Category: News This Week

Hoosier Vapers, a vaping trade and consumer advocacy group in Indiana, USA, has filed a lawsuit seeking to block a state law that would, among other things, require e-liquid makers to obtain a license from the State Alcohol and Tobacco Commission, use specified safety equipment and childproof caps, and obtain a security firm certification stating that the manufacturing facility meets specified security requirements.

The law is set to take effect July 1, 2016.

Hoosier Vapers’ chairman, Evan McMahon, argues that these requirements will force many mom-and-pop shops to close down and eliminate about 2,500 jobs.

The Small and Medium Scale Entrepreneurs Association of Malaysia (Ikhlas) has filed a lawsuit in the Kuala Lumpur High Court challenging the nationwide raids on vape shops and e-cigarette seizures, as well as upcoming bans on e-cigarette sales in some states, including Johor and Kelantan, reports the New Straits Times.

Ikhlas is seeking myr1 million ($232,800) in exemplary and aggravated damages and unspecified general and special damages.

The association’s membership includes 1,000 e-cig retailers across the nation.

The Electronic Cigarette Industry Trade Association welcomed British Prime Minister David Cameron’s comments that e-cigarettes are a “legitimate path” for many people to quit smoking.

“It is extremely heartening to see recognition of the huge benefits that electronic cigarettes have provided to the U.K.’s current and former smokers,” said Tom Pruen, the group’s chief scientific officer.

Several U.S. senators sent a letter to Federal Trade Commission chairperson Edith Ramirez, urging the agency to investigate “unseemly” trade practices by some e-liquid retailers, after a report by child advocacy group First Focus found many cases of retailers marketing e-liquid products using trademarked images of popular candy, breakfast cereal and food and drinks brands.

The letter was signed by Ed Markey, Sherrod Brown, Jack Reed, Richard Blumenthal, Al Franken, Jeff Merkley, Barbara Boxer, Richard Durbin and Patty Murray.

Several health boards in Scotland are reviewing their policies on vaping devices in light of new Health Scotland guidance published in November, which recommended that cessation services support people who use e-cigarettes to quit smoking, reports the Scotsman.

Earlier this month, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, the largest health board in Scotland, announced that it was reversing its ban on e-cigarette use in hospital grounds.

PAX Labs said yesterday that it had received a US patent for the nicotine salt e-liquid formulation used in its JUUL electronic cigarette.

‘Unlike other products in the e-liquid space, JUUL uses nicotine salts found in leaf tobacco, rather than free-base nicotine, as its core ingredient,’ the company said in a note issued through PR Newswire.

‘JUUL’s special chemical process and easy-to-use micro-tank vaporizer deliver the right nicotine strength and vapor quality to provide a uniquely pleasing and consistent experience for adult smokers.

‘This patent exemplifies innovation that is occurring in independent vapor technology companies.’

The US Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter, of California, has urged the House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, to reconsider her party’s anti-electronic-cigarette stance and support changes to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rules, according to a piece by Guy Bentley in The Daily Caller.

After the passage of the spending bill on Friday, Pelosi circulated a document to colleagues claiming a host of victories for the Democrats. One such victory was killing a rider that would have changed the FDA’s rules requiring all electronic cigarette products launched after February 15, 2007, the so-called grandfather date, to undergo the costly Pre-Market Tobacco Applications process.

The vast majority of vaping products came onto the market after 2007 and small vaping businesses are unlikely to be able to afford to get their products approved. As a result, 99 percent of the industry could be wiped out.

Pelosi claimed the rider represented a ‘gift to the tobacco industry’ driven by Republican ideology.

Hunter, along with many electronic cigarette advocates, strongly disputes this point. In fact, pro-vaping groups argue that the FDA regulations will stifle one of the main challenges to traditional cigarettes and prop up the profits of big tobacco companies. In a letter sent on December 21 and seen by The Daily Caller News Foundation, Hunter wrote: ‘Ironically, by not supporting the commercial availability of e-cigarettes, with all their advancements in recent years, you are giving your support – whether intended or not – to traditional cigarettes and other products. Although you may not want to acknowledge it, e-cigarettes are a suitable alternative to cigarettes, and they could very well save my life, as well as the lives of so many Americans who are making their best effort to quit cigarettes. It is unfortunate that you are willing to deny these potentially life-saving products, and then boast about doing so.’

Malaysia’s National Fatwa Council, which delivers religious rulings, has declared the use of electronic cigarettes as haram (forbidden) for Muslims, according to a story in The Star.

Council chairman, Tan Sri Dr Abdul Shukor Husin, was quoted as saying that, ‘based on scientific studies and findings the council had found that the vaping trend would not bring benefit to users’.

“The council finds that consuming something that is harmful, whether direct[ly] or indirectly, purposely or not, could lead to harm or death; so this will not be allowed,” he told a press conference.

Abdul Shukor, who chaired the meeting, was quoted as saying that vaping could be considered as something that was distasteful (khabiith) in Islam and could be harmful to users.

Many vapers in the Malaysian state of Johor are switching to smoking pipes and hand-rolled cigarettes in the run-up to the state-wide ban on vaping products that is due to take effect in under two weeks time, according to a story in The Star.

One person quoted in the story, J. Jay Naidu, said that he had decided to swap vaping for pipe smoking after Johor’s ruler, Sultan Ibrahim Ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar, ordered a ban on the sale of vaping products in Johor from January 1.

“I was a heavy cigarette smoker before starting to vape but I do not want to start smoking cigarettes again,” he said.

“A friend introduced me to pipe smoking and with the assorted flavours available, I am keen on trying.”

googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-1392882089877-0′); Jay said it took him about a week to get used to smoking a pipe, which he described as “a better alternative to cigarettes or even vape”.

Meanwhile, Ahmad Rizal Syukri, 43, said that he had bought a cigarette-rolling machine because it offered a cheaper way of indulging in his habit.

“From January it would be difficult for vapers to get stocks on flavourings, so I opted to roll my own cigarettes,” he said. “Prices of cigarettes are just too high now, with most brands selling at RM17 for a packet of 20.”

Ahmad Rizal said also that some of his friends had resorted to buying cigarettes smuggled from Indonesia, which were available in some shops.

A major lobbying effort to save electronic cigarettes from falling victim to US federal regulation has failed, according to a story by Robert King for the Washington Examiner.

King said that a $1.1 trillion spending bill released on Wednesday did not include a rider to change the ‘grandfather’ date in upcoming federal regulations governing electronic cigarettes.

The grandfather date, February 15, 2007, which was originally established by the US Tobacco Control Act of 2009, signalled that any tobacco cigarette on the market before that date would not have to be the subject of burdensome applications for approval by the Food and Drug Administration, whereas those marketed after that date would be subjected to such applications.

Now, as part of its deeming regulations, the FDA has proposed that electronic cigarettes should be subject to the same grandfather date.

The difference is that whereas the tobacco cigarette market was well established with products by 2007, the electronic cigarette market was only just taking off.

So the decision means that a majority of the electronic cigarettes on US shelves will need to undergo burdensome applications that their suppliers are unlikely to be able to afford.

Some observers believe that the FDA requirements will kill off that part of the industry not supplied by the major tobacco manufacturers.

‘Industry insiders have said that the spending bill was the last best hope to address the grandfather date before the regulations were released,’ King wrote.