Category: News This Week

The TMA Board of Directors announced the recently completed acquisition of the assets of Raleigh, North Carolina, USA-based SpecComm International, including Vapor Voice magazine. The purchase brings together TMA’s leading member service and information platforms with award-winning trade journalism.

TMA, a non-profit, member-driven organization, provides stakeholders with open and engaging forums and unbiased information on all tobacco and nicotine issues. All the purchased assets will be operated with this guiding principal in mind. TMA announced that it is creating a new division, The GTNF Trust, to operate Vapor Voice Magazine and other purchased assets.

“All of us on the TMA Board are very excited about the future for TMA with the inclusion of these new assets,” said Mike Ligon, TMA Board Chairman. “TMA will create a tobacco and nicotine content experience for industry and all stakeholders that has more depth and coverage than anywhere else. And watch for new topical content coming soon,” added Ligon.

As a member organization, TMA will continue to focus on informative content for tma.org, its 26 publications that provide the information and analysis that TMA members and subscribers depend on to widen their understanding of tobacco and nicotine issues globally, along with its highly regarded Annual Meeting and Conference. TMA will also incorporate Tobacco Farm Quarterly into its publications to better serve the agricultural sector of the tobacco and nicotine industries.

Once operational, The GTNF Trust will be the home of Tobacco Reporter, the oldest tobacco industry trade publication in the United States; Vapor Voice, the stalwart reporter that has stood with the vapor industry since the early days; and the GTNF Conference, the premier forum for international nicotine stakeholders.

Building on their separate legacies of success, TMA and The GTNF Trust will strive to enhance the content and conference offerings that brings valuable new information, insights and understanding to TMA members, GTNF Conference supporters, and the wider community of nicotine stakeholders.

For TabExpo, TMA will work with current licensee TEM Events, lead by Steve Fowler and Barbara Hicks, to continue the success of past expositions and congresses. TEM and TabExpo will leverage the best of TMA and its new assets to deliver an exceptional TabExpo starting with Amsterdam 2019 and continuing on to future expositions and congresses. 

TMA President and CEO Chris Greer will oversee TMA and The GTNF Trust. Roberta Crosby, TMA’s Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, will oversee finances and administration for TMA and The GTNF Trust. Elise Rasmussen will join TMA as The GTNF Trust Executive Director and TMA Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Taco Tuinstra, Tobacco Reporter’s Editor in Chief, will join TMA as Vice President and Chief Content Officer with responsibilities for all magazine content. Darryl Jayson, TMA’s Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, will be responsible for TMA content and legacy TMA operations. Mike MacDonald will join TMA as Director of Product and Circulation. Joining the management team is TMA’s Chris Moll, who will become Director of Information Services and will oversee IT infrastructure, further development of tma.org, the online magazines, TabExpo and GTNF websites. All appointments are effective immediately.

“All of us at TMA are eager to combine TMA’s platform with the tremendous content of the magazines and successes of the GTNF and TabExpo,” said TMA President & CEO Chris Greer. “TMA has been working on this purchase for some time and the Board and staff believe that the acquisition brings more value to membership, provides enhanced content for our subscribers, and enables TMA, GTNF, and TabExpo to deliver world class forums, conferences and expositions that bring people and ideas together.”

To experience all that TMA offers, visit us at tma.org and join us for the TMA Annual Meeting & Conference on April 8-10, 2019 at the Marriott Fairview Park in Falls Church, Virginia. You can also join the debate at the GTNF Conference on September 24-26, 2019 at the Georgetown Four Seasons, Washington, DC.

For further details, contact tma@tma.org.

A city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin wants to ban vaping in all workplaces, including vape shops. Alderwoman Cathy Spears, with the City of Appleton, introduced a resolution to modify language in the city’s smoke-free workplace ordinance to include vapor products.

The resolution also seeks to prohibit vapor use not only at workplaces, but also the shops that sell vapor products, according to a story in the Appleton Post-Crescent.

Numerous vape shop owners and employees are opposing the measure. Ken Kempen, co-owner of EVapor in Appleton, noting that the “ridiculous” measure from the “nanny city” will “hurt business,” said the measure is “going forward, so I would not anticipate that anybody can vape even in a vaping shop,” according to the article. 

If the Board of Health passes the resolution, it will move to the Common Council for consideration. Spears said numerous restaurant staff members, who have made “off the record” comments about their annoyance with co-workers who smoke and vape at the workplace, have not made their concerns public due to fear of retribution from their employees.

Derrick Brunette, manager of Good Nature EVAPOR, said vapor businesses, and not the government, should decide whether to allow customers to vape in their stores.

In a letter to the city council, George Packard of Neenah, who opened Xtreme Vape in Antigo, said if the measure is approved, he would suffer a 50 percent reduction in sales and lose customers to online retailers, according to the story.

Allowing customers to try different e-liquid flavors is responsible for “a huge part of our sales,” Packard said, adding that asking customers to go out to try a product, especially during winter, would be an unnecessary burden. Luke Nessina, an employee of Fox Valley Vapor, said the measure “would end up making more people mad, and it’s not going to help anything.”

Queensland Health has been misinforming people that avenues allowing them to vape legally with nicotine in Australia are not open to them in Queensland, according to a report by the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association (ATHRA).

The report helpfully explains some of the laws governing vaping in Australia, which can seem opaque.

‘Although there are ways to legally vape with nicotine in Australia, Queensland Health has been telling smokers that they do not apply in Queensland,’ the ATHRA said. ‘This behaviour is bungling at best, or dishonest at worst.

‘Whatever their beliefs, governments have a responsibility to ensure accurate information is provided to consumers. Queensland Health’s opposition to vaping is no justification for deceiving the public to further its agenda.

‘Some Australian pharmacies can prepare nicotine liquid for vaping for a smoker who has a nicotine prescription and wants to quit. This is known as “compounding” and is legal in all states and territories under Commonwealth law (Therapeutic Goods Regulations 1990) …’

Queensland Health is said also to have misled the public for several years about importing nicotine from overseas.

‘Under the Therapeutic Goods Administration Personal Importation Scheme, smokers in all states can import nicotine legally to help them quit smoking if they have a doctor’s prescription,’ the ATHRA said.

The rise in noncommunicable diseases has been driven by five major risk factors: tobacco use, physical inactivity, the harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy diets and air pollution, according to the World Health Organization.

In publishing its 13th General Programme of Work, the WHO said the world was facing multiple health challenges. ‘These range from outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases like measles and diphtheria, increasing reports of drug-resistant pathogens, growing rates of obesity and physical inactivity to the health impacts of environmental pollution and climate change and multiple humanitarian crises,’ it said in a statement.

‘To address these and other threats, 2019 sees the start of the World Health Organization’s new five-year strategic plan – the 13th General Programme of Work. This plan focuses on a triple billion target:  ensuring one billion more people benefit from access to universal health coverage, one billion more people are protected from health emergencies and one billion more people enjoy better health and well-being. Reaching this goal will require addressing the threats to health from a variety of angles.’

In its announcement, the WHO listed the following 10 issues as being among those that will demand its attention and that of its partners during 2019: ‘air pollution and climate change; noncommunicable diseases; global influenza pandemic; fragile and vulnerable settings; antimicrobial resistance; Ebola and other high-threat pathogens; weak primary health care; vaccine hesitancy; dengue; and HIV’.

In addressing the question of noncommunicable diseases, the WHO said that diseases such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease, were collectively responsible for more than 70 percent of all deaths worldwide, accounting for 41 million people. This included 15 million people ‘dying prematurely’, aged between 30 and 69.

‘Over 85 percent of these premature deaths are in low- and middle-income countries,’ the WHO said. ‘The rise of these diseases has been driven by five major risk factors: tobacco use, physical inactivity, the harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy diets and air pollution. These risk factors also exacerbate mental health issues, that may originate from an early age: half of all mental illness begins by the age of 14, but most cases go undetected and untreated – suicide is the second leading cause of death among 15-19-year-olds.

‘Among many things, this year WHO will work with governments to help them meet the global target of reducing physical inactivity by 15 percent by 2030 – through such actions as implementing the ACTIVE policy toolkit to help get more people being active every day.’

But it would seem that air pollution is the big threat. The WHO said that nine out of ten people breathed polluted air every day. ‘In 2019, air pollution is considered by WHO as the greatest environmental risk to health,’ it said. ‘Microscopic pollutants in the air can penetrate respiratory and circulatory systems, damaging the lungs, heart and brain, killing seven million people prematurely every year from diseases such as cancer, stroke, heart and lung disease. Around 90 percent of these deaths are in low- and middle-income countries, with high volumes of emissions from industry, transport and agriculture, as well as dirty cookstoves and fuels in homes.

‘The primary cause of air pollution (burning fossil fuels) is also a major contributor to climate change, which impacts people’s health in different ways. Between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause 250,000 additional deaths per year, from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress.

‘In October 2018, WHO held its first-ever Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health in Geneva. Countries and organizations made more than 70 commitments to improve air quality. This year, the United Nations Climate Summit in September will aim to strengthen climate action and ambition worldwide. Even if all the commitments made by countries for the Paris Agreement are achieved, the world is still on a course to warm by more than 3°C this century.’

Anticipating an increase in the use of vapor products after Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte expressed support to a measure to raise the excise tax on tobacco products, Health Undersecretary Eric Domingo warned the public against using vape devices, noting the products contain nicotine, which is addictive, and are not a “good” alternative to cigarettes, according to a GMA news story.

“Some people are trying to package it as a healthy alternative to tobacco or as lower risk product compared to tobacco,” Domingo was quoted as having said during a news conference.

“Vape are nicotine-containing and they are addicting.

“We do not advocate the use of vaping and we want to strictly regulate it.”

E-cigarette and vaping regulations would need legislation, but relevant bills currently remain pending in Congress.

Domingo proposed that vaping devices should be registered and checked for safety.

And the World Health Organization country representative, Dr. Gundo Weiler, earlier said that WHO supported the regulation of vaping.

Domingo said it was not known how many vape stores had opened in the country.

In Thailand, where the import and sale of vapor products has been banned since 2014, a working panel led by the Commerce Ministry has assigned the Tobacco Control Research and Knowledge Management Centre to conduct a study amid concerns of legal hurdles affecting the implementation of the ban. 

The measure bans only the import and sale of the devices, and there is no specific prohibition against using them, which has resulted in confusion among law enforcers, according to the chairperson of the panel Keerati Rushchano, who is also the deputy director-general of the Department of Foreign Trade.

The agency is expected to complete the study in about six months, after which the panel will decide the future course of action. Rushchano said the final result will ensure that appropriate measures are in place, whether it is the existing ban or another appropriate one such as requiring import licenses and registration. 

In Thailand, where the import and sale of vapor products has been banned since 2014, a working panel led by the Commerce Ministry has assigned the Tobacco Control Research and Knowledge Management Centre to conduct a study amid concerns of legal hurdles affecting the implementation of the ban. 

The UK’s High Court has granted an interim injunction with pan-EU effect against a Chinese manufacturer, Shenzhen Shunbao Technology, which was attempting to launch in the EU a product similar in appearance to Philip Morris International’s IQOS, according to a Lexology story relayed by the TMA.

PMI was said to have become aware that Shunbao was marketing a tobacco heating system in China that was similar in appearance to the IQOS holder and brought an action in China.

After learning of Shunbao’s intention to enter the EU market, PMI filed a case in the UK High Court for infringement of a Registered Community Design protecting the design of the IQOS holder.

In considering the factors for assessing whether an interim injunction application should be granted, the judge was reportedly satisfied that there was a serious issue to be tried and that PMI had a “good arguable case” on infringement.

He was satisfied also that there was a real threat of infringement in the EU, since Shunbao’s online store indicated that it would be exhibiting at the Vaper Expo in the EU.

Balancing other factors, he found that the reputational harm to PMI was likely and difficult to quantify.

Since he was satisfied that damages would not be an adequate remedy for PMI and that the balance of convenience favoured granting an interim injunction, the interim injunction was ordered.

Writing in his “The Shift” column in the New York Times, Kevin Roose said Juul Labs’ new $10 million “For smokers. By design” TV ad campaign, called “Make the Switch,” which features testimonials from former smokers, who are above the legal smoking age and have used Juul to quit smoking, suggests that the company “really, really, really cares” about “nicotine-addicted adult smokers” and wants them to “switch to something far less likely to kill them,” but “plenty of evidence suggests that the company didn’t always take its public health agenda so seriously.”

Juul Labs, which is valued at $38 billion, “has been through the wringer lately, with regulators, public health advocates and concerned parents “accusing it of fueling an epidemic of teenage nicotine addiction by marketing to young people with fruit-flavored pods, colorful youth-filled ads and social media campaigns,” Roose noted.

While users have sued Juul Labs, the Food and Drug Administration, “which is investigating whether Juul’s marketing practices deliberately targeted underage users, conducted a surprise inspection of the company’s headquarters last year.” On November 12, 2018, Juul Labs announced that it will stop selling most of its flavored products, except menthol and tobacco, in retail stores, effective immediately, and close its Facebook and Instagram accounts in the US that promote the use of its flavored pods. “Adding to the concern,” Altria purchased a 35% stake in Juul in a $12.8 billion deal announced December 20, 2018.”

While Juul Labs is “far from the first company to attempt a humanitarian makeover,” its “revisionist history is particularly important, because the way Juul markets itself is central to the question of how it should be treated,” Roose noted, adding that “many consumers, investors and ethical technologists would rightly shun a company that knowingly targeted minors with harmful products, and cleaned up its act only after public pressure.

But if you believe that Juul had a noble anti-cigarette mission all along, it’s easier to excuse its missteps as the product of innocent naïveté.” In a 2015 interview with The Verge, Ari Atkins, a research and development engineer who helped create the original Juul, said “we don’t think a lot about addiction here because we’re not trying to design a cessation product at all … anything about health is not on our mind.”

James Monsees, Juul Labs’ co-founder and chief product officer, said in a 2014 interview that although the company since 2005 has focused on “creating a product to help people switch away from smoking combustible cigarettes – the number one cause of preventable death in the world,” it is “not an activist company. If you don’t like what we’re making better than cigarettes, then have a cigarette, that’s fine.”

In a 2007 email to potential investors, Adam Bowen, Juul’s other co-founder, mentioned the company’s desire to “offer a new alternative for health-conscious smokers.” However, Juul Labs’ efforts to pitch vape devices as “a healthier substitute for cigarettes” goes against its marketing campaigns, as “few of the company’s early ads made any mention of cigarettes’ risks, or advocated for smokers to switch; most were focused on playing up vaping’s cool factor,” Roose  noted. In 2017, Juul Labs’ website “said nothing about switching from cigarettes at all, only that the Juul offered an ‘’intensely satisfying vapor experience.’”

However, Juul Labs, “now equipped with an army of lobbyists and a slick communications team that includes a former White House spokesman – has studiously revamped its image,” with “glossy profiles … written about the company’s ‘lifesaving mission.’” Juul’s new Chief Executive Officer Kevin Burns also emphasized the company’s focus on adult smokers. “This abrupt about-face has drawn skepticism from critics,” with Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, describing Juul Labs’ new ad campaign “as little more than a P.R. effort aimed at lawmakers and regulators.”

Juul Labs “has engaged in all the traditional tactics of a company that is trying to fend off meaningful regulation, rather than actually change their behavior. That is classic Big Tobacco,” Myers noted. “No one is suggesting that Juul’ nicotine pods are less healthy than cigarettes, or that the company should stop marketing itself as a smoking alternative,” but “motives matter. And Juul’s shifty self-presentation suggests that the company may not be acting entirely on the level,” Roose added.

In Singapore, where a ban on the purchase, possession and use of vapor products took effect February 1, 2018, with non-compliance resulting in a fine of up to S$ 2,000 (US$ 1,500), the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) said 67 people have been caught using vape devices in the 10 months following the implementation of the effect, according to a story published in the Straits Times. In the past five years, a total of 245 retailers have been caught selling vapor products in violation of a 1993 ban on their sale, distribution and importation, HSA noted. 

Non-compliant retailers and businesses face a fine of up to S$ 10,000 (US$ 7,400) or a prison sentence of up to six months, or both, for the first offence, with penalties doubling up for the second or subsequent violations. Lena Teo, deputy director of therapy and mental wellness services at Care Singapore, said vaping “is popular among youth as they think it is cool and odorless. There are so many different flavors (of the vape juice) and you can create smoke circles.” Dr Tan Kok Kuan of Dr Tan & Partners said it is “now accepted by most national and international health authorities that e-cigarettes expose the user to much fewer toxins compared to cigarettes,” but e-liquids contain nicotine, which is “highly addictive when it is inhaled, and other harmful chemicals.”

Malaysia’s Health Minister seems to have confirmed by default that the use of electronic cigarettes not containing nicotine is permitted in public places where tobacco smoking is banned.

According to a story in The Star, the minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Dzulkefly Ahmad, had said that e-cigarettes that contained nicotine or tobacco [presumably heat-not-burn devices] could not be used in no-smoking zones.

But the Star was looking for an answer to the question of whether vaping devices without nicotine could be used in no-smoking zones.

The answer it received was, by default, yes. “If there is no nicotine in vapes, then the issue is whether it is tobacco based,” said Dzulkefly. “If it is tobacco based, then it is still not allowed. It is as simple as that.”

In October last year, deputy health minister Dr. Lee Boon Chye said the ban against tobacco smoking in public places and eateries would not be extended to vaping.

He said that under the current laws, the authorities could act on vape products only if they contained nicotine.

In the meantime, Dzulkefly said he was open to a suggestion by the chairman of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye, that the smoking ban should be extended to offices and enclosed areas such as toilets.

“We are willing to consider and always reassess and review, especially public places,” Dzulkefly said. “I will listen to the public on all suggestions and complaints.”

From the beginning of this year, tobacco smoking has been banned in all eateries.