Lawmakers have submitted a bill to Estonia’s Parliament that would stop the collection of excise duty on tobacco e-liquids for two years.
The legislators hope the measure will help to control the border trade and black market.
In the draft explanation, the bill’s authors note that stopping the collection of excise duty will give entrepreneurs an opportunity to cut the price of e-liquids and encourage the sale of legal products.
If passed, the legislation will enter into force on Dec. 1, 2020.
The number of people quitting combustible cigarettes seems to be growing in the UK during the coronavirus lockdown, new research reveals.
The study by smoking cessation advocates Vape Club shows that the average annual Google searches increasing from 37,200 to 100,440 since restrictions began, according to a story in Talking Retail.
‘How to quit smoking’ is Googled an average of 37,200 times per year in the UK, but since 26 April the number of average monthly searches has pushed the yearly average to 100,440, an increase of 62,800.
The similar phrase ‘how to stop smoking’ has seen a comparably sharp increase of 40 percent in the past month in the UK. There are 31,200 searches on average per year, which has increased to an average of 43,680 with last month’s search figures.
In addition, searches for ‘NHS stop smoking service’ have increased by 120 percent in the same period.
Dan Marchant, director at Vape Club and member of the UK Vaping Industry Association, said: “The volume of people turning to Google searches for advice suggests that greater support and clearer information should be made available. I’d like to see stop smoking services reaching out to the most vulnerable and hard-to-reach in society, as there’s clearly a desire to quit with the right support. With vaping being the most effective form of smoking cessation, it’s important that it is presented as an effective quitting tool.”
Vuse and Vype, global e-cigarette brands, have launched a personalized subscription service for their adult consumers that allows ordering at the touch of a button. With a variety of plans to choose from, vapers can sign up for monthly deliveries that offer value, convenience and personalisation.
In the United Kingdom, Vype has launched two monthly subscription services focusing on its award-winning pod mods the Vype ePen3 and Vype ePod. Vype ePen3 and Vype ePod won the e-cigarette category at 2019 and 2020 UK Product of the Year awards respectively.
Each subscription plan includes a Vype ePen3 or Vype ePod every three months with a 25 percent saving on a three-month plan or a 33 percent saving on a six-month plan, both with no delivery charges. Each plan requires a minimum order of six packs per month.
In the United States, Vuse continues to offer its popular Vuse Alto pod subscription service that includes a 10 percent discount on pods and free delivery.
Vape and e-cigarette users have been warned of the dangers of not cleaning their devices properly over fears harmful bacteria could enter the body from a dirty mouthpiece.
Suzi Gage, a university academic who studies recreational drug use, said that moisture associated with inhaling vapour could perhaps harbour bacteria. And if the e-cigarette or vaping device was not cleaned regularly enough it could lead to the user becoming ill, she suggested, according to a story in The Daily Mail.
Gage said “surprisingly little” was known about the health risk of nicotine. “We know what it is about tobacco cigarettes that is so risky to health, it’s the tar, the carbon monoxide, the formaldehyde, the heavy metals and the tens or even hundreds of carcinogens within the tobacco,” she said.
“These things either are not present in e-cigarettes, they don’t contain tobacco itself, or they might be present but orders of magnitude lower than in cigarettes.
“Now this doesn’t mean that e-cigarettes are harmless because there might be other aspects of inhaling heated vapour that are risky that we don’t know about yet.
“For example, perhaps the moisture associated with vapour could harbour bacteria, particularly as these devices are re-used rather than single use in the way that cigarettes are.
“If you’re an e-cigarette user, have a little think about how often you clean the mouthpiece that you’re putting in your mouth and inhaling your vapour through.”
The Canadian Province of Alberta has introduced new legislation on vaping that would include a ban on anyone under 18 from using e-cigarettes.
Health Minister Tyler Shandro says there is mounting evidence on the health risks of vaping and statistics show more young people in Alberta are indulging, according to a story in the Eckville Echo. “Strong action needs to be taken to address significant increases in youth vaping,” Shandro said Tuesday prior to introducing the bill in the house.
Shandro’s ministry says that in the last five years, vaping rates among high school students has risen to 30 per cent from eight. It also says evidence continues to show health risks, including lung damage and nicotine poisoning.
Alberta is the only province without vaping legislation. If the bill passes, there would be restrictions — matching those in place for traditional tobacco products — on displaying and promoting vaping products in stores. Speciality vape stores would be exempt.
The province said it does not intend to ban or restrict flavors for e-cigarettes, but the bill proposes cabinet be allowed to make such restrictions once the law is passed and proclaimed.
The legislation would also expand the list of places where traditional smoking and vaping would be banned — adding playgrounds, sports fields, skateboard and bicycle parks, and public outdoor pools — to further avoid exposing youth to products and second-hand smoke.
The legislation follows a review of vaping that began last year. The government said 250 people were consulted and another 9,500 provided online comments, according to the story.
Lawmakers in the U.S. House asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban Puff Bar. The disposable device is the fastest-growing vapor product on the market and has quickly replaced Juul as the vape of choice among young people, according to a story in The New York Times.
The disposable devices come in more than 20 flavors, among them piña colada, pink lemonade, watermelon and O.M.G. Puff Bar, which launched last year, has been the key beneficiary of an FDA loophole allowing flavors in disposable devices. Based on data used only for tracked channels, which include convenience stores and some other retailers but not online sales or vape shops, Puff Bar sales have consistently been over $3 million a week since April, with volumes now over 300,000 sticks per week.
“Puff Bar is quickly becoming the new Juul,” Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, Democrat of Illinois, wrote in a letter to the F.D.A. on Monday. Mr. Krishnamoorthi, the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, accused the e-cigarette company of exploiting the coronavirus to sell its products to schoolchildren.
To make his case, the lawmaker included a copy of a Puff Bar advertisement featuring a photograph of a bedroom, with the words: “We know that the inside-vibes have been … quite a challenge. Stay sane with Puff Bar this solo-break. We know you’ll love it. It’s the perfect escape from the back-to-back zoom calls, parental texts and WFH stress.”
Mr. Krishnamoorthi said that “this advertisement is designed to convince children home from school to vape in their rooms without their parents noticing.”
A second advertisement included in the complaint features an attractive young woman wearing a tight T-shirt and spewing big clouds of vapor. The same picture was used in a separate advertisement that suggested vaping a Puff Bar as a way to relax over spring break.
Todd Eric Gallinger, a lawyer who represented a company called Cool Clouds Distribution in a trademark application for the Puff logo, did not return a call seeking comment. The Puff Bar website does not list the names of any of the company’s executives. Indeed, since it began, the provenance of the Los Angeles-based business has been a secret. Its website states: “Who makes Puff Bar? Everyone wants to know the mastermind team behind the latest craze in the world of electronic cigarettes. Where did the Puff Bar team come from and where do they plan to go from here?”
Wherever it is, the company isn’t telling. The only details revealed indicate that the product is made in China and the flavors are developed in Malaysia.
The F.D.A. declined to discuss Puff Bar. Still, in an email, Mitchell Zeller, the director of the agency’s Center for Tobacco Products, wrote that the agency intended to take action against any electronic nicotine product “if it is targeted to youths, if its marketing is likely to promote use by minors, or if the manufacturer fails to take adequate measures to prevent minors’ access, according to the story.
In recent weeks, the agency has blocked the importing of two e-cigarette products from China: EonSmoke, which sold disposable e-cigarettes in a number of flavors before shutting down, and RELX, available in flavors including Drunk in Mexico, Naked in Iceland and Mango
Juul Labs Inc has asked a federal judge to dismiss or pause hundreds of lawsuits alleging the e-cigarette manufacturer fueled a youth vaping epidemic, saying the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s decisions on how it markets its products deserve deference.
Juul, on May 29, asked a federal judge in San Francisco to stay hundreds of lawsuits by consumers and local governments alleging its marketing created a public health crisis while the FDA determines whether it may continue to market its products, according to Reuters.
Altria Group Inc.’s e-cigarette and smokeless tobacco divisions filed suit Thursday against competitor R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. for patent infringement on e-cigarettes and associated products.
Altria owns a 35 percent stake in e-cigarette industry leader Juul Labs Inc., a direct competitor of Reynolds’ Vuse brand of e-cigarettes.
According to a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, Reynolds Vapor, owned by Reynolds American Inc., violated nine patents held by Altria Client Services in producing its Vuse Vapor e-cigarette line, according to a story on Virginiabusiness.com. The suit contends that Reynolds’ Vuse brand of e-cigarettes — including the Vibe and Alto — uses heating technology, mouthpieces, batteries and liquid-filled pods covered by Altria’s patents for its Juul e-vapor products.
Based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Reynolds American Inc. is owned by British American Tobacco plc, which is headquartered in London. “Reynolds Vapor has infringed on Altria’s intellectual property and we are seeking financial damages for each of these violations,” Altria Client Services spokesman George Parman said Thursday, according to the story.
The suit comes weeks after Reynolds filed its own patent-infringement suit against Altria and Philip Morris International Inc. in Richmond’s federal court over its heat-not-burn cigarette line, Marlboro HeatSticks, a competitor of Reynolds’ Eclipse line.
Altria seeks unspecified monetary compensation but asks for “treble damages” — in other words, triple the amount — for “defendant’s willful infringement” of the patents, as well as awards of compensation, supplemental damages after discovery cutoff and attorneys’ fees and expenses. The plaintiffs ask for a trial by jury. No hearing has been set.
In a first for China, a store owner in Shenzhen has been fined 2,000 yuan ($280) for failing to display required warnings against smoking, according to local news outlet Yangcheng Evening News.
The report said the shop had flouted Shenzhen’s recently updated regulations banning vaping indoors and selling e-cigarettes on WeChat, China’s most widely used social app. In addition, two people who had been vaping inside the store were fined 50 yuan each, according to a story posted on sixthtone.com.
Xiong Jingfan, the manager of Shenzhen’s “smoke-free city” campaign, told Yangcheng Evening News that selling e-cigarettes on social platforms — despite being prevalent across the country — had become illegal under the recent ban.
In 2019, Shenzhen authorities amended the definition of a “cigarette” in the city’s smoking regulation to include e-cigarettes. Under the law’s new interpretation, shops selling such products were required to post two warning signs at visible locations: one stipulating that smoking is harmful to one’s health, and another noting that cigarettes cannot be sold to minors.
The regulation also forbids vaping indoors and in public places.
Despite the city’s stringent ban, Shenzhen is the world’s largest e-cigarette producer, accounting for around 90 percent of the global market share.
This is not the first time China has attempted to crack down on the domestic e-cigarette industry. Last November, the country’s state tobacco monopoly issued a nationwide e-cigarette ban, suspending the online sale and advertisement of such products. The ban, dubbed the “winter of e-cigarette merchants,” was aimed at keeping e-cigarettes out of the hands of minors. In 2018, China Tobacco had prohibited merchants from selling e-cigarettes — collectively referred to as Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems, or ENDS — to minors.
Shenzhen’s restrictions on e-cigarettes attracted controversy online, however, after many netizens pointed out the authorities’ apparent double standard when it comes to smoking — namely, that regulations on cigarettes, which are sold by the government, are still relatively lax.
Pod-style vapor products have an efficient delivery of nicotine. A new study by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health finds that the nicotine salts used by the devices may foster greater dependence than other types of e-cigarettes.
According to the study, the design of pod-based e-cigarettes ensures the delivery of high doses of nicotine in a low pH form, which is less harsh compared to the higher pH nicotine found in most other e-cigarette brands, thus encouraging deeper inhalation.
This is the first paper to synthesize research findings on Juul and similar pod-based devices, said first author Stella Lee, formerly a National Cancer Institute Cancer Prevention postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences and currently an assistant professor at Konkuk University in South Korea, according to the Harvard Gazette.
“We found that pod-based e-cigarettes have a higher potential to get youth and young adults addicted than other devices,” she said. “To prevent this from happening, we need stronger health communication messages that alert people to these findings.”
The study will be published online June 1 in JAMA Pediatrics.