Category: News This Week

France is set to ban electronic cigarettes from public places and generally subject them to the same controls as tobacco cigarettes, according to a story in World Observer.

Health Minister Marisol Touraine was quoted as saying the electronic cigarette was not an ordinary product. However, she said also: “We need to apply the same measures as there are for tobacco”.

‘That means making sure it cannot be smoked in public places, that its sale is restricted to over 18s and that firms are not allowed to advertise the products.”

At present, electronic cigarettes may be used in France in bars, restaurants and other public places, from where traditional smoking has been banned for five years.

About 500,000 French people are thought to use electronic cigarettes.

A spokesman from the London-based market intelligence company Euromonitor International was quoted as saying that the electronic cigarette market was developing very rapidly in France.

“The two main advantages of e-cigarettes is that they’re seen as healthier than traditional cigarettes, and you can use them in settings like bars and restaurants, where traditional cigarettes aren’t allowed,” the spokesman said.

“A measure like a public ban would reduce the public perception of harmlessness and remove the practical benefit of smoking an e-cigarette in the first place. So it would be highly damaging to the industry.”

The organizers of the recently held Global Forum on Nicotine have announced that they will stage another such event in a year’s time.

The second Global Forum on Nicotine is scheduled to take place at the Marriott Hotel, Warsaw, on June 5–6, 2015.

The first GFN, which attracted about 200 people from 30 countries, was organized by U.K.-based Knowledge-Action-Change, whose co-director, Gerry Stimson, is professor emeritus at the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

It was held on June 27–28, also at the Marriott Hotel, Warsaw, where participants included scientists, researchers, representatives of tobacco- and e-cigarette manufacturers, vaper activists, at least one politician and tobacco control advocates.

The Aquitine Group has launched nationwide in the US Aqua-tine, which is described as a colorless, odorless homeopathic liquid nicotine formulation designed specifically to satisfy tobacco cravings.

According to a press not issued through PRNewswire, Aqua-tine is an alternative to traditional and electronic cigarettes, cigars and smokeless tobacco.

‘The product comes in airtight 2.4 ml individually sealed packets,’ the press note said. ‘The liquid contents of each Aqua-tine packet are mixed into a beverage of one’s choice and then consumed.’

The company said that up to two of the 2.4 ml packets could be consumed each hour, though it does not recommend using Aqua-tine with energy drinks or alcohol.

Smokio, described as the world’s first connected electronic cigarette that synchronizes automatically with users’ smartphones, has  formed a partnership with the Asian American Trade Association Council (AATAC), an organization designed to build partnerships between convenience stores and manufacturers.

“We are very proud to partner with AATAC to be able to offer Smokio to such a large number of retail outlets across the US,” said Alexandre Prot, co-founder of Smokio, in a press note. “Convenience stores are one of the most important channels for our company, as these types of stores are where a majority of electronic cigarettes are sold.”

Smokio is said to have been developed so as to synchronize automatically with users’ smartphones with the aim of monitoring consumption and tracking the health and economic benefits a user is experiencing by transitioning from tobacco cigarettes to electronic cigarettes.

A Swedish court has ruled that electronic cigarettes should be treated as pharmaceutical products subject to approval by the Swedish Medical Products Agency (Läkemedelsverket – MPA), according to a story in The Local.

The ruling means that it is illegal for these products to be sold in grocery and convenience stores.

“We will continue our oversight, which will result in more sales bans when the ruling becomes final,” said Martin Burman at the MPA.

In October, the MPA issued a sales ban on one of the biggest retailers in the electronic cigarette market.

The decision was appealed and several new sales outlets popped up during the Administrative   Court’s deliberations.

The court has now rejected the appeal and the MPA hopes that the decision will allow for greater control of the market.

“We have a good check on the major importers and will focus on imports,” said Burman. “Municipalities are able to conduct oversight of sales in small shops.”

The MPA seems not to be opposed to the concept of electronic cigarettes and apparently hopes that the ban will lead to new, safer products being launched on to the market.

“Those sold today are neither proven safe or effective,” said Burman.

“We believe that e-cigs are a great way to stop smoking but an approved product has to be developed first.”

A position statement on e-cigarettes issued  by a group of international lung health organizations has been strongly criticized by a leading U.S. health expert.

“Experts from the world’s leading lung organizations have released a position statement on electronic cigarettes, focusing on their potential adverse effects on human health and calling on governments to ban or restrict their use until their health impacts are better known,” according to a press note from the American College of Chest Physicians.

The position statement was issued by the Forum of International Respiratory Societies.

On his blog site, The rest of the story: Tobacco news analysis and commentary, Dr. Michael Siegel, a professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, said that in contrast to their position on e-cigarettes, the organizations did not express any problem with tobacco cigarettes remaining on the market. This was despite the fact that tobacco cigarettes each year killed millions of people worldwide, while e-cigarettes were not known to have killed a single person ever.

Siegel said the position statement had to be one of the most disgraceful moves of the year by any medical or public health group.

“Even the multinational tobacco companies do not have the gall to promote a ban on electronic cigarettes so that their deadly tobacco cigarettes will not be threatened by this potentially substantial competition,” he wrote on Friday. “In fact, the position of these supposed lung health groups is far more extreme than any Big Tobacco position, as the tobacco companies have entered the e-cigarette business and are not using their lobbying power to try to remove these products from the market.”

The full blog is at http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/disgrace-of-year-leading-lung-health.html.

Reynolds American Inc. (RAI) will acquire Lorillard for $27.4 billion. To help ease antitrust scrutiny that the deal may face, Imperial Tobacco has agreed to purchase the Kool, Salem, Winston, Maverick and Blu Ecigs brands for $7.1 billion, more than tripling its share of the U.S. cigarette market. Imperial will also acquire Lorillard’s manufacturing and R&D facilities in Greensboro, North Carolina and approximately 2,900 employees, including a national sales force.

Reynolds expects to have more than $11 billion in revenue and about $5 billion in operating income after the deal. RAI’s largest shareholder, British American Tobacco, supports the transaction and will maintain its 42 percent ownership in RAI through an investment of approximately $4.7 billion.

In addition, RAI and BAT have agreed in principle to pursue an ongoing technology-sharing initiative for the development and commercialization of “next-generation” tobacco products, including heat-not-burn cigarettes and vapor products.

Susan Cameron will continue as RAI’s president and CEO after completion of the deal. The company will remain headquartered in Winston-Salem. Murray Kessler, chairman, president and CEO of Lorillard, will join RAI’s board after the closing of the transaction.

“Reynolds American and Lorillard have complementary core strengths and the addition of Newport to our operating companies’ existing brand portfolios will enhance our ability to compete in the combustible cigarette and smokeless categories,” said Cameron. “We are also confident in R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co.’s digital vapor cigarette Vuse, which offers superior technology and has received very positive early results in its national rollout. This transaction will provide RAI with additional resources to invest in innovation, R&D and its operating companies’ brands.”

“We are proud of Lorillard’s record of shareholder value creation and operational success, and we view this transaction, which provides a significant premium to our shareholders, as the culmination of our efforts,” said Kessler.

“We are confident in the strategic and financial merits of these transactions,” said Nicandro Durante, CEO of BAT. “Additionally, we find the long-term prospects of this combination compelling, which is why we are making an additional investment in Reynolds American.”

Philip Morris International has purchased Nicocigs, a leading U.K.-based vapor company whose principal brand is Nicolites. The transaction is not subject to regulatory approval and is not material to PMI’s 2014 consolidated financial position.

“This acquisition is complementary to our previously announced agreement for the license and distribution of Altria Group’s e-vapor products,” said Drago Azinovic, PMI’s president, European Union region.

“In addition, it provides PMI with immediate access to, and a significant presence in, the growing e-vapor category in the U.K. market, as well as a strong retail presence, which further complements the current restructuring of our distribution arrangements in the U.K.”

Nicocigs was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Birmingham, U.K. The company employs a field force of approximately 40 sales representatives, and its products are distributed to more than 20,000 points of sale within the U.K.

Nicocigs 2014 April year-to-date retail share was 27.3 percent according to Nielsen.

Quitting smoking in the Philippines might soon become more expensive and, therefore, more difficult because the authorities there are considering the imposition of higher taxes on e-cigarettes, according to a story in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

While the benefits of e-cigarettes over tobacco cigarettes were still being debated, Commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares of the Bureau of Internal Revenue said tax-wise, both might be considered the same thing.

“[The question is] whether we can already cover [electronic cigarettes] with the present law because it’s just a different permutation of a cigarette,” she said. “It’s still a cigarette. That’s one way to tackle it.”

The use of e-cigarettes is marketed as being one way to help people quit smoking, but the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) last year urged President Benigno Aquino to ban advertisements that suggested e-cigarettes presented a safe way of quitting.

And some health advocates have pushed for a ban on e-cigarettes.

Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday warned the public against using e-cigarettes, which are prohibited in the country, according to a story in the Taipei Times.

The import or manufacture of these products constitutes a violation of pharmaceutical regulations and is punishable by a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

All of the e-cigarettes on the market were illicit because no permits allowing the manufacture or import of such products had been issued, said the FDA’s Northern Center section head, Wu Ming-mei, at a press conference in Taipei yesterday.

Wu said 525 agency people had inspected online stores, night markets and drug stores nationwide between March and last month in an effort to crack down on sales of e-cigarettes.

The agency had discovered 43 e-cigarettes, 28 of which had contained nicotine, seven of which did not contain nicotine and did not claim any therapeutic effects, four of which were being examined by local health departments and four of which had been referred to prosecutors for investigation, Wu said.

Thirty-seven of the 43 prohibited products were sold online, Wu added.