Category: News This Week

Philip Morris International (PMI) has suspended a global social media marketing campaign in response to inquiries into the company’s use of young personalities to sell IQOS, PMI’s new “heated tobacco” device.

The company’s internal marketing standards prohibit it from promoting tobacco products with youth-oriented celebrities or “models who are or appear to be under the age of 25.”

Reuters sent several photographs, including one from an influencer in Moscow who lists her age as 21, to PMI early last week for a comment. In response PMI launched an internal investigation into the posts and photographs in question and subsequently suspended their campaign.

“We have taken the decision to suspend all of our product-related digital influencer actions globally,” PMI told Reuters. “Whilst the influencer in question is a legal age adult smoker, she is under 25 and our guidance called for influencers to be 25+ years of age. This was a clear breach of that guidance … No laws were broken. However, we set high standards for ourselves and these facts do not excuse our failure to meet those standards in this instance.”

Starting in July, people under the age of 21 will no longer be able to buy tobacco products from Walmart or Sam’s Club stores in the United States, according to an article in the New York Times. .

Walmart Inc. announced on Wednesday that it would be raising the minimum age for buying the products on July 1, making it the latest retailer to make changes regarding tobacco sales to minors, according to the article. Walmart’s move comes after a letter from the Food and Drug Administration last month that requested it to submit a plan to end illegal tobacco sales to minors.

Walmart will also no longer sell “fruit- and dessert-flavored electronic nicotine delivery systems” and other devices for vaping, according to the company’s announcement, the article states.

Other retailers have also recently changed their policies around the sale of tobacco products to minors. Walgreens will stop selling them to customers under 21 in September, while Rite Aid announced in April it would remove e-cigarettes from its stores over the next 90 days, according to the article. For its part, CVS stopped selling tobacco products in 2014. Several states have also moved to raise the minimum smoking age.

China’s most popular messaging app WeChat has suspended mini-programs, or lightweight apps that run within WeChat, from selling e-cigarettes, products that have attracted an investment craze in the past six months, reported the National Business Daily.

WeChat said mini-programs touting different brands of e-cigarettes have violated tobacco sales regulations. A mini-program for e-cigarette brand MOTI was allowed to reopen after corrections in mid-April. 

As China’s policy towards e-cigarettes remains unclear, leading e-commerce sites Tmall.com and Jd.com still allow searches for the gadgets that use battery-powered cartridges to produce a flavored vapor that often contains nicotine.

The WeChat move is closely watched by the industry as most brands sell their products through the messaging app. 

The California city of Beverly Hills’ City Council voted unanimously to recommend banning the sale of tobacco products beginning on Jan. 1, 2021, according to an article on foxla.com.

“This reflects the values of our community,” said Mayor John Mirisch, according to the article. “We are a City that has taken the lead on restricting smoking and promoting public health. Somebody has to be first, so let it be us.”

Under the proposed ordinance, cigar lounges will be exempt, hotels may only sell tobacco products to guests through concierge services, all other tobacco retailers like gas stations and convenience stores will not sell tobacco products starting in 2021, and the City Council will revisit the ordinance again in three years from the effective date, the article states.

The first reading of the ordinance and formal City Council vote will take place on May 21, 2019 with a second reading and final vote expected on June 4, 2019.

The legislature in the new US state of Washington passed a new sales tax on vapor products. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Gerry Pollet, taxes closed systems such as Juul at $0.27 per milliliter. Open systems with refillable cartridges will be taxed at $0.09 per milliliter.

The tax is expected to raise $19.1 million in revenue over the course of two years. Half of the funds are slated for the state’s public health services account, with the remaining set to fund cancer research, programs designed to prevent tobacco/vape use among teens, and enforcement.

Washington’s brick-and-mortar vape shop owners are in a state of shock. They say the tax will force them to shut down, according to an article on the thestranger.com “It’s definitely going to be devastating,” said Zach McLain, who runs Future Vapor in Seattle, according to the article. “I’m going to try to figure something out so we don’t have to pass the tax onto the consumer, but other stores like mine will have to close.”

Kim Thompson, owner of The Vaporium and president of the Pink Lung Brigade, is quoted in the article as saying, “We are calling this what it truly is. This is the bill that Juul built.”

Heated tobacco products (HTPs) can be as addictive and harmful to the body as regular cigarettes, Taiwan’s Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said on May 2nd, according to The Taipei Times.

The agency issued the warning a day after the U.S. FDA authorized Philip Morris International (PMI) to market its IQOS tobacco-heating system in the United States.

“Smoking cigarettes does nothing but harm the body, and new types of products—e-cigarettes and HTPs—are the same,” an HPA representative told The Taipei Times.  Citing a World Health Organization information sheet on HTPs, the agency said that “there is no evidence to demonstrate that HTPs are less harmful than conventional tobacco products.”

It pointed to the presence in HTPs of nicotine, which is addictive, and that of tar, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde.

Tobacco Control Division head Lo Su-ying also expressed concern that THPs might attract more young people to smoking.

The Florida Legislature won’t pass a proposal to raise the minimum age to buy tobacco and vaping products from 18 to 21, said House Speaker José Oliva, according to an article on cbsmiami.com.

Florida is one of several states that have considered legislation supporting an issue known as “Tobacco 21,” or T21, backed by e-cigarette giant, JUUL Labs.

The Senate overwhelmingly approved its version of the bill on Tuesday, sending the proposal to the House for consideration, according to the article.

Both chambers’ measures include a “pre-emption” provision that would ban local governments from passing ordinances dealing with the age to purchase tobacco or vaping products. And both plans would exclude members of the military from the age restrictions.

Speaking to reporters after a floor session Wednesday, Oliva said the issue is dead, the article states.

“I think it would be difficult in the House to move the age for smoking,” the Miami Lakes Republican said. “I think that a lot of people feel in this chamber that 18 years is an adult, and adults should be able to make their own decisions.”

Federal health officials have linked JUUL’s exponential growth, it’s market share tripled in just one year, to the skyrocketing increase in youngsters’ e-cigarette use. JUUL, owned in part by Altria, the parent company of cigarette maker Philip Morris USA, is pushing Tobacco 21 as it tries to keep federal regulators at bay, according to the article.

While the American Heart Association has endorsed T21 efforts in general, the association accused the tobacco industry of including provisions in the House and Senate proposals that “ruined” the bills, the article states.

Australia appears unlikely to follow in the footsteps of the United States in authorizing the sale of nicotine vaping products, with both sides of politics standing firm against the idea, according to an article in the Canberra Times.

The United States Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday said it would permit cigarette company Philip Morris to sell its IQOS tobacco heating system in the US.

The agency said the step was appropriate for the protection of public health, because it produces fewer or lower levels of some toxins than combustible cigarettes, the article states.

But Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt says he doesn’t agree with the approach, noting some US authorities have spoken of an “epidemic” of vaping among young people in the US.

Currently there is no approval for any Australian retailer to sell vaping products containing nicotine, and import is illegal unless approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration as part of a smoking cessation programme

Nevertheless they are easily obtainable for personal use online.

“What has occurred, I think, is a public health disaster, and that is not something that on my watch I’m willing to countenance,” he told the National Press Club on Thursday.

He stressed the tobacco industry is backing the vaping push.

“It is far more a case of being a ramp on, rather than a pathway off smoking.

“So no, that’s not what I’m proposing, on my time, on my watch, so long as I’m in this role.”

Labor health spokeswoman Catherine King commended her coalition rival for his stance, according to the article.

Tobacco advocates see vaping as another way to expand their market and have been walking the corridors of parliament to spruik it, she said.

“We’re going to resist that. It’s not something Australia should countenance.”

Reynolds American Inc. says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should reign in Juul, reports CNBC.

Responding to federal data showing a significant increase in underage vaping, the FDA in March proposed limiting sales of fruity e-cigarette flavors to websites, vape shops and retailers that impose age restrictions.

The public comment period closed this week

Responding to the agency’s plans, Reynolds said that the FDA has already identified the main driver of youth interest: Juul.

“As the agency’s public statements confirm, underage users disproportionately prefer Juul to all other products,” the company wrote. “Armed with such knowledge, we believe the agency can take appropriately tailored steps to curb youth use.”

Juul countered that categorywide action is the best way to curb youth use.

“It is disappointing but not surprising to see a legacy tobacco company whose core business remains combustible cigarettes—the very product we intend to eliminate by offering adult smokers an alternative—attempting to thwart the category-wide regulation that’s needed,” Juul told CNBC.