Category: News This Week

ESmoking WORLD, a leading distributor of e-cigarettes throughout the European market, has opened a manufacturing plant that will begin developing liquid nicotine for use in e-cigarettes by the end of April. The Polish company’s investment of approximately 5 million euros led to the construction of a state-of-the-art facility with the capacity to produce 4 million liquid nicotine packages per month.

In addition to manufacturing products for its network of over 900 eSmoking WORLD stores, the new plant will also manufacture nicotine liquids for OEM brands of other European e-cigarette distributors who stop purchasing products from Chinese liquid nicotine suppliers as a result of the implementation of Tobacco Products Directive regulations.

The manufacturing plant is one of the most modern technological plants of its type and includes original technical solutions and quality-control systems designed by a team of Polish experts from the eSmoking Institute in Poznan, which has researched the content of liquid nicotine and aerosols manufactured in e-cigarettes since 2013.

E-cigarettes are currently used by 1.8 million people in Poland, where the company is the largest supplier of the country’s e-cigarettes for the fast-moving consumer goods sales network and convenience stores.

Current electronic cigarette use among US middle- and high-school students tripled between 2013 and 2014, according to data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) and the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Findings from the 2014 National Youth Tobacco Survey show that current electronic cigarette use (use on at least one day in the past 30 days) among high school students increased from 4.5 percent in 2013 to 13.4 percent in 2014: from about 660,000 to about two million students, according to a CDCP press note issued through PRNewswire. Among middle school students, current electronic cigarette use more than tripled from 1.1 percent in 2013 to 3.9 percent in 2014: from about 120,000 to about 450,000 students.

This was said to be the first time since the survey started collecting data on electronic cigarettes in 2011 that current use of these products surpassed current use of every other tobacco product overall, including conventional cigarettes.

“We want parents to know that nicotine is dangerous for kids at any age, whether it’s an e-cigarette, hookah, cigarette or cigar,” said CDCP director Tom Frieden, MD, MPH. “Adolescence is a critical time for brain development. Nicotine exposure at a young age may cause lasting harm to brain development, promote addiction, and lead to sustained tobacco use.”

Hookah smoking use roughly doubled for middle- and high-school students, while cigarette use declined among high school students and remained unchanged for middle school students. Among high school students, current hookah use rose from 5.2 percent in 2013 (about 770,000 students) to 9.4 percent in 2014 (about 1.3 million students). Among middle school students, current hookah use rose from 1.1 percent in 2013 (120,000 students) to 2.5 percent in 2014 (280,000 students).

‘The increases in e-cigarette and hookah use offset declines in use of more traditional products such as cigarettes and cigars,’ the press note said. ‘There was no decline in overall tobacco use between 2011 and 2014. Overall rates of any tobacco product use were 24.6 percent for high school students and 7.7 percent for middle school students in 2014. In 2014, the products most commonly used by high school students were e-cigarettes (13.4 percent), hookah (9.4 percent), cigarettes (9.2 percent), cigars (8.2 percent), smokeless tobacco (5.5 percent), snus (1.9 percent) and pipes (1.5 percent).

‘Use of multiple tobacco products was common; nearly half of all middle and high school students who were current tobacco users used two or more types of tobacco products.

‘The products most commonly used by middle school students were e-cigarettes (3.9 percent), hookah (2.5 percent), cigarettes (2.5 percent), cigars (1.9 percent), smokeless tobacco (1.6 percent), and pipes (0.6 percent).’

Cigarettes, cigarette tobacco, roll-your-own tobacco and smokeless tobacco are currently subject to the FDA’s tobacco control authority and the agency is said to be finalizing rules that will bring additional tobacco products such as electronic cigarettes, hookahs and some or all cigars under that same authority.

“In today’s rapidly evolving tobacco marketplace, the surge in youth use of novel products like e-cigarettes forces us to confront the reality that the progress we have made in reducing youth cigarette smoking rates is being threatened,” said Mitch Zeller, JD, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. “These staggering increases in such a short time underscore why FDA intends to regulate these additional products to protect public health.”

The report says that further reducing youth tobacco use and initiation is achievable through regulation of the manufacturing, distribution, and marketing of tobacco products coupled with ‘proven strategies’, including the funding of tobacco control programs at CDCP-recommended levels, increasing prices of tobacco products, implementing and enforcing comprehensive smoke-free laws, and sustaining hard-hitting media campaigns.

The report says also that because the use of electronic cigarettes and hookahs is on the rise among high- and middle-school students, it is critical that comprehensive tobacco control and prevention strategies for youth focus on all tobacco products, and not just on traditional cigarettes.

The National Youth Tobacco Survey is a school-based, self-administered questionnaire given annually to middle- and high-school students in both public and private schools. It surveyed 22,000 students in 2014 and is said to be nationally representative.

Nu Mark, which as part of Altria develops innovative tobacco products, said yesterday that it had launched Vaper Rights (VaperRights.com), ‘a website for adult vapers who are interested in information and advocacy on public policy issues related to e-vapor products’.

‘Nu Mark believes that it is important for adult vapers to make their voices heard on issues that affect them,’ according to a note posted on Altria’s website.

‘Vaper Rights offers adult vapers information, tools and resources to help them get informed, involved and active on e-vapor legislative and regulatory issues.’

Electronic cigarettes are having a small positive space created for them within the UK’s general election debate.

Recently, Totally Wicked announced that it had launched a number of General Election E-liquids ahead of the elections due to be held on May 7.

The promotion is said to allow voters to register their political preference by choosing their favourite party political e-liquid, of which there are five: one each for the Conservative, Labour, Liberal, UKIP and Green parties.

Now, Max Pemberton, writing in the online Telegraph, has said that he hopes that after the election Nigel Farage, leader of UKIP, and Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberals, use whatever power they have to ensure that the electronic cigarette industry is not regulated out of existence.

‘The evidence is clear: tobacco kills, nicotine doesn’t,’ Pemberton wrote.

Pemberton mentioned Farage and Clegg because the former had started using electronic cigarettes as a way of cutting down on the number of traditional tobacco cigarettes he smoked, and the latter had made the switch to vaping completely.

Totally Wicked, which describes itself as Britain’s biggest independent e-cigarette and e-liquid company, has released a number of General Election E-liquids ahead of UK elections to be held on May 7.

The promotion is said to allow voters to register their political preference by choosing their favourite party political e-liquid.

“While everyone is following the official polls we thought we would launch a poll of our own to see how the UK’s 2.1 million vapers will vote,” said Totally Wicked MD Fraser Cropper.

“Our Election E-liquids put some fun into the election campaign and the e-liquid that achieves the highest sales will be elected as a permanent new flavour in our world famous Red Label range.

“We will be updating our poll daily so that everyone can see which political e-liquid is registering the most sales.”

There are e-liquids for the Conservative, Labour, Liberal, UKIP and Green parties.

For instance, the Labour Party’s e-liquid, [Ed] Miliband’s Rocky Road, is described as having a minty, fruity flavour, with a hint of pear drops that ‘will have you reminiscing about the Great British seaside and sand in places it shouldn’t go’.

Health authorities in South Korea have concluded that vaping electronic cigarettes is not safe, according to a story in The Korea Times.

The National Evidence-based Healthcare Collaborating Agency, which is under the wing of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said Monday that electronic cigarettes contained carcinogenic substances, though it conceded that the amounts of those substances might be lower than those in traditional cigarettes.

‘Some studies also show e-cigarettes can contain harmful materials that do not exist in ordinary cigarettes, such as phthalate,’ it said.

‘Also, when the users control the amount of nicotine solution, it is difficult to predict how much nicotine the people consume. So we can’t say that e-cigarettes are safe from nicotine exposure.’

The agency said it had received help from 11 ‘experts’ who took part in an agency discussion in February.

The agency further said that there were not enough medical grounds to claim that electronic cigarettes were able to help people to quit smoking, and that it was ‘improper’ to advertise the devices as quit-smoking aids.

There was a call for more discussions so as to prepare regulations on electronic cigarettes: such as on the level of a nicotine solution’s concentration and on the kinds of permitted additives.

“The nation needs more studies about the reality of e-cigarette use, its safety and effect in quitting or reducing smoking,’ the agency reportedly said.

“But such studies will have to exclude commercially interested parties.”

TDC has launched a new online platform for its e-cigarette machinery portfolio: www.ecigmachinery.com. Customers and stakeholders now have direct access to all that the ITM Group has to offer in terms of e-cigarettes.

Among other things, the website contains information about TDC’s Genesis machinery and about the company’s view on next-generation e-cigarette machinery. A blog on e-cigarette news is available, as well.

As a bonus, TDC will start publishing a free, bi-monthly online magazine about the e-cigarette industry, E-Cig by TDC.

The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is launching its latest round of graphic anti-smoking messages, and this time it is including vaping in the mix.

According to a story by John Tozzi for Bloomberg, the campaign expands on the CDC’s three-year-old ‘Tips From Former Smokers’ series, which enlists real people who’ve been ravaged by smoking.

Meanwhile, a story by Steven Reinberg for HealthDay quoted the CDC director, Dr. Tom Frieden, as saying the messages would save lives and money.

Most US smokers wanted to quit, he said, and the new messages would help them do so.

But Frieden stressed that the use of electronic cigarettes was a problematic way to quit smoking.

“If an e-cigarette helps an individual to quit smoking for good, that’s a good thing,” he said.

“But many children are using e-cigarettes and getting hooked on nicotine, and that’s an addiction that can stay with you for life.

“Many adults who think they are going to get off cigarettes by using e-cigarettes are actually continuing to smoke, and that does more harm than good.”

Nationally, about three in four adult electronic cigarette users smoke cigarettes too, according to the CDC.

A US public health expert is aiming to identify the worst e-cigarette lie, and competition is fierce.

But while this exercise has about it an air of levity; the selection criteria indicate the seriousness behind it:

1)      the extent of the misinformation provided to the public about e-cigarettes and;

2) the amount of probably damage to the public’s health resulting from the misinformation.

The Worst E-Cigarette Lie Championship can be accessed on the Rest of the Story blog, which is written by Dr. Siegel is a Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health.

California public health officials yesterday launched an ‘information campaign’ that they hope will erode the growing popularity of electronic cigarettes, according to a story in the San Bernadino County Sun.

Dr. Karen Smith, director of the California Department of Public Health, was quoted as saying in a statement that, since 1990, California had been a world leader in tobacco-use prevention and cessation.

But the aggressive marketing and escalating use of e-cigarettes threatened to erode that progress for both teenagers and adults, Smith said.

In January, public health officials published an ‘advisory’ on the risks associated with electronic cigarettes. It said, in part, that while several studies had found lower levels of carcinogens in electronic cigarette aerosols than in the smoke from traditional tobacco cigarettes, both had been found to contain at least 10 chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects and other reproductive harm.

The information campaign is due to continue through June on social media, television and billboards, and at some movie theaters.

But some believe the campaign is not providing ‘information’. “This campaign is nothing more than propaganda, with state bureaucrats more concerned with tax revenues than helping 3.6 million Californians quit smoking,” said Gregory Conley, president of the New Jersey-based American Vaping Association, which advocates for small- and medium-sized vaping and electronic cigarette businesses.

Conley is not happy either that the campaign alleges that the tobacco industry is pulling the strings in the electronic cigarette industry. The industry was neither created nor is dominated by the tobacco industry, he said.

There were 2,000 vape businesses in California that had helped countless Californian smokers to quit, he added.