Author: GTNF Trust Staff

Smoking can become a thing of the past if the quality and diversity of vaping products continue to increase and costs continue to fall, according to an Indianexpress.com story citing a recent study.

‘If product quality and diversity continue to increase, and costs continue to fall, within 20 years vaping could cut smoking rates by 50 percent or more,’ says a working paper by Reason Foundation, a US-based non-profit organization. ‘In 30 years, vaping might eliminate smoking altogether.’

A co-author of the paper Amir Ullah Khan, member of the board of governors at the Presidency University, Bangalore, India, said that in less than 10 years vape products had seen a dramatic increase in quality, efficacy and safely, while prices had fallen. “Already, millions of smokers have switched,” he said.

The authors estimated that in India ‘within a few years perhaps 10 percent of smokers could switch to vaping’. If that happened, close to 11 million people would experience a multitude of benefits, including a substantial reduction in the risk of death from tobacco-related diseases.’

‘Assuming that the majority of those who switch are under 40, the average increase in life expectancy could be around eight years, resulting in a total saving of around 90 million life-years,’ the paper said.

Despite this potential, some countries had introduced excessive regulations and even bans on such products. If widely adopted, excessively restrictive regulation of vape products would drive up costs, reduce choice, and undermine competition and innovation, the researchers noted.

In India, several states had already imposed bans on the sale of vape products – effectively denying smokers a life-saving technology, they added.

Opponents of Indiana’s controversial vaping law scored a victory on Aug. 19 when a federal judge ruled in favor of a Florida e-liquid manufacturer that argued the law was unconstitutional.

Richard Young, chief judge for the Southern District of Indiana, granted a preliminary injunction that applies only to the one company, GoodCat LLC, after finding that it had a reasonable likelihood of success in overturning at least part of the law, according to a story in the Indiana Business Journal.

Young ordered the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission to issue the company a manufacturing permit for e-liquids until its lawsuit against the state can be fully heard.

The U.S. Constitution’s commerce clause “implicitly prohibits state and local governments, even in the absence of federal legislation, from enacting laws that discriminate against or excessively burden interstate commerce,” Young wrote in his ruling.

“If the court denied preliminary relief, GoodCat would have to withdraw its commercial presence in Indiana,” Young wrote. “GoodCat would incur lost profits during the pendency of this litigation and have no way to recover. More fundamentally, however, a reasonable likelihood of a constitutional violation, such as GoodCat alleges, rises to the level of irreparable harm for the purposes of injunctive relief.”

The majority of young UK vapers interviewed as part of a recent study believed that vaping made smoking seem abnormal. They regarded vaping as socially very distant from smoking and much less harmful, according to a story by Dr. Lila Abassi, a physician at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, New York City, US, citing a study carried out by the UK Centre for Substance Use Research and reported on at the Global Forum on Nicotine in Warsaw in June.

Abassi said that in the UK, Public Health England characterized vaping as being up to 95 percent less harmful than smoking and an aid to helping smokers attempting to quit. In the US, government officials and those funded by government argued that electronic cigarettes could be a gateway to smoking. To-date, however, the number of ‘nicotine naive’ young people who started with electronic cigarettes and moved to smoking was statistically so tiny as to be chance.

“There is very little indication amongst the young people interviewed that e-cigarettes were resulting in an increased likelihood of young people smoking,” according to Dr. Neil McKeganey, who is the founding director of the Centre for Drug Misuse Research within the University of Glasgow. “In fact the majority of participants we interviewed, including those [who] were vaping, perceived smoking in very negative terms and saw vaping as being entirely different to smoking.”

Abassi said that McKeganey was worried about claims that electronic cigarettes were as bad as smoking, and how such claims would keep smoking around. It was the key tactic of the ‘quit or die’ mentality that had plagued the modern War on Smoking. “But what was equally clear from our research is that much debated ‘gateway’ theory is not materializing,” he said. “There was nothing to suggest that youngsters see vaping as a stepping stone to smoking – quite the opposite.”

Abassi said the study was funded by Fontem Ventures, a subsidiary of Imperial Tobacco and a company that develops non-tobacco alternatives, including electronic cigarettes. She said the agency conducting the survey had worked for the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and other governmental bodies.

Inhaling vapor from e-cigarettes is safer than smoking traditional tobacco cigarettes, a new research study out of the U.S.-based Roswell Park Cancer Institute finds.

It’s one of the first studies in the U.S. to confirm that switching to e-cigarettes can reduce the risk of cancer for smokers, and researchers say it will bolster efforts at the local and national level to help smokers quit the habit, according to an article published by Buffalo Business First.

Maciej Goniewicz, lead author of the study and assistant professor of oncology in Roswell Park’s department of health behavior (whose work will be published in the journal Nicotine Tobacco Research) states that while nicotine exposure remains the same, individuals who switch from tobacco cigarettes to e-cigarettes saw the levels of specific carcinogens and toxins reduced significantly.

“They are safer, less toxic,” he said. “It’s the first time we have very strong evidence that we will be able now to give (smokers) that the answer is, yes , this you should consider a transition, a substitute for your tobacco cigarette that will save your life.”

The study is believed to be the first on smokers to demonstrate that substituting e-cigarettes for tobacco cigarettes may reduce exposure to toxins and carcinogens that can cause cancer. That’s an important finding for a cancer institute that focuses on reducing exposure and causes of cancer, he said. Roswell Park also holds the contract to run New York’s statewide smoker’s quitline.

“Toxins and carcinogens we measure in the body almost disappeared – the body cleared the 17 different chemicals we were looking for,” Goniewicz said.

He stressed the study does not make any claims that e-cigarettes are safe and should not be taken as a signal it’s okay for non-smokers to take up the habit. But it does provide evidence that those who already smoke can reduce their health risks.

Find the rest of the article here: http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/news/2016/08/18/roswell-park-study-finds-e-cigarettes-safer-less.html

Rules governing vapor products introduced in the US earlier this month could have adverse health effects as some users would look to illegal means to obtain their products or would revert back to consuming traditional tobacco cigarettes if their vapor device were taken off the market.

These were some of the findings of a study by the UK-based Center for Substance Use Research (CSUR), which was made public yesterday through PR Newswire, relayed by the TMA.

It is generally accepted that the so-called Deeming Rules devised by the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products will, within two years, cause most vaping products currently sold in the US to be withdrawn.

The study asked 9,040 current users of vapor products in the US what they would do if the device they used were taken off the market due to the deeming rules.

About 75 percent of the respondents said that they would stock up on their preferred brand, nearly 70 percent said that they would obtain their brand via the black market, 66 percent said that they would import their brand from overseas, and 65 percent said that they would make and mix their own e-liquids on their own premises.

An additional 15 percent said that they would return to smoking cigarettes.

The CSUR’s Dr. Christopher Russell, who led the research, said the study had shown that there was an enormous gulf between the expressed intentions of the FDA and what many electronic-cigarette users saw as being the likely impact of the regulations. “The regulators’ aims of improving the quality standards in e-cigarette production, improving the accuracy of labeling, ensuring the safety of e-cigarettes, and to reducing young people’s access to e-cigarettes are all laudable aims in themselves,” he said.

“One way of avoiding these adverse unintended consequences would be for the FDA to allow current e-cigarettes and e-liquids to continue to be the subject of a lighter form of regulatory assessment whilst imposing much stricter regulatory controls on any future products being developed by the industry.”

A protester outside the parliament building of the Australian state of Victoria recently carried a sign saying: ‘bullied for smoking bullied for quitting’. The protester was one of dozens of vapers who had gathered on the steps of the building to vent their anger at MPs who had introduced new laws regulating electronic cigarettes, according to a story by Benjamin Preiss for The Age.

It is currently illegal in Australia to sell electronic cigarettes that contain nicotine. But the new law bans the sale of electronic cigarettes to young people and it places restrictions on advertising these devices. And it extends bans on the display, sale and use of tobacco products to vapor devices.

Paul McNamara, who owns two vaping product stores, was quoted as saying that the new laws would make it impossible properly to demonstrate the electronic cigarette devices in his shops. He said the government was making it “as hard as possible” for smokers to give up cigarettes.

The Sex Party MP Fiona Patten, who spoke at the rally in support of vaping, said the new legislation needed to be reviewed. Let’s protect children but let’s protect adults by allowing them to use vapor products, she said.

And the University of New South Wales associate professor Colin Mendelsohn, who attended the rally, said vaping was an effective and safe way to help smokers quit. “It’s a unique technology that works much better than other treatments,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sydney University public health emeritus professor Simon Chapman said vaping was almost certainly less dangerous than was smoking. “That’s because almost anything is safer than cigarettes,” he said. “They are the Mount Everest of danger.”

But Chapman said that too little was known about the possible health problems that electronic cigarettes might cause. “Given we don’t know what the long-term consequences are going to be, it is a concern,” he said.

Dinner Lady, a British vapor company, showed that the proof really is in the pudding at the National Vape Expo this weekend when the company won two prestigious awards.

Held in Foxwoods, Connecticut, USA, the event’s best baked goods award and best juice in show award were both garnered by Dinner Lady. Spokesperson for Dinner Lady, Mark Bentley said: “We are completely overwhelmed by the outpouring of love, support and appreciation by our American cousins. It is unprecedented for a UK juice to get this kind of reception let alone be voted best in show! This is a huge stepping stone in our ultimate goal of taking our brand global.”

The family at Dinner Lady credit their success to perfecting their product for the consumer.  The flavors are full, top quality and are not based on the principle of what is cheap to manufacture.

Marlboro maker Philip Morris International says its e-cigarette has rapidly captured close to 3 percent of Japanese tobacco sales, making inroads into a market Japan Tobacco (JT) relies on for 40 percent of its profit.

In what may be an early vindication of Philip Morris’s e-cigarette strategy, the iQOS accounted for 2.2 percent of Japan’s tobacco sales in the quarter ended June 30, a company spokesman said.

That share had climbed to 2.7 percent by the end of June after Philip Morris rolled out the 9,980 yen ($98.53) electronic smoker in late April accompanied by “HeatSticks”, which cost the same as regular cigarettes, according to an article by Tim Kelly with Reuters. 

“The figures clearly show that iQOS is stealing a chunk of the rolled tobacco market,” said Masashi Mori, analyst at Credit Suisse Securities in Tokyo. Japan’s overall cigarette sales in June shrank 5.2 percent.

On Friday, JT said revenue from July cigarettes sales in Japan dipped by 3.4 percent to 53.4 billion yen.

Unlike conventional e-cigarettes that vaporise a nicotine infused liquid, iQOS produces a smokeless aerosol by heating tobacco leaf packed into stubby cigarettes inserted into the device.

So far it has tested the gadget in seven countries including cities in Switzerland and Italy. Japan, which has suppressed e-cigarette “vaping” by regulating nicotine liquids under pharmaceutical laws, is the only country where it is sold nationwide.

Demand for iQOS, which is made in Malaysia, has outstripped demand, leaving Philip Morris unable to make the most of its early entry into Japan. Some limited-edition IQOS models are selling online for as much as 80,000 yen, according to the article.

“When Philip Morris can supply enough to meet demand then its push in to the market is very likely to accelerate,” UBS Securities Japan analyst Naomi Takagi said.

E-cigarettes assuage some smokers’ health concerns and ease social stigmas attached to tobacco. Tobacco firms are battling to take an early lead in the emerging market as overall cigarette sales shrink globally.

Sales of e-cigarettes, however, are booming, growing five times to $8 billion in 2014 from 2010, according to research company Euromonitor. The market in 2020 is likely to be 20 times the 2010 level, predicts Euromonitor. Global cigarette revenue is about $750 billion.

Philip Morris plans to widen sales of iQOS to 20 countries by the end of the year.

Former state tobacco monopoly Japan Tobacco, which has 60 percent of its domestic market, is struggling to counter the challenge with its own device. JT’s electronic cigarette stick, dubbed the Ploom TECH, creates a vapor from a liquid that is passed through granulated tobacco, according to the article.

Yet the world’s No. 3 cigarette maker has so far been unable to match iQOS’s nationwide launch, with no clear indication yet when it will have sufficient production output to do so.

“It doubtful JT will manage a wider launch before the end of the year,” Takagi at UBS Securities said.

The US Food and Drug Administration’s electronic-cigarette regulations, which took effect this week, immediately struck two blows against public health, according to a story by Jacob Sullum for Forbes.

As from Monday, companies that sell vaping equipment and e-liquids have been forbidden to share potentially life-saving information about those products with their customers.

The have also been forbidden to sell products that they have made safer, more convenient or more pleasant to use.

‘The FDA’s censorship and its ban on innovation will discourage smokers from switching to vaping, even though that switch would dramatically reduce the health risks they face,’ Sullum wrote.

‘That effect will be compounded by the FDA’s requirement that manufacturers obtain its approval for any vaping products they want to keep on the market for longer than two years.

‘The cost of meeting that requirement will force many companies out of business and force those that remain to shrink their offerings, dramatically reducing competition and variety.

‘All of this is unambiguously bad for consumers and bad for public health. Yet the FDA took none of it into account when it estimated the costs imposed by its regulations, simply assuming that good intentions would ensure good results.’

Sullum’s piece is at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobsullum/2016/08/11/fda-assigns-zero-value-to-smokers-who-die-because-of-its-e-cigarette-regulations/#f1dc6e0913aa

The Irish Government has been told to consider introducing a levy on the liquid used in e-cigarettes.
The Department of Finance says a levy of 50 cent on every 10ml of the liquid used in the products, which are largely used by people attempting to quit smoking, could yield €8.3 million annually.

The proposal is included in a tax strategy paper published by the department which outlines a number of options in the area of excise duty, according to an article in The Irish Times.

“However, the implementation and collection of such a tax would be difficult given the wide variety of ways in which these products are supplied to the consumer,” the department says. “Secondly, as previously stated, many sources consider e-cigarettes to be a cessation tool and certainly less harmful than cigarettes.”

Safer than tobacco

Four EU member states – Portugal, Italy, Romania and Slovenia – have introduced taxes on e-cigarettes, or on the liquid used in them. Manufacturers of e-cigarettes say the products have been deemed to be 95 per cent safer than tobacco equivalents. Public Health England, an agency of the UK’s department of health, said e-cigarettes were not risk-free but when compared with smoking, evidence showed they carried “just a fraction of the harm”.

However, former minister for children James Reilly raised concern about their effects late last year and insisted action would be required if evidence of them being damaging to health emerged.

Licensing system

The Department of Health is preparing the general scheme of a Bill to provide for the introduction of a licensing system for the sale of tobacco products and non-medicinal nicotine delivery systems, including e-cigarettes. The legislation will prohibit the sale of tobacco products from self-service vending machines and temporary or mobile units/containers. It will also prohibit the sale of non-medicinal nicotine delivery systems, including e-cigarettes, by and to persons under 18 years.

The tax strategy paper says Ireland has the second-highest excise duty on tobacco-related products in the European Union. However, the Department of Finance said: “It should be noted the Revenue Commissioners have expressed concerns that increases in excise may not lead to increased yields, as consumers are further incentivised to exit the tobacco products market in Ireland.”