Sweden’s Supreme Administrative Court this week issued a ruling preventing the Swedish Medical Products Agency (SMPA) from asserting full control over electronic cigarettes in the country, according to a story by the tobacco policy commentator Atakan Befrits.
Befrits had warned earlier there was a danger that classifying these devices as pharmaceutical products and placing them under the SMPA would lead to a de facto ban on e-liquids and electronic cigarettes containing and delivering nicotine.
According to Befrits, the prohibitive costs of the SMPA regulatory process necessary to register electronic cigarettes on a small market such as Sweden would have resulted in a de facto ban for the foreseeable future.
More than 11,000 people have signed petition urging Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to change the social networking service’s definition of a tobacco product so that it does not include vaping products, reports The Daily Caller.
Many commenters object to Facebook’s reasoning that vaping products contain nicotine and therefore should be categorized as tobacco products, pointing out that cauliflower and eggplant also contain nicotine, while a wide array of e-cigarettes and vaporizers do not.
The petition was started by Kevin Price of Littleton, Colorado, USA.
Over half of people who used e-cigarettes said their main reason was as an aid to quitting smoking tobacco, according to a 2015 survey on e-cigarette use published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
After the 53 percent who said their main reason was to help quitting, the next most popular reason at 22 percent was because they were felt to be less harmful than cigarettes, with another 9 percent each citing cheapness and the ability to vape indoors.
The survey estimated that there were 2.2 million current e-cigarette users in Great Britain – some 4 percent of the adult population. Among current e-cigarette users, 59 percent said they also used ordinary cigarettes. Two-thirds – 67 percent – of current vapers said that they did so every day, and another 19 percent at least once a week. Of people who had been e-cigarette users but were no longer, 74 percent were now smoking ordinary cigarettes. Fewer than 3 percent of e-cigarette users had not previously been cigarette smokers.
Figures on cigarette smoking show that, in 2014, 19 percent of adults smoked. The figure for men – 20 percent – was the lowest on record, while the 17 percent of women who smoked was unchanged on 2013. Average consumption among smokers was 11.4 cigarettes a day, down from a peak of 16.8 in 1976. Just over one in 10 babies were born to women who smoked. Among women smokers, 63 percent smoked exclusively packeted cigarettes and 28 percent only roll-ups, compared with 50 percent of men smoking only packeted cigarettes and 39 percent only roll-ups.
Commenting on these figures, senior ONS statistician Jamie Jenkins said: “These figures continue a long-term trend for fewer people to smoke cigarettes – only 19 percent of adults today compared with 46 percent when our survey began in 1976. While the majority of people are using e-cigarettes as an aid to quit smoking it seems they don’t work for everyone, as three-quarters of former vapers are still smoking cigarettes.
One of the world’s leading tobacco control experts is speaking out against an overzealous public health movement more concerned with fighting big companies than improving people’s health.
“We had this fundamental problem that you had people that had taken an absolutist position- this is all about right and wrong, and they were more like the abstinence-only people on sex education, or on drugs or alcohol,” says expert David Sweanor in an article in the Daily Caller. “They saw any alternative product as a problem because it might potentially allow a cigarette company to morph into something else, and it’s a battle against these companies they couldn’t allow that to happen.”
Sweanor has spent more than 30 years fighting tobacco. He is an adjunct professor of law at the University of Ottawa and special lecturer with the division of epidemiology and public health at the University of Nottingham.
“I got involved, I believe, as the first lawyer in the world to work full-time on public advocacy issues through cigarette smoking,” said Sweanor.
The health of America’s 42 million smokers, whose lives will be cut short an average of 10 years by their continued use of combusted cigarettes, is being held hostage by government inaction.
Public-health officials agree that e-cigarettes have a role in reducing the burden of illness; while e-cigarettes are not safe, they are a much less harmful way of delivering the nicotine to which smokers are dependent,states an opinion published by rstreet.org. They can help smokers quit — even, sometimes, smokers who didn’t take them up with that intention. Failing that, they reduce the harm of continued nicotine consumption.
Both the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control know this, yet have done precious little to address the new technology — either to encourage smokers to switch, or even to regulate e-cigarettes in a serious and reasonable manner. They have been preoccupied by their war on nicotine, regardless of the source.
Television ad campaigns against smoking are a prime example of how federal agencies approach the subject. While these advertisements are effective, especially with young people, they leave millions who could be helped to quit smoking untreated.
These agencies express concern that positive messages about e-cigarettes could encourage young people to try them. This is a reasonable worry. But although some young people have taken up e-cigarettes in recent years, this is largely due to an absence of regulation — while some states have banned sales to minors, many have not yet formally taken action.
Better regulations could address this concern, but that does not seem to be a priority for policymakers. The government has spent the last five years, for example, developing protocols to evaluate and regulate the safety of e-cigarettes. The draft guidelines are so onerous that it would take several years and millions of dollars for any e-cigarette product to be approved. And after many years of reports of children being poisoned after accessing their parents’ nicotine, it was only this year that Congress passed legislation requiring that e-cigarettes and the devices used to refill them be made childproof.
Fortunately, smokers who want to reduce their risk of tobacco-related disease are not waiting. Reuters reports that 10 percent of adults now use electronic cigarettes. One prominent health activist has attributed the recent decline in cigarette smoking, which has reached a new low of 15.3 percent, to this increased use of e-cigarettes. Two recent surveys of physicians find that half report their smoking patients ask about e-cigarettes; one in three doctors recommend them for harm reduction or cessation.
Just last year, e-cig use had grown by 24 percent on the previous year, with 2.6 million adults using them in the UK alone, according to an article by smallbusiness.co.uk. Contributing to the sales surge are Public Health England stating that e-cigarettes are less harmful than tobacco cigarettes by up to 95 percent and the recently relaxed laws surrounding their use.
In the UK, the e-cigarette industry has become one of the fastest-growing supermarket products by volume and value, with a 50 percent year on year increase to around 17.3 million units last year as more and more people become aware and interested in the technology. Whether these users are turning to them as a quitting aid to regular tobacco cigarettes or as a healthier alternative is a source of debate but the figures speak for themselves, e-cigarettes are on the up.
While the online marketplace is at a bursting point, more and more stores are showing up on the high street to cash in on the trend too. But is this rapid growth sustainable?
The ‘Global E Cigarette & Vaporizer Market – Analysis & Forecast Through 2015 to 2025’ report speculates that the industry will continue to grow globally at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of over 22 percent from 2015 to 2025, witnessing a monumental growth until 2017 when it is forecast that regulatory and policy framework will be in place across the globe. In this 10-year period it is theorized that the industry will grow by $50 billion – a staggering amount of money.
E-Alternative Solutions (EAS) is launching Liquid Soul Vapor, scheduled to ship to high-volume vapor locations starting next month.
After years of testing and fine-tuning the process to ensure both a quality and safe consumer experience, EAS is ready to bring its first major e-liquid to market. Liquid Soul Vapor is a premium, American-made liquid vapor brand developed with HydraVape Technology, a proprietary process that minimizes “vape tongue” while providing a liquid formula that can vaporize at all standard temperatures.
“Whether you’re a cigarette smoker looking for an alternative or a diehard vaper, you should be able to easily find the brand that suits you,” says Jacopo D’Alessandris, President of EAS. “But a lot of people who want to vape are confused by, or alienated from vaping by, the subculture that’s become synonymous with the market.
“We want Liquid Soul Vapor to be the brand consumers can trust with no reservations, and the brand of choice for all vapor retailers who want to develop a safe and profitable e-liquid business.”
Liquid Soul Vapor blends are made with ingredients free of known harmful substances such as diacetyl, acetyl propionyl and acetoin. All packaging is tamper evident and all bottles are certified child resistant.
EAS will provide retail partners with full-service brand support including traditional and digital media programs, adult consumer education and engagement activities, as well as in-store support with customized POP and merchandising systems.
EAS will also bring category management practices to its retail partners to help them maximize profit and efficient inventory management.
“Our retailer partners will benefit from our modern category management strategies to help consumers navigate the different brands and nicotine levels,” says D’Alessandris. “The EAS team has the experience to work with vapor outlets to help them better understand their shoppers’ behaviors and optimize their product assortment to make the most profitable use of their retail space.”
Based in Darien, Connecticut, USA, EAS is a sister company of Swisher International.
Vintero Corp. has been appointed as the exclusive global sales agency for Misra Toxicology Services, (MTS) of Cary, North Carolina, USA.
MTS was founded by Manoj Misra, who was with Lorillard Tobacco Co. R&D for 17 years working with scientific and regulatory affairs topics involving conventional tobacco products, e-cigarettes and e-liquid formulae.
Misra has also held government and academic positions.
MTS is dedicated to helping tobacco and vapor products manufacturers with good product stewardship practices and compliance with the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products and EU Tobacco Products Directive regulations
A new study released by the U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health concluded that electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) use is feasible in adult smokers scheduled for elective surgery.
The use of ENDS are associated with a reduction in perioperative cigarette consumption, the study states. “These results support further exploration of ENDS as a means to help surgical patients reduce or eliminate their cigarette consumption around the time of surgery.”
The study’s authors write that “pilot data suggest that ENDS use is feasible and well-accepted in surgical patients, and worthy of exploration as a harm reduction strategy in these patients”
