Category: News This Week

Juul Labs plans to make 3 percent nicotine pods widely available to further support the company’s mission to provide existing adult smokers with “a true alternative” to cigarettes.

In the U.S., pods will be offered in 3 percent nicotine by weight, a 40 percent reduction from the company’s 5 percent nicotine by weight pods. They are expected to be available in limited quantity in August and widely available in October in mint and Virginia tobacco flavors.

According to Juul Labs, providing multiple nicotine-strength options allows smokers to choose the nicotine alternative that best works for them to help them switch and stay switched.

“Juul has enabled more than 1 million adult smokers to replace cigarettes, and we want to continue to offer meaningful options to adult smokers who want to end their relationship with combustible cigarettes,” said Juul Labs Chief Executive Officer Kevin Burns.

“Juul Labs wants to meet the needs and preferences of adult smokers who are on their journey to switching from cigarettes, and we hope the availability of different nicotine strengths will continue to allow adult smokers the ability to explore what is best for them.”

Fontem Ventures has entered the refillable liquids market with the introduction of Salt of the Earth.

Designed for adult smokers and vapers who use refillable Pod-style devices, Salt of the Earth is a high-quality range of nicotine salt e-liquids with five unique flavors that span classic and sophisticated tastes, according to Fontem Ventures.

Fontem worked closely with Purilum, an established manufacturer of e-juice concentrates, to select a line of nicotine salt e-liquids that aligns with Fontem’s mission of providing adult smokers and vapers with better vaping experiences, while also abiding by U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations and restrictions on new “tobacco” products.

Purilum develops its e-liquid flavors at the molecular level, building them from scratch and using ingredients that are individually selected and tested for compliance with quality standards.

“We have made a major commitment to work closely with leading industry partners, and find new ways to satisfy the ever-changing tastes of our adult consumers. The result is our most comprehensive offering yet,” said Antoine Blonde, general manager (U.S.) of Fontem Ventures.

“Blended with nicotine salt, Salt of the Earth has been carefully crafted to deliver satisfyingly smooth and consistently dependable flavor. Salt of the Earth liquids will be available in 30 ml bottles with five unique, bold flavors including The Classic, Orchard, Just Menthol, Bee’s Milk, and Lady Camellia—all of which will be available in two different nicotine strengths. Whatever their preference, adult smokers and vapers will truly love what they’re vaping.”

“We are proud to work with Fontem Ventures on the introduction of their Salt of the Earth product line,” said Anthony Dillon, Purilum board member.

“The production of innovative and reliable products is at the forefront of what Purilum stands for, and the process by which we produce nicotine salts will provide Salt of the Earth consumers with a smooth and quality vaping experience. We are excited to provide consumers with an enhanced flavor experience.”

The European Commission has been asked to provide information on the implementation within EU member states of the Tobacco Products Directive in respect of electronic cigarettes.

Roberta Metsola, a Maltese member of the European Parliament said in a preamble to her request that a top Greek court had decided that the advertising of e-cigarettes and their use in public places should be covered by the same laws as applied to traditional cigarettes and smoking.

Metsola said that, in its reply to a previous question, the Commission had stated that ‘Article 20 of the Tobacco Products Directive contained requirements relating to safety, quality and consumer protection of electronic cigarettes’.

The Commission had stated also that it was monitoring regulatory developments relating to electronic cigarettes. In this respect, it remained in close contact with member states to enable the exchange of available information and experience, by means of different forums, including the Expert Group on Tobacco Policy, its Subgroup on Electronic Cigarettes and the upcoming Joint Action on Tobacco Control.

Metsola asked whether the Commission could already provide information on the implementation within EU member states of the Tobacco Products Directive in respect of e-cigarettes.

The Commission is due to reply in writing.

Hong Kong’s Legislative Council has begun to debate a proposal to regulate vaping and heat-not-burn (HNB) products because of a push by pro-liberalization members including Helena Wong, according to a story by Alex Frew McMillan for Nikkei Inc.

Vaping and HNB products occupy a gray regulatory region in Hong Kong, which means that they are not readily available to people without access to overseas sources.

Despite this, they seem to have a big following.

As Council discussions began in June on the proposal, supporters presented Wong with a petition bearing 10,000 signatures. And Peter Shiu, who represents the retail and wholesale trade in the legislature, was quoted as saying that 10 percent of Hong Kong’s 600,000 smokers had switched to alternatives.

The government however is guarded about the legalization proposal. The secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan said in June that her department was “very concerned about the existence of e-cigarettes … [because] there are many unknown constituents or components,” some of which had been shown to be harmful. There had been little to no third-party research in Asia on their health effects.

McMillan reported that in much of Asia-Pacific, the sale of vaping and/or HNB devices was either illegal or, as in Hong Kong, occupied a regulatory gray area that kept them off store shelves. Now with users on the rise, consumers were joining together to pressure the authorities for explicit legalization on what they felt were healthier alternatives to traditional cigarettes. And they were starting to have some political impact.

In the past three years, consumers had formed vape-advocacy organizations in Australia, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines and Thailand. And the International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organisations, an umbrella group, was lobbying for change in places including Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore and Taiwan. Its Asian members had gathered last December in Bangkok to plan a concerted lobbying effort.

“There was an unprecedented feeling among delegates that they are no longer alone, that they are part of a regional and even global movement for change,” said Nancy Sutthoff, the president of INNCO’s board.

And help might come from an unlikely place – Australia, where laws differ from state to state but where, in effect, the sale of e-liquids containing nicotine is either banned or heavily restricted.

This is because Australian lawmakers are themselves under pressure now that New Zealand and Canada have both legalized vaping. “These are countries we compare ourselves with,” said Colin Mendelsohn, associate professor of public health and community medicine at the University of New South Wales and chairman of the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association. “If Australia does make progress in this area, it will be very influential to other Asian countries. Drug policy in Australia has been very instrumental in Asia.”

Mendelsohn went on to say that allowing smoking and banning vaping was costing lives. “The government just needs to get out of the way and let people get on with leading their lives, as long as they are not harming anyone else,” he said.

In a battle to destroy vaping, ‘bad actors’ have spammed more than 255,000 fake anti-vaping comments into the system overseeing the public consultation process for the US Food and Drug Administration’s proposed rulemaking on the Regulation of Flavors in Tobacco Products, according to a story by Brent Stafford for regulatorwatch.com.

The regulations in question could include restrictions on the use of flavors in e-liquids, or an outright flavor ban.

FDA sources were said to have told RegWatch that the spammed entry of more than a quarter of a million fake comments was “extraordinary” and “unprecedented”.

It was said that the assault nearly brought down federal servers and so bogged-down the internal network that it became next-to-impossible to process any submissions.

RegWatch described what happened as a massive assault on the credibility of the public consultation process.

Meanwhile, according to a Vaping 360 story relayed by the TMA, the 255,000 comments originated from four IP addresses.

The agency was said to have been able to stem the flow of comments but had not approved or published a single comment from the pending queue of hundreds of thousands of comments.

The spammed comments were unsigned and followed one of four templates, including three that used language copied from an April Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids letter to FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, and another from a form letter to California mayors created by the California Department of Public Health.

The comments were said to ‘critique the use of flavors and packaging to increase addictiveness and appeal’.

As of July 9, there were more than 517,000 submissions waiting to be reviewed and each comment on the FDA regulatory docket must be read and approved by FDA staff before inclusion.

Vaping organizations have been encouraging comment submissions from vapers but are concerned that confusion and uncertainty over the corrupted comment docket will discourage many vapers from telling their stories.

Restricting access to non-tobacco vaping flavors might discourage smokers from switching to e-vapor products, according to a EurekAlert story citing the results of a study involving more than 20,000 adult US vapers

The story said that peer-reviewed research published on Monday in the Harm Reduction Journal showed that flavors played a critical role in attracting smokers into and retaining them in the vaping category, directly contributing to tobacco harm reduction.

“The results show that non-tobacco flavors, especially fruit based flavors, are being increasingly preferred to tobacco flavours by adult vapers who have completely switched from combustible cigarettes to vapor products,” said Dr Christopher Russell (pictured), deputy director of the Centre for Substance Use Research (CSUR), who led the research.

The survey, one of the largest of its kind to focus on flavors, was conducted by the CSUR and funded by Fontem Ventures, a subsidiary of Imperial Tobacco.

Of the 20,836 adult, frequent users of e-vapor products who took part in the survey, nearly 16,000 were said to have completely switched from smoking to vaping, while 5,000 were dual users who were smoking and using e-vapor products.

“The data suggest that US vapers’ journeys towards quitting smoking are increasingly likely to start with, progress to, or be sustained by frequent use of vaping devices containing non-tobacco flavors”, said Russell.

Meanwhile, Dr. Grant O’Connell, corporate affairs manager at Fontem Ventures, said the declining popularity of tobacco flavors among adult vapers strongly suggested that flavor bans, such as the one recently passed in San Francisco, could see vapers return to cigarette smoking and discourage other adult smokers from switching.

The full peer-reviewed article can be downloaded for free at the Harm Reduction Journal.

Three US health activists have told the Food and Drug Administration that while nicotine in cigarettes should be lowered to non-addictive levels, the agency should not expect that this reduction alone will solve the smoking problem.

Jesse Elias, MA, Yogi Hale Hendlin, PhD, and Pamela M. Ling, MD, MPH, of the University of California, San Francisco, recently submitted a public comment to the FDA on its proposed Nicotine Product Standard.

‘The FDA is considering its proposed nicotine product standard as part of its “comprehensive nicotine policy”,’ the comment said. ‘The FDA’s description of this proposal to date appears to focus narrowly on the pharmacological properties of nicotine. By reducing nicotine delivery in cigarettes, this standard would encourage smokers to switch to other nicotine delivery systems, including those made by tobacco companies, so as to reduce the harm caused by tobacco products. In the best-case scenario, reduced-nicotine cigarettes will prompt smokers to quit smoking altogether, and cease use of all tobacco products. Second best, smokers will switch to non-combustible tobacco products yet maintain their nicotine addiction.’

The comment, of more than 800 words, ended by saying that to improve addiction outcomes and public health, the FDA should both reduce the nicotine levels permitted in cigarettes and other combustible tobacco products, while also expanding and strengthening social and environmental restrictions on cigarette smoking.

The debate about whether to legalize electronic cigarettes in Australia is unfolding all over again, according to a story by Luke Grant for 4bc.com.au.

Grant said that a recent report suggested the push for e-cigarettes was coming from tobacco companies that were eager to lure another demographic into their market. ‘On this reasoning, vaping is presented as being a “gateway” activity,’ Grant said. ‘It supposedly leads or prompts consumers towards conventional smoking products.’

But Dr. Attila Danko, the medical director of Nicovape and the former president of the New Nicotine Alliance, Australia, was quoted as saying this was not the case.

“If it was true that e-cigarettes were a massive gateway to children becoming addicted, I wouldn’t be on the side of legalizing it,” Danko said.

“But the truth is, the use among young people is mostly experimental. They have found that teenagers who tried e-cigarettes also tried smoking. They’ve said that because they tried e-cigarettes and then they tried smoking, the e-cigarettes must have led to the smoking. But it’s just not the case.”

Danko said he could not understand the resistance around legalizing e-cigarettes, given that, comparatively, vaping was far less dangerous [than was smoking].

“The Royal College of Physicians, which has to be one of the most authoritative medical bodies in the world; they did one of the most extensive studies on the whole field, looking at all the research,” Danko said.

“They concluded that vaping almost certainly represents less than five percent of the risk of smoking.

“It’s just a no-brainer. Why would you allow the most harmful product to be freely sold everywhere and ban the far safer product?”