Category: News This Week

Tobacco cigarette imports into South Korea fell between 2013 and 2014 but, at the same time, electronic-cigarette imports rose sharply as smokers tried to kick their habit before the imposition of a huge, tax-induced price increase on January 1, according to a story in The Korea Herald citing customs office figures.

The Korea Customs Service (KCS) said that the value of cigarette imports had dropped by 14.4 percent between 2013 and 2014, from US$18.57 million to $15.90 million.

Volume imports were down by 15.4 percent from 973 tons to 823 tons.

Singapore was the source for 33.2 percent of Korea’s cigarette imports and Germany was the source of 21 percent; while Lithuania, Switzerland and Malaysia made up the other countries in the list of the top five suppliers.

Meanwhile, the value of electronic-cigarette imports increased by 342 percent year on year to $10.14 million.

At the same time, the volume of electronic-cigarette imports increased by 348.2 percent to 138 tons.

The customs office said that of the electronic cigarettes imported last year, 75.4 percent were brought into the country during the fourth quarter, when the government’s taxation plans were made public.

Ninety six percent of the electronic cigarettes imported into Korea originated in China.

South Korea’s anti-forces are having to fight a rearguard action as their success in getting the government to impose an eye-watering tax increase at the beginning of this year is creating a surge in interest in electronic cigarettes.

An idea of the state of panic that is being created by these devices can be judge from media reports. The Korea Times managed to find a house in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang Province, where an electronic cigarette had exploded while being charged overnight. Nobody was hurt and nothing, apart from the electronic cigarette, was damaged.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare is said now to be focusing on the safety of electronic cigarettes. “We found that the gas emitted by electronic cigarettes contains nicotine twice as much as in a traditional cigarette,” Ryu Geun-hyeok, the ministry’s bureau chief of health policy, was quoted as saying.

“Inhaling an e-cigarette 150 times consecutively could even kill you,” he added.

Ryu was later quoted as saying that the ministry ‘will continue to work hard to prevent health damage caused by second-hand smoking from e-cigarettes’.

But smokers seem to be a little savvier than the ministry is. According to the ministry, 11 percent of males and six percent of females have smoked an e-cigarette at least once in their lifetime, and these numbers are expected ‘to shoot up in the near future’.

A just-released survey on tobacco habits and attitudes in the US has found that most college graduates have never tried a cigarette.

This is one of the findings of a national poll of more than 1,000 US American adults conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs on behalf of Swedish Match, a Sweden-based tobacco company that is advocating a world without cigarettes.

The survey found that 21 percent of US Americans said they were current smokers, with 23 percent declaring that they had quit the habit and 42 percent replying that they had never had a cigarette, a figure that jumps to 54 percent among college graduates.
Only 12 percent of those who completed college said they smoked.

The highest rates of smoking were among 18-34-year-olds (23 percent), just ahead of 35-54-year-olds (22 percent) and much higher than those 55 and older (17 percent).
Among those who quit smoking, 56 percent said they did so due to health fears, while 32 percent said they gave up cigarettes because of their price.
Smokers are largely transparent about their tobacco use. Only 15 percent of those who do or did smoke said they hid/hide the habit from their co-workers, though among 18-34 year-old smokers this percentage rises to 36 percent.

“This survey underscores the significant generational and educational differences in Americans’ attitudes toward smoking,” said Chris Lemmon, senior brand manager at Swedish Match.
“Curiously, the smoking rates among Millennials – the generation that has grown up with anti-smoking messages – are actually higher than [among] older age groups, and yet one in three of them hide their cigarette use at work, which likely speaks to the stigma still associated with smoking.”

Meanwhile, attitudes toward electronic cigarettes seem to be evolving. While 58 percent of smokers surveyed said that there was no stigma associated with electronic cigarette use, 37 percent of smokers said they didn’t use electronic cigarettes because their health impacts were still unknown. Another 18 percent of smokers believed electronic cigarettes were just a fad.

Twenty eight percent of the smokers surveyed said they used electronic cigarettes.

Alchem International has installed new equipment at its Houston, Texas, USA, factory and is dramatically increasing the production of Nicselect nicotine blends. Customers can purchase Nicselect nicotine blends in five-gallon pails, 55-gallon drums and in new 275-gallon totes.

“Few can offer nicotine blends in drums, let alone totes,” says Tom Schrier, Alchem International’s vice president of business development and sales. “The growth of the e-juice market means many companies are buying nicotine in drum quantities.

“Offering totes was the next logical step; they’re easier to handle and are also more cost-effective. The addition of totes is just another sign of our capability to satisfy the growing needs of this rapidly growing market,” Schrier says.

According to Alchem International, Nicselect blends contain all premium USP and kosher-grade ingredients, blended in the U.S at a GMP- and ISO9001-certified facility. Every batch carries its own certificate of analysis and is packed into leak-proof, secure containers to maintain freshness.

Since pure liquid nicotine is hazardous, most e-juice makers prefer working with nicotine blends, according to Schrier. Nicselect contains 10 percent pure liquid nicotine and 90 percent of propylene glycol (PG) or vegetable glycerin (VG).

PG is preferred by some manufacturers for its ability to blend with other flavors, while vapor-producing VG has grown in popularity with so-called “cloud chasers,” vapers who enjoy blowing large clouds of steam. Many e-juice makers mix PG and VG together with a variety of food-grade flavorings to create signature e-liquids.

While nicotine has a very long shelf life, customers still want the blends to be as fresh as possible, says Schrier. “We replace the oxygen with inert gas in the totes to minimize oxidation and color change,” he explains.

Naturally extracted from tobacco plants in Alchem International’s FDA-inspected facility, Nicselect exceeds the standards set forth by the U.S. Pharmacopeia, the official authority that regulates prescription and health care products manufactured or sold in the U.S.

The government of Nova Scotia, Canada, is due to consult this month and next on what flavors should be banned from inclusion in tobacco products, and whether any bans should be extended to include electronic cigarette liquids, according to a CBC News story.

In November, a proposed law that would have extended a ban on tobacco flavors to e-juice came under fire from members of the public, and the government quickly backtracked.
Members of the law amendments committee were said to have heard or received emails from dozens of Nova Scotians opposed to the ban on flavoured e-juice.

Subsequently, the Liberal party members of the committee voted to delete the sections of the bill that would have banned flavoured tobacco and e-juice.

Electronic cigarettes, sports nutrition bars and gluten and dairy-free food were the fastest growing products sold in UK supermarkets and grocers during the last year, according to a story by Simon Neville for The Independent, citing new data from Nielsen.

Nielsen reported that electronic cigarette sales increased by 50.0 percent year-on-year, while sales of nicotine replacement products, such as patches and gum, dropped by 6.1 percent.

The electronic cigarette market, which is currently estimated to be worth £91.3 million a year, is expected to be worth £340 million next year.

Supermarkets have been particularly keen to cash in on the craze, partly because tobacco counter displays are banned at larger stores.

And pharmacies, too, have started selling the products for the first time.

Meanwhile, landlords have revealed that electronic cigarette shops are some of the fastest-growing outlets on the high street.

Adam Leyland, editor of industry magazine The Grocer, who analysed the Nielsen data, said that Ten Motives had overtaken E-Lites as the leading brand in the UK.

Check out the story here.

With the price of cigarettes set to be increased sharply at the beginning of next year, KT&G is making forays into the electronic cigarette market, according to a story in The Korea Economic Daily.

Quoting industry sources on December 23, the Daily said that KT&G had almost completed preparation for a launch on to the electronic cigarette market and was now only fine-tuning the date of release.

One key factor behind KT&G’s decision to enter this market has been the higher-than-expected growth of the domestic electronic cigarette market ahead of the cigarette price hike.

Japan Tobacco International and British American Tobacco have already released their own electronic cigarette brands.

Meanwhile, the Daily reported in a separate story that Handok Pharmaceutical was benefiting from ‘quit smoking fever’ ahead of the cigarette tax and price increase on January 1.

Handok was the biggest beneficiary of the current anti-smoking environment because it was ‘currently claiming as much as 66 percent of the nicotine patch market with its Nicostop brand’.

Three leading US Democrats have written to 29 state attorneys general urging them to classify electronic cigarettes as cigarettes under the Master Settlement Agreement.

‘This action would have an immediate and much needed impact because it would stop the e-cigarette makers from marketing their products in ways that are appealing to kids,’ said the December 19 letter signed by Rep. Henry A. Waxman, Sen. Dick Durbin, and Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr.

‘Bringing e-cigarettes under the MSA would not remove them from the market or make them unavailable to adults who may see them as a safer alternative to conventional cigarettes.

‘But it would bar the manufacturers from targeting youth, using cartoons and youth-oriented sponsorships to promote their products, and advertising on outdoor billboards.’

The 29 attorneys general targeted by the December 19 letter were those who, in a joint letter of August 8, had supported the Food and Drug Administration’s proposed rule that would bring e-cigarettes under its control, and that suggested ways in which the proposal should be strengthened in key ways, such as prohibiting characterizing flavors in newly deemed tobacco products.

The December 19 letter writers expressed concern that it could be months before the FDA finalized the proposed rule and urge the attorney generals to use their authority under the MSA to take immediate action.

Members of Congress first raised the idea of action under the MSA in a letter to attorneys general dated February 12.

The International Hookah and Vapor Fair 2015 is due to be held at Frankfurt, Germany, on May 2-3.

HookahFair, a smoking-product event that was held for the second time this year, spawned VaporFair, a vaping-product event, and the two will be held together next year.

The organizers say that the hookah and vapour businesses have ‘several interfaces and thus can benefit from each other’.

Check out the brochure of the Frankfurt Fair here.

The e-cigarette sales network, eSmokingWORLD, has said that it will take legal action against the French news agency AFP over a story headlined, E-cigarettes ten times more carcinogenic than ordinary cigarettes.

In a press note, eSmokingWORLD said that while describing the results of research conducted by Japanese scientists of the National Institute for Public Health, AFP had said: ‘Electronic cigarette vapours contain carcinogenic substances in quantities which are frequently much greater than in the case of tobacco smoke’.

‘The message of the agency has become a source of many publications on this subject, which rapidly appeared in the European media,’ said eSmokingWORLD.

Two questions, presumably based directly or indirectly on the AFP report have been asked in the European Parliament by Marlene Mizzi, a Maltese politician and Member of the EU Parliament.

In the preamble to her questions, Mizzi said that researchers had found that electronic cigarettes contained 10 times more cancer-causing chemicals than did regular cigarettes.

She asked:

1. Can the Commission clarify whether this estimate is correct?

2. If so, is the Commission considering banning e-cigarettes from the EU market?

eSmokingWORLD said it was afraid the story by AFP might have a negative impact on the opinions of governmental institutions, which were working on the implementation of the new Tobacco Products Directive.