they carefully curate every product they bring in,” according to a press release. “Giant Vapes has built their business with the best interests of the vaping community in mind and we are proud to join this great companies line of quality products,” the release states.
Mark Anton, owner of Optimum, says meeting and working with Runshe has given him insights into Runshe’s dedication and commitment to offering the highest quality vaping products to his customers “I am extremely please he choose to work with us in such a dynamic way. We look forward to working with Mike and his staff to share our vapor line.,” Anton states in the release.
India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has proposed banning electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), including electronic cigarettes, according to a story in the most recent issue of the BBM Bommidala Group newsletter.
The Ministry says that such a ban would be a matter of public interest.
It recently informed the Delhi High Court that e-cigarettes contained nicotine and that they could be a gateway product that led young people to try combustible cigarettes. Therefore, the government was looking to ban the devices altogether.
The High Court took up the issue after Seema Sehgal, described as a homemaker, filed a petition asking the government to formulate guidelines for the sale, production and supply of the devices.
Six Indian states have prohibited the manufacture and marketing of vaping products.
A new report by the Nanny State Index, a project set up to monitor intrusive, anti-consumer legislation, has strongly criticised the punitive approach to safer nicotine products that is increasingly being adopted across the EU, according to a story by Fergus Mason for vapingpost.com.
The Index, which is published by the Epicenter think tank group, is compiled by the Institute of Economic Affairs director Christopher Snowdon (pictured).
As well producing an annual scorecard ranking EU countries by consumer freedom, it publishes also reports on issues of special concern, and the suppression of reduced-harm nicotine products has now reached that threshold.
In the latest, 72-page report, Snowdon acknowledges that there has been progress in some areas; so, for example, nicotine e-liquid is now legal in all EU member states and all other European countries except Switzerland.
He identifies also two countries with a positive approach to harm reduction – Sweden with snus, and the UK with vapor products.
However, Snowdon criticises the EU’s Tobacco Products Directive, which imposes restrictions on what vapor products can be sold and how they can be advertised.
Now, national governments were increasingly gold-plating the TPD rules and imposing extra taxes on vapers. Twelve of the 28 EU members had already done so, and the EU was pushing for ‘harmonisation’ of e-cigarette and tobacco taxation.
Enforcing basic safety and quality standards within the EU was critical in order to protect consumers and create a level playing field for vaping products, according to Yasuhiro Nakajima, vice president, reduced-risk products at Japan Tobacco International.
Wring a Thought Leader in the Parliament Magazine yesterday, Nakajima said the EU’s revised Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) had created a common framework that had provided the flexibility for vaping to flourish in those member states that were comfortable with it while maintaining safeguards demanded by other countries.
Yet the TPD was not perfect, he said. For instance, relying just on the TPD’s self-notification system was a high-risk approach to ensuring quality.
‘Enforcing basic safety and quality standards is critical in order to protect consumers and create a level playing field for vaping products,’ he said. ‘To not do so would only benefit the unscrupulous.’
The notification problem, Nakajima said, had been compounded by another unintended consequence of TPD rules on e-cigarettes: the fast-growing short-fill e-liquid market. Consumers wanted bigger refill bottles than the TPD allowed. ‘The result is them topping up unregulated non-nicotine bottles with regulated nicotine shots,’ he said. ‘Do health officials know what is in those non-nicotine liquids? No – and this needs to change.’
A final challenge was consumer ignorance on the scientific consensus on vaping’s reduced-risk potential, he said. Public health officials were concerned about the growing gap between what scientists say and what the public believes.
‘The easy solution would be for the European Commission to pass the problem onto manufacturers,’ he said. ‘We could help close the gap if we were allowed to communicate science-based messages to adult consumers.
‘Amendments to the EU rule book should be built on the expert view that vaping products are very different to combustible ones and therefore warrant an entirely different, and more liberal, consumer communication framework.’
