Category: Flavors

Portland 2nd Major City in Maine to Ban Flavored Vapes
Credit: Ianm35
The Portland City Council in the U.S. state of Maine voted unanimously Monday night to ban flavored tobacco products come June.
On Monday night, city councilors unanimously approved a ban after hours of testimony. Among those who spoke were several tobacco retailers, who argued that the ban would hurt their business, while customers would simply travel to other towns to purchase flavored products.
The council said this ban is only a step in the right direction. This makes Portland the second Maine city to ban flavored tobacco products, following in the footsteps of the Bangor City Council. The Bangor ban takes effect on June 1. The town of Brunswick plans to consider a ban later this month.
Maine lawmakers are also looking at a potential statewide ban of flavored tobacco. A bill about the subject is expected to come up for a vote sometime this spring, according to the Associated Press.
February 9, 2022
Washington County, Oregon Flavor Ban Placed on Hold
Credit: Vlad
A Washington County ban on retailers selling flavored vaping and other tobacco products has been put on hold and will be on the ballot in May after petitioners gathered signatures to stop the ban, the county announced.
Ordinance 878, passed November 2, 2021 by the Washington County Board of Commissioners, banned the sale of flavored tobacco products and flavored synthetic nicotine, according to news reports.
The ban went into effect December 2, 2021 but retailers had until January 1, 2022 to take the products off the shelves, when the ordinance was enforced.
However, enough signatures have been gathered to place the ordinance “on hold” while a Washington County Election official verifies the signatures to reverse the ban. The county has 15 days to verify the signatures.
This means Washington County retailers can now sell the flavored tobacco products and the ban will not be enforced while signatures are verified.
Meanwhile, the ordinance can still go back in place if there aren’t enough signatures, or if a majority of voters approve it in May.
February 7, 2022
Massachusetts: Flavor Ban Pushes Sales Next Door

Credit: Aboltin
Massachusetts’ ban of flavored tobacco products is not the success its proponents make it out to be, according to Ulrik Boesen of the Tax Foundation.
While a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that the sale of flavored tobacco in Massachusetts decreased more than in 27 control states in the wake of the state ban, the authors failed to consider the impact of cross-border trade.
According to Boesen, increased sales in neighboring New Hampshire and Rhode Island almost completely made up for the decrease in Massachusetts.
“The end result of the ban, in fact, is that Massachusetts is stuck with the societal costs associated with consumption, while the revenue from taxing flavored tobacco products is being raised in neighboring states,” Boesen wrote on the Tax Foundation’s website.
Looking at the New England region as a whole confirms that the flavor ban did not work as intended, according to Boesen. “Sales moved around rather than disappeared, and the ban evidently did not impact consumption,” he wrote. “Total sales for the region decreased by slightly more than 1 percent comparing the 12 months preceding the ban to the 12 months following the ban—largely comparable to the national sales trends.”
Last year, a study by the New England Convenience Store and Energy Marketers Association (NECSEMA), found excise tax lost income in Massachusetts from selling fewer menthol cigarettes alone amounted to $62 million in the first six months of the ban. No specific figures were given for electronic nicotine delivery systems in the release for that study.
The previous study also found that losses simply transferred to Massachusetts’ neighboring states. Cigarettes excise tax stamp sales dropped 23.9 percent in Massachusetts while New Hampshire gained $28,574,340 or 29.7 percent. Rhode Island gained $12,100,000 or 18.2 percent in excise taxes.
The previous study’s estimated Massachusetts loss including the sales tax is $73,008,000 while Rhode Island saw a gain of $14,066,740.
As the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other states consider Massachusetts’ example, Boesen urges lawmakers to think twice before banning flavored tobacco products. “The experience out of Massachusetts has not been a success story and other states should be wary of conducting their own expensive experiments,” he wrote.
February 4, 2022
Connecticut Governor Reiterates Need for Flavor Ban
When Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont pushed for Philip Morris to relocate its headquarters from New York City to Stamford last year, the move quickly drew rebuke from anti-tobacco activists. The activists said the move would be a test of the governor’s support for a ban on flavored vaping products in the state.
Now, just weeks away from the 2022 legislative session, Lamont said he’s committed to supporting a flavored vape ban but is not guaranteeing the proposal will be in his midterm budget plan, which is expected to be unveiled next month, according to CT Insider.
Credit: Andy Dean
“I’m ready to go on that,” Lamont said Tuesday, asked about his support for the ban after an unrelated event in Bloomfield. “I think it was the right thing to do last time. I think we proposed it once or twice. This time I’d like to work with the legislature to see if they’ll step up. I’ll sign it.”
Last year’s effort fell apart in the 11th hour after a diluted version of the ban was stripped from the massive budget implementer bill at the request of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. The group said at the time that the proposal was “riddled with major loopholes” and could have made Connecticut more subject to lawsuits from the vaping industry.
January 26, 2022
China Probes Founder of its Largest Flavor House, Huaboa
Huabao International Holdings, China’s largest e-liquid, tobacco flavoring and fragrance company, fell by more than 65 percent after Chinese regulators announced an investigation into the company’s majority shareholder, Chu Lam Yiu. The investigation is reportedly part of President Xi Jinping’s crackdown on corruption.
Credit: Nikolay N. Antonov
Chu, one of China’s richest self-made woman billionaire, with a net worth valued at $5.5 billion, is being investigated by authorities for “unspecified suspected disciplinary violations,” according to a Hong Kong stock exchange filing. The company said in a statement it was informed of the investigation by its subsidiary Huabao Flavours & Fragrances. “Up to the date of this announcement, the company has not been provided with any details of the nature of the suspected violations of Ms. Chu that is currently being investigated. The business operation of the group remains normal,” the company stated.
It added that the subsidiary received a case filing notice from the Leiyang City Supervisory Committee, indicating that the probe was being carried out by the Chinese Communist party and the local government, according to the Financial Times.
No further details were provided. The company declined to answer further questions, according to the story. Huabao, which Chu launched in her mid-20s in 1996, produces flavors and fragrances used by tobacco manufacturers, including for the e-cigarette or vaping market, as well as food companies. The company’s growth has catapulted Chu to rank among China’s richest people.
Like many high-profile Chinese businesspeople, she has also served on various industry and government advisory committees. The probe into Chu comes as China’s long-running anti-corruption campaign gathers momentum as Xi seeks to secure a historic third term.
January 24, 2022
Sponsors of Colorado Flavored Vapor Ban Bill Confident
Credit Renan
Selling flavored tobacco and nicotine products could soon be illegal in Colorado if lawmakers approve — and the governor signs — a bill prohibiting their sale.
House Bill 22-1064 would ban, starting July 1, the sale of all flavored tobacco and nicotine products, including vapes, e-cigarettes, menthol cigarettes, Hookah, chewing tobacco and cigars, in Colorado.
Under the proposal, any retailer caught selling flavored tobacco or nicotine products would be subject to the same penalties as a retailer caught selling to minors.
The measure’s sponsors are confident it would reach the finish line.
State Sen. Kevin Priola, one of the sponsors, said he was inspired to take action after his son started vaping around the age of 14. Priola said he would constantly search his son’s room for vapes and would have to drive to far-away dumpsters to throw them away to prevent him from digging the vapes out of the trash.
“It’s everywhere. Our experience isn’t unique,” Priola said. “You look at the data and realize a lot of these manufacturers — they use the flavors to get young kids hooked on it.”
Brian Fojtik, a Denver resident and representative of the National Association of Tobacco Outlets, said the ban is unnecessary because youth tobacco use has been decreasing for years.
“It’s shortsighted approach,” Fojtik said. “Prohibition proponents aren’t protecting kids. They’re shamefully using kids as political props, attempting to use legitimate concern about youth vaping to ban hundreds of products to adults that youth are not using that have nothing to do with vaping.”
In December, Denver, Colorado’s City Council approved a controversial ordinance that outlaws the sale of flavored vaping and other tobacco products, including menthol, beginning in July 2023.
January 22, 2022
Hawaiian Legislators Want to Ban Flavored Vapes in 2022
Credit: Timothy S. Donahue
The 2022 legislative session kicked off Wednesday, starting a nearly five-month process that will shape Hawaiʻi’s future. On Tuesday, legislators and advocates with the Keiki Caucus unveiled their priorities for the upcoming session.
The caucus will be introducing nearly 30 bills covering issues such as sex trafficking, after-school programs, and sex education. The group will also attempt to ban all flavored vaping products. State Rep. Scot Matayoshi said the bill will also make it harder for kids to purchase these products.
“95 percent of smokers start before the age of 21 and 81 percent of youth have tried a flavored nicotine product as their first tobacco product,” he said in an Hawai’i Public Radio report. “So these products really are a gateway into nicotine addiction.”
“What really hit home for me is that 31 percent of middle schoolers have tried vaping — and that’s the age of student that I used to teach when I was a DOE teacher. So that really struck a chord in me that a third of my students would have been vaping right now or would have tried a flavored vaping product,” he told Hawaiʻi Public Radio. “It’s really targeting kids. That’s what makes it very insidious. And it’s disguising nicotine, which is a highly addictive drug as a candy-flavored product.”
Matayoshi acknowledged past efforts to ban flavored tobacco products have fallen short but says he is hopeful for this year.
January 21, 2022
FDA Urged to Act on Remaining PMTA Submissions

Photo: New Africa
Several anti-tobacco groups have sent a letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration urging the agency to act on the outstanding premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs) and pushing for the denial of all flavored e-cigarette products.
It’s been more than four months since the FDA was supposed to decide which e-cigarette products can remain on the market, but the agency still hasn’t completed some of the reviews, including some of the bestselling e-cigarettes.
“We write to urge the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to expedite decisions on the premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs) still pending before the agency involving the flavored e-cigarette products, including those with menthol flavoring and, based on the best available scientific evidence, deny the pending applications for all non-tobacco flavored e-cigarettes in order to protect the nation’s young people from the health harms of these products,” the letter said.
The letter was signed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Heart Association and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, among others.
“Every day that FDA delays action, more of our kids remain at risk,” said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “While the FDA has ruled on applications from a lot of small companies, it hasn’t ruled on the applications from the large companies whose products are being used by a majority of kids.”
American Vaping Association President Gregory Conley pointed to data showing that youth vaping has been declining. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), use of e-cigarettes went down among middle and high school students from 2019 to 2020.
But even with the drop, the CDC said it “estimated that more than 2 million U.S. middle and high school students reported currently using e-cigarettes in 2021.”
January 20, 2022
Lithuania Bans Non-Tobacco Flavored E-Cigarettes

Photo: MNStudio
Lithuania will ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes and e-liquid cartridges starting in July, reports LRT. Tobacco flavors will remain legal.
The move is aimed at reducing sales of e-cigarettes that are growing increasingly popular in Lithuania.
On Jan. 18, Lithuanian lawmakers adopted amendments to the Law on Control of Tobacco, Tobacco Products and Related Products with 92 votes in favor, nine against and nine abstentions.
Lithuania already bans vaping hardware and cartridges containing vitamins and other additives that create an impression that they are good or do less damage to health.
The country also prohibits imports of e-cigarettes and e-liquid cartridges containing caffeine and other stimulating compounds linked to energy and vitality.
January 20, 2022
Cardiologist Warns Flavor Bans Will Put Lives at Risk

Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive
Restrictions on flavors in vaping products would be a drastic setback in the battle to reduce the 48,000 Canadian lives lost every year to smoking, according to a new independent study released on Jan. 11.
The review, covering more than 340 articles of evidence on e-cigarette flavorings, concludes that they are “inextricably linked” to smoking cessation and should be made more accessible and affordable to adults trying to quit.
“Well-regulated use of flavors can and should be considered as a valuable tool to help prevent disease and save the lives of adult smokers who cannot or will not quit by themselves or with other approved methods,” says report author Konstantinos Farsalinos, a cardiologist with a career devoted to tobacco harm reduction.
Farsalinos released his review at a webinar on Dec. 15, 2021.
The report, which examines the science, consumer insights, risks and regulatory considerations related to e-cigarettes, comes as Health Canada seeks to implement a ban on flavored vapes.
“We’re at a crossroads where policymakers are about to turn away from the evidence showing flavors help smokers transition to products that carry only a fraction of the risk of combustible cigarettes, thereby preventing disease and saving lives,” said Farsalinos.
“If bans were allowed, it would ultimately drive consumers to tampering, illicitly traded products, towards the black market, or back to traditional cigarettes.”
Electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) are now the overriding method of choice for smokers who want to quit, says the report. Studies show users of flavored e-cigarettes are up to three times more successful.
The review highlights the work of David Levy, who developed the Smoking and Vaping Model, which allows researchers to calculate the life-saving potential if all adult cigarette smokers were to switch to nicotine vaping products. Applied to Canada, 130,000 deaths could be avoided between 2012 and 2052 if Canadian smokers switched to vaping. This would save 2.5 million life years.
The report points out that flavors are used to improve the efficacy of nicotine replacement therapy products, such as lozenges and gums, which feature on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines.
“Surely, if the WHO considers flavorings an essential anti-smoking tool in nicotine lozenges, the same should apply for consumer acceptance in nicotine vaping products” said Farsalinos.
“Vaping is already delivering results in Canada by helping long-term smokers who have struggled to quit to finally give up the habit. To misguidedly deny desperate smokers their best chance of quitting is needlessly putting their health at risk.”
The report recommends better access and affordability for quitting tools such as flavored vapes “through proportionate, risk-based regulation and robust monitoring.”
Concerns about underage use of vapes would be best addressed by focusing on youth access at the point of sale and the elimination of flavor descriptors clearly targeting the young, it adds.
January 11, 2022