Fire chiefs in the United Arab Emirates have warned drivers that leaving e-cigarettes and vaping devices in a vehicle could lead to a fire as temperatures rise during the summer. It was over 103 degrees Fahrenheit in Dubai on June 15.
Electronic nicotine-delivery systems (ENDS) devices and other battery-powered gadgets can be extremely susceptible to heat, causing them to melt and catch fire, the chiefs stated.
In the first three months of this year, Dubai’s emergency services responded to 94 reports of blazes involving cars, buses and trucks for several factors including electronic devices overheating. Everyday household items such as lighters, batteries, power banks, e-scooters, electric cigarettes, perfume bottles and gas cans can start fires if left in cars during extreme heat.
Lithium-ion batteries can catch fire as they are extremely sensitive to high temperatures and are found in many common devices such as e-cigarettes, mobile phones, e-scooters and power banks.
“Authorities warn against keeping all objects that have the ability to ignite such as the items mentioned,” Thomas Edelman, managing director of Road Safety UAE, told The National.
“This is the reason why airlines are very cautious about these items. Imagine how much warmer batteries can get when left inside cars during the hotter weather. They can react and potentially explode which poses great danger,” said Edelman. “When temperatures rise, gases can form more easily and a spark can basically ignite those gases and lead to a fire.”
ANYX, a new vape brand powered by the Aspire Group, has announced it will release its first pod system e-cigarette globally on June 16, 2022.
“Despite being a new brand in the market, ANYX is backed by years of experience and industry expertise. In addition to well-known technical experts in the e-cigarette industry, ANYX has built up a team of talents who previously worked for top companies in the sectors of internet, consumer electronics, and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) , allowing it to secure tens of millions of dollars in funding at its inception,” a press release states.
ANYX has accrued more than 1,500 industry patents and established 120 production lines covering three dedicated production bases. It also boasts a strong R&D team of over 120 engineers, advanced production, sales and digital marketing capabilities, according to the release.
As vaping technology grows in popularity, more people are looking for products that offer enjoyment and sensory pleasure. In line with its mission to create products with social features and build a user-driven brand, ANYX hopes to use its products to strengthen the bonds amongst global vaping enthusiasts and promote communication for a more diverse, pleasant, on-trend and energizing experience.
Smoker rights groups on April 21 protested outside the legislature in Taipei against a proposal to ban e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products (HTPs), reports The Taipei Times.
The government must respect the rights of smokers, they said, adding that it should offer people choices, instead of instituting a ban.
The protest was in response to the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee considering changes to the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act that would ban e-cigarettes and limit HTPs. Amendments to the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act to restrict e-cigarettes are also be considered by the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee.
One protester said that vaping devices, HTPs and flavored cigarettes should be regulated like regular cigarettes, with taxes and age restrictions for purchase.
“HTPs and e-cigarettes should be classified as tobacco products, just like the cigarettes sold at convenience stores,” the protester was quoted as saying by The Taipei Times. “We agree that the government should impose restrictions and rules, not permit sale to minors, no advertising, no online purchase and have health warnings.”
Many countries continue to limit access or have outright banned vaping and e-cigarette products.
By Norm Bour
As much as we would like to think that vaping and the sale of vape products is universally accepted, that is not the case. The world has changed a lot over the past 10 years, and the medical community’s support has carried some weight, but old customs and rituals die hard. Here is an overview of where the status of vape remains iffy.
Turkey
You can use vape products where tobacco is permitted, but the Turkish government is vehemently anti-vape—regardless of the medical documentation that shows the advantages of vaping over combustible cigarettes. Since 2009, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has led the campaign against all tobacco products, including cigarettes, regardless of their popularity.
Turkey banned the import of e-cigarettes and related products on Feb. 25, 2020. The ban covers e-cigarettes, accessories, spare parts and solutions (e-liquids) as well as e-cigarette products that use heating or incineration, like electronic hookahs. The country had already banned the sale of electronic cigarettes.
Erdogan’s aggressive posture has resulted in the seizure of almost 18 million packs of cigarettes in 2020 and 140,000 e-cigarettes. The government offers a hotline for people to call and blow the whistle on illegal products, and 1,500 teams scour the country doing random inspections. For vapers, the online channel remains open, and there are many foreigners who vape in the street without concern.
India
With a population of 1.38 billion, India has banned vaping products since 2019. With an estimated 120 million people lighting up, India has the dubious honor of having 12 percent of the world’s cigarette smokers. The country loses about 1 million people per year to tobacco-related illnesses.
India’s aggressive anti-smoking posture has proven successful as the number of smokers has dropped significantly over the past 20 years. In 2000, it was estimated that one-third of the male population smoked, with 5.7 percent of the female population smoking. A decade later, those numbers had dropped to 23 percent for men and 2.5 percent for women. Currently, an estimated 14 percent of the country’s population smokes.
With a 28 percent luxury tax on tobacco, there are huge incentives to quitting smoking in India. The bad news is that vaping products are lumped into the tobacco pile, but evidence for the relative safety of e-cigarettes is gaining ground. The anti-vape campaign was geared toward the young smokers, but there may be light at the end of this tunnel.
Under the guise of preventing potential health risks to the country’s youth, India banned the “import, manufacture, sale, advertisement, storage and distribution” of e-cigarettes in September 2019. However, according to Research and Markets, the Indian e-cigarette market reached a value of $7.8 million in 2018, and it is further predicted to witness a CAGR of 26.4 percent during the forecast period (2019-2024) even with the ban in place.
There is very little regulatory enforcement for vaping products in India. Vaping products are even being displayed on some store shelves. A few of the biggest paanwalas in the cosmopolitan cities reportedly sell Juul and other high-end hardware. It’s not plainly obvious everywhere, and the specialist “vape only” vendors are all clandestine, according to several sources. Most of the specialists are discerning and do not entertain new customers without a reference from a known customer.
Australia and New Zealand
Australia has been a teeter-totter in terms of vapor regulations. In October of 2021, it declared all nicotine products illegal without a doctor’s prescription. The prescription is intended only for the patient and may not be shared or sold. The sole light at the end of this this tunnel is that nicotine- free products are excluded from this heavy-handed ban.
Devices and liquids can be sold in all eight territories, though advertising and promotion is legal in some but illegal in others. Spotty monitoring and enforcement have resulted in a lively online trade in vapor products.
Compared to many countries, the perceived “problems” of youth smoking are modest with percentages of vapers and smokers under 20 percent among different age groups. According to 2021 research from the Australian National University, about 16 percent of current e-cigarette users in Australia are non-smokers who have never inhaled tobacco, while the remaining third are ex-smokers. There are about 400,000 e-cigarette users in Australia.
While often lumped in with Australia by outsiders, New Zealand has followed its own, more reasonable, path in vapor regulation. The small island country of just 5 million people estimates that 11.6 percent of its population smokes. Its priority is on reducing underage vaping and smoking.
The Middle East
Excluding the North African countries sometimes included in the Middle East, this part of the world is home to almost 0.5 billion people and encompasses about 20 percent of the Muslim world. While Islam frowns on tobacco use, many Muslim countries have high smoking rates. While tobacco use has been grudgingly tolerated, vaping was initially disdained, with some countries banning the practice. That is changing, as was evidenced in September 2021 when the World Vape Show was held in Dubai, which has now legalized vaping.
Tim Phillips, managing director of ECigIntelligence, says the United Arab Emirates is leading the Middle East in vape product sales and access, but considering it started from scratch, the numbers are still small. As tobacco-oriented as this part of the world is, buyers prefer flavored liquids with three out of four sales being sweeter fruit flavors followed by menthol flavors.
Across the Middle East, the rules are in constant flux. Currently, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain offer legalized vape, but Qatar and Oman do not. Market intelligence company Mordor Intelligence projects a growth rate of almost 10 percent through 2025 in the regional vapor market.
In late 2020, a Euromonitor International study found only a very small minority of smokers used e-cigarettes to quit smoking in the Middle East region. Analysts found just 1.8 percent of smokers in the region took up alternatives to conventional cigarettes in 2020. The figure is up from 1.4 percent in 2017 but it remains significantly low when compared to other parts of the world.
South America/Latin America
On the other side of the globe, South America’s 433 million people also face an ever-changing landscape of vaping laws. The largest country, Brazil, allows vaping, with some restrictions in enclosed areas. Sales are highly regulated by the Health Surveillance Agency, which closely monitors underage sales, though enforcement of sales and production is weak.
No. 2 by population, Argentina has banned vaping for a decade and shows no sign of changing its policy. The ban extends to nicotine-free products, and there are virtually no sales, production or importation of e-cigarettes. Ironically, Argentina reportedly accounts for as much as 15 percent of total tobacco consumption in South America.
Contrary to some of its neighbors, Peru has been open-minded about vaping—to the point where the government appears to turn a blind eye to the practice. With an estimated 2.3 million smokers—just under 10 percent of the population—Peru has no official numbers on the vapers and vape products. It seems the country has higher priorities and has decided to leave vapers alone.
According to Mordor Intelligence, as enforcement of e-cigarette laws are often open to local authorities, vape shops are often found in places where they are technically illegal in the region. In the entire region only five countries allow the legal sale of e-cigarettes: Chile, Ecuador, Honduras, Paraguay, and Costa Rica.
Following the recent enactment of smoke-free laws in Paraguay, every South American country has now banned vaping and smoking in most public places. Under Decree No. 4624, approved by Paraguay’s presidency on Dec. 29, consuming lit, heated, or electronic tobacco products is permitted only in uncrowded open air public spaces that are not transit areas for nonsmokers.
Norm Bour is the founder of VapeMentors and works with vape businesses worldwide. He can be reached at norm@VapeMentors.com
Bidi Vapor’s Bidi Stick has become the fastest-growing closed system vaping product in the U.S., the company announced.
Based on Goldman Sachs’ recent equity research report on the Nielsen data for total nicotine volumes, the Bidi Stick is now the second-largest disposable electronic nicotine-delivery system (ENDS) offering based on retail sales for the last 52-week period.
The Bidi Stick increased its absolute-dollar market share of the disposable ENDS market share from 7.4 percent during the 52-week period ending on Oct. 27, 2020, to 24.2 percent of retail sales during the 52-week period ending on Nov. 28, 2020.
According to the Goldman report, total dollar sales growth has surged to 1,845 percent to lead the category for the 12-week period ended Nov. 28, 2020.
“The Bidi Stick is an electronic nicotine-delivery system designed for current adult smokers and is manufactured and marketed with sustainability and socially responsible practices in mind,” said company founder and CEO Niraj Patel.
“We even incentivize our customers to recycle with a one-of-a-kind rewards program. We are also hyper-vigilant in making sure the Bidi Stick does not get into the hands of young people but only those adult smokers over 21 looking for alternatives to cigarettes.”
The U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) has welcomed new research that has found that vaping is 70 percent more effective in helping smokers to quit cigarettes than nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), such as patches and gum.
The study undertaken by Cochrane, which reviewed 50 studies across the world, with more than 12,000 participants, also showed that an additional 60 percent could potentially quit smoking with nicotine containing electronic cigarettes. In addition, the review found that “there was no evidence that people using nicotine containing e-cigarettes reported more serious health problems than people using nicotine-free e-cigarettes, NRT or no therapy at all.”
John Dunne
John Dunne, director general at the UKVIA, said the findings add to a growing catalogue of evidence supporting vaping’s role in smoking cessation.
“Quitting cigarettes can be difficult, which is why adult smokers must have access to the most effective tools available,” he said. “This review underlines the enormous potential vaping holds for public health, particularly as the government aims for a smoke-free U.K. by the end of the decade. We call on all stakeholders, from policymakers to health professionals, to seize the opportunity which vaping represents, and to give smokers the best chance of quitting successfully.”
According to Dunne, the recent review builds on research by the National Institute of Health Research and Cancer Research UK, which shows that vaping was far more effective than nicotine replacement therapy products.
The number of vapers in the U.K. declined by 400,000 since last year, despite mounting evidence that e-cigarettes are effective smoking-cessation aids, according to a study commissioned by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).
The Health Charity blames a “misguided belief vaping is just as harmful as cigarettes.”
“About a third of smokers have never even tried an e-cigarette, and less than 20 percent are currently using one,” said Deborah Arnott, CEO of ASH, in a statement. “If many more smokers could be encouraged to give e-cigarettes a go, the latest evidence indicates that many more might successfully quit.”
Only 39 percent of smokers in the country believe vaping is less harmful than smoking combustible cigarettes. This year, there were 3.2 million e-cigarette users in the country, down from 3.6 million in 2019.
A review conducted by Cochrane suggests vaping could help more people stop smoking.
“There is now evidence that electronic cigarettes with nicotine are likely to increase the chances of quitting [smoking] successfully compared to nicotine gum or patches,” said Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, an expert at the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group who co-led the review.
The review included evidence from 50 studies around the world. There was no clear evidence of serious harm resulting from nicotine-containing e-cigarettes, but since the review used a relatively small number of studies, the evidence is still uncertain.
“Scientific consensus holds that electronic cigarettes are considerably less harmful than traditional cigarettes but are not risk-free,” Hartmann-Boyce said.
RELX Opens Bioscience Lab to Enhance E-Cigarette Research
RELX Technology has started operations at its newly established e-cigarette bioscience laboratory to conduct systematic research on the effects of e-cigarettes through in vivo and in vitro tests, as well as conduct pre-clinical safety assessments.
Located in Shenzhen, China, the bioscience laboratory is currently conducting research on the impact of RELX products on animal cardiovascular, respiratory, and nervous systems, to better carry out a comprehensive impact evaluation of vapor products.
“Science is the foundation of trust. As the industry leader, we have the responsibility to expand the borders of e-cigarette science and explore the unknown,” said Kate Wang, founder and CEO of RELX, in a statement.
At the company’s recent lab open day, RELX also announced its plan to establish a “1+4” scientific research approach—i.e. anchored by platform development, followed by toxicological assessment, clinical assessment, perception behavior study and long-term assessment.
“E-cigarettes are sometimes viewed with suspicion because we have incomplete knowledge,” said Yilong Wen, RELX Co-founder and head of science, research and development and supply chain, “The RELX bioscience lab’s mission is to explore the unknown. We want to collect evidence through a scientific approach and strive to prove the potential for e-cigarettes to be less harmful, and in doing so, provide users the option to choose an alternative.”
To ensure the reliability and quality of its products, RELX established a chemical and physical laboratory in 2018. The laboratory is certified by the internationally recognized China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment.
RELX is currently conducting research projects on different topics with six universities including the Sun Yat-sen University and Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, two hospitals and nine scientific research institutions.
Next Generation Labs, a producer of synthetic nicotine, is advising the vape industry to be wary of recent claims by numerous Chinese manufacturers regarding the availability of synthetic nicotine for use in recreational adult vaping and other nicotine containing products.
According to Next Generation Labs, many of these brands are potentially violating the company’s nicotine manufacturing process patent or trademarks, or are counterfeit, fake, mislabeled, or are potentially misrepresenting their synthetic base material as being “not made or derived from tobacco leaf, stem, stalk, root, flowers or waste,” when they actually are tobacco-derived.
Over the past six years, Next Generation Labs has invested heavily in strengthening its intellectual property worldwide. In a press note, the company said it will act against any company that may violate its process patents for the manufacture of synthetic nicotine.
Electronic cigarettes are significantly less harmful than smoking but are not risk-free, a report from the Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT) has concluded.
COT, which is made up of independent experts, was commissioned to produce a report by the Department of Health and Social Care and Public Health England to review electronic nicotine delivery systems and devices that use an e-liquid that does not contain any nicotine, collectively abbreviated as E(N)NDS.
The review finds that E(N)NDS products, when produced and used appropriately, are “likely to be associated with a reduction in overall risk of adverse health effects, although the magnitude of the decrease will depend on the effect in question” when replacing cigarettes.
COT also examined the role of potential toxicity in vaping aerosols. The review again found that the “use of E(N)NDS products may be associated with a reduced risk compared with (conventional cigarettes), but this should not be taken as meaning that these products are risk-free.”
The review highlighted best practices in manufacturing and production as the way to minimize risks. COT states that “fidelity of construction, materials used, and operating capabilities” are vital considerations for devices, while for e-liquids “formulants should be derived from a reputable source, and non-standard constituents should not be included.”
The COT review also touched upon incidents of lung injury seen in the United States, confirming vitamin E acetate as “strongly linked” to the cases. COT further notes that “this substance is banned from U.K.-regulated nicotine vaping products.”
John Dunne
“Our assessment on e-cigarettes largely reinforces the scientific consensus to date on their relative safety, that while not without risk they are significantly less harmful than smoking,” said COT chair, Alan Boobis.
The vapor industry welcomed the COT’s recent publication.
“We welcome this review, as we do all contributions to the growing vaping literature, as it helps us better understand the harm reduction and public health potential of vaping,” said UKVIA director John Dunne in a statement. ““The UKVIA is heartened to see that COT confirms a likely overall risk reduction for those moving from cigarettes to vaping, as this is a cornerstone of our mission.”
ANYX, a new vape brand powered by the Aspire Group, has announced it will release its first pod system e-cigarette globally on June 16, 2022.
Excluding the North African countries sometimes included in the Middle East, this part of the world is home to almost 0.5 billion people and encompasses about 20 percent of the Muslim world. While Islam frowns on tobacco use, many Muslim countries have high smoking rates. While tobacco use has been grudgingly tolerated, vaping was initially disdained, with some countries banning the practice. That is changing, as was evidenced in September 2021 when the World Vape Show was held in Dubai, which has now legalized vaping.
On the other side of the globe, South America’s 433 million people also face an ever-changing landscape of vaping laws. The largest country, Brazil, allows vaping, with some restrictions in enclosed areas. Sales are highly regulated by the Health Surveillance Agency, which closely monitors underage sales, though enforcement of sales and production is weak.
