There is a flurry of flavor bans going on in Maine. In a unanimous vote by the town council, Bar Harbor has become the fifth town in the U.S. state to ban flavored tobacco products.
The new Bar Harbor ordinance takes effect June 1, 2023, and will end the sale of tobacco products with “any taste or smell relating to fruit, menthol, mint, wintergreen, chocolate, cocoa, vanilla, honey, or any candy, dessert, alcoholic beverage, herb or spice,” according to WMTW.
Legislation to create a statewide ban has been introduced in Augusta, which is expected to be taken up this session.
A $23.8 million settlement has been reached between Juul Labs Inc and the City of Chicago over claims that the e-cigarette maker deceptively marketed its products and for selling vaping products to underage users, the Chicago mayor’s office said on Friday.
The vaping company is currently facing thousands of lawsuits filed across the United States over claims on its marketing practices and for contributing to rising tobacco use among youth, according to Reuters.
In the settlement, Chicago said Juul has denied and continues to deny any wrongdoing and liability in connection with the design, manufacture, production, advertisement, marketing, distribution, sale, use, and performance of its products.
According to the settlement, the company has agreed to pay the city $2.8 million within 30 days of the execution of the agreement.
Chicago would receive an additional $21 million payment later this year under the current schedule and may potentially receive up to $750,000 in additional, court-awarded payments, the Chicago mayor’s office said.
Altria Group Inc, which had a stake in Juul Labs valued at $12.8 billion in 2018, exchanged its investment in Juul, last valued at $250 million, for some of the vaping company’s heated tobacco intellectual property.
Altria Group then immediately announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire NJOY Holdings for approximately $2.75 billion in cash. The transaction terms include an additional $500 million in cash payments that are contingent upon regulatory outcomes with respect to certain NJOY products.
A new bill in the U.S. state of Indiana’s senate hopes to ban e-cigarettes and vapes inside public places.
Senate Bill 1561 has passed the senate executive committee and now heads to the full senate for further consideration.
The smoke-free Illinois act was passed in 2007. It prevents people from smoking within 15 feet of entrances and requires no smoking signs to be posted in public spaces, reports WCIA.
But since vaping has become popular, Sen. Julie Morrison wants to make sure e-cigarettes and vapes are included.
A doctor with OSF Healthcare says this could help prevent secondhand smoke from being in public air.
The governor of Indiana signed a bill last year that included provisions cutting the 25 percent tax that wholesalers were to be charged for closed-system vaping devices to 15 percent.
E-cigarette use among teens in Vietnam is rising, reports The Star. In 2022, 3.5 percent of 13 year-olds to 15 year-olds were reported to use e-cigarettes compared to 2.6 percent in 2019.
Vietnam is ranked third among Southeast Asian countries with the highest smoking prevalence, behind Indonesia and the Philippines.
Low cost has been cited as a motivator; Angela Pratt, a World Health Organization representative, said that prices are so low they do not create a barrier for teens starting to smoke. Pratt suggested raising taxes to help curb smoking.
Vietnam’s tobacco tax rate is 35.6 percent of retail price compared to the world average of 56 percent and the WHO’s recommended 70 percent.
The Ministry of Finance is seeking a public consensus to raise the special consumption tax on tobacco, beer, alcohol and sweetened drinks.
Vuse e-cigarettes continue to grab market share from Juul. The gap is growing in both monthly and yearly comparisons, according to the latest Nielsen convenience store report.
The R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. brand’s market share rose from 41.5 percent in the previous report to 42.7 percent, compared with Juul declining from 26.4 percent to 25.6 percent.
Over the past 12 months, Vuse’s market share was 36.6 percent, compared with 29.5 percent for Juul. The latest Nielsen analysis of convenience-store data covers the four-week period ending Feb. 25.
On Friday, Altria Group Inc. announced that it had exchanged its 35 percent ownership stake in Juul Labs for a non-exclusive, irrevocable global license to certain of Juul’s heated tobacco intellectual properties.
No. 3 NJoy was unchanged at 2.7 percent, while Fontem Ventures’ blu eCigs was unchanged at 1.4 percent. Njoy’s future looks brighter after an announcement Monday that Altria plans to pay $2.75 billion in cash for NJoy.
Juul’s four-week dollar sales in the latest report have dropped from a 50.2 percent increase in the Aug. 10, 2019, report to a 25.7 percent decline in the latest report.
By comparison, Reynolds’ Vuse was up 34 percent in the latest report, while NJoy was down 8.7 percent, blu eCigs down 39.5 percent and Japan Tobacco’s Logic brand vaping product was down 4.9 percent.
As recently as May 2019, Juul held a 74.6 percent U.S. e-cig market share. Neilson data does not consider vape shop sales, which may include more than 40 percent of all vaping product sales.
Two school districts in the U.S. state of Florida have settled with Juul Labs after accusing the company of marketing its e-cigarettes to children.
Palm Beach County School Board members met Wednesday to approve an initial settlement with the e-cigarette manufacturer as a result of joining a national lawsuit brought by more than 1,400 government agencies.
The settlement will likely result in more than $10 million for Palm Beach County schools over the next five years, according to district staff, according to the Palm Beach Post.
The school district was among the governmental entities and 32 tribal governments that sued the company, along with 8,500 individuals.
Orange County Public Schools, which includes the city of Orlando, will receive an estimated $5.4 million as part of a settlement against a vape and e-cigarette company that is accused of marketing its products to children, according to Orlando News.
In June 2020, Orange County Public Schools joined thousands of other school districts and individuals who entered into litigation against Juul Labs.
In December, the company reached a settlement for hundreds of millions of dollars in connection with the design, manufacture, production, advertisement, marketing, distribution, sale, use, and performance of Juul products.
The U.S. regulatory agency will seek input on the proposed rule from both its advisory committee and the public.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is proposing new requirements for tobacco product manufacturers regarding the manufacture, design, packing and storage of vaping and other tobacco products.
The proposed requirements would help protect public health by, among other things, minimizing or preventing contamination and limiting additional risks by ensuring product consistency, according to an FDA statement.
“While no tobacco product is safe, this proposed rule is intended to minimize or prevent additional risks associated with these products,”
Brian King / Credit: FDA
said Brian King, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. “Once finalized, it would establish requirements for tobacco product manufacturers that will help protect public health.”
The proposed new requirements would help manufacturers comply with the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act by helping minimize or prevent the manufacture and distribution of tobacco products contaminated with foreign substances—such as metal, glass, and plastics—which have been found in tobacco products. T
The proposed rule would also help address issues related to inconsistencies between e-liquid product labeling and the actual concentrations in e-liquids, “Such variability can be misleading to consumers, potentially intensifying addiction and exposure to toxins,” the agency states.
The proposed rule would also establish several requirements related to the identification, tracing and corrective actions for tobacco products that don’t meet specifications or are contaminated, including for tobacco products that have already been distributed.
In the event of an issue, these requirements would require manufacturers to take corrective actions, which may include conducting a recall.
The proposed requirements apply to manufacturers of finished and bulk vaping and other tobacco products. As laid out in the proposed rule, a finished tobacco product is a tobacco product, including any component or part, sealed in final packaging; for example, an e-cigarette, a pack of cigarettes or a can of moist snuff.
A bulk tobacco product is a tobacco product that isn’t sealed in final packaging, but is otherwise suitable for consumer use.
The proposed rule establishes a framework for manufacturers to adhere to, including:
establishing tobacco product design and development controls;
ensuring that finished and bulk tobacco products are manufactured according to established specifications;
minimizing the manufacture and distribution of tobacco products that don’t meet specifications;
requiring manufacturers to take appropriate measures to prevent contamination of tobacco products;
requiring investigation and identification of products that don’t meet specifications to institute appropriate corrective actions, such as a recall; and
establishing the ability to trace all components or parts, ingredients, additives and materials, as well as each batch of finished or bulk tobacco product, to aid in investigations of those that don’t meet specifications.
The FDA will hold a public oral hearing on April 12 to gather additional comments from stakeholders, including industry, the scientific community, advocacy groups, and the public.
The proposed rule also will be available for public comment for 180 days. The agency will review all comments as part of the rulemaking process for this foundational rule.
“We remain committed to transparency and stakeholder engagement, including providing clarity to industry so that they are equipped to comply with the law,” said King. “We encourage all interested individuals and organizations to participate in the rulemaking process. When the public submits a comment based on sound grounds, that can make an important difference in the agency’s decision-making.”
The FDA will also hold a meeting of the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee (TPSAC) on May 18 to seek recommendations from the agency’s outside panel of experts on the requirements laid out in the proposed rule. As part of the TPSAC meeting, the public will have an opportunity to make oral presentations. The FDA intends to make TPSAC meeting materials available on its website no later than 48 hours before the meeting.
Kaival Brands Innovations Group, the exclusive U.S. distributor of Bidi Vapor products, has entered into agreements representing potential new distribution to approximately 13,500 locations.
Under the terms of the agreements, Bidi Vapor’s Bidi Stick will initially be activated in 700 locations, with another 1,500 locations expected within the next 90 days. All of the new locations meet Kaival Brand’s and Bidi Vapor’s requirements for customer identification verification and youth-access prevention.
“We are excited to announce these significant new distribution agreements, totaling up to 13,500 new locations, as we look to continue the ramp up of marketing and sales activity for Bidi Stick. Since Bidi Vapor succeeded in its merits case against the FDA vacating FDA’s marketing denial order for ENDS products in August 2022, we have seen a resurgence of interested retailers and potential distributors,” said Kaival Brands President and Chief Operating Officer Eric Mosser in a statement.
“While the FDA continues to move slowly in enforcing against bad actors, major retailers are showing their commitment to e-cigarettes as a category and using corporate discretion to select brands that are committed to youth-access prevention and responsible marketing of adult products. We believe our products fit squarely in this category, and we are hopeful that this positioning will lead to greater revenues for Kaival Brands during 2023.”
“We are excited to increase the reach of the Bidi Stick by up to 13,500 new stores,” stated Russell Quick, president of QuikfillRx, which operates under the name Kaival Marketing Services. “These new agreements represent an immediate impact of 700 new locations to start and we believe represents a vote of confidence that retailers have in us and our products.”
Last year, Alaska’s Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed his first bill in office, S.B. 45, which would have increased the minimum age to purchase tobacco products from 19 to 21 years old, bringing it in line with the federal Tobacco 21 standard that was passed in late 2019.
Dunleavy didn’t state whether he supported the minimum purchasing age increase, but the bill would have also introduced a tax of 35 percent of the wholesale price on vaping and e-cigarette products and new taxes were not on the governor’s agenda.
“There were many conversations about what an appropriate level to tax would be, but ultimately a tax increase on the people of Alaska is not something I can support,” Dunleavy wrote in his veto letter to Senate President Peter Micciche.
The sponsor of SB 45 has now introduced a new bill that would do much of the same as the 2022 bill, writes Charlie Minato with Halfwheel.
Alaska Sen. Gary Stevens, has introduced SB 89 alongside Micciche, which would change a number of laws regarding the sale of tobacco and vaping products in Alaska, including:
Increasing the minimum age to purchase tobacco, nicotine or vaping products from 19- to 21-year-olds.
Introducing fines of up to $300 for anyone under the age of 21 years olds caught in possession of tobacco, nicotine or vaping products.
Banning the internet sale of tobacco, nicotine and vaping products except under certain conditions.
Introducing a tax on vaping products of 25 percent of the wholesale price.
Regarding the internet sales ban, there is an exception made if the sale is “by a retailer who sells primarily cigarettes, cigars, tobacco, products containing tobacco, electronic smoking products, or products containing nicotine and who restricts access to the premises to only those individuals who are 21 years of age or older.”
There are some exceptions. For example, certain vaping products sold at military facilities would not be subject to the new tax on vapor products. That said, the bill also contains language that could make it illegal for a person to ship tobacco products to someone else in Alaska.
The bill’s text seems to indicate that at least one of the parties involved in the shipment—the shipper or the recipient—likely needs to have a tobacco license or meet other special circumstances, if not, the shipment would be deemed illegal.
Dutch parliamentarians want e-cigarettes and other vaping products to have a boring and uniform appearance.
According to the D66, which will submit the proposal in parliament today, the new rules will make vaping less attractive to teenagers. A majority in parliament supports the plan, RTL Nieuws reports.
“Young people now think it’s cool to have such an accessory with glitter while vaping is extremely unhealthy,” D66 parliamentarian Jeanet van der Laan told the broadcaster. “The vapes resemble a lip gloss or a marker. They are often colorful, and there are vapes full of glitter. Parents often have no idea exactly what the young people are carrying. Super worrying.”
There are even e-cigarettes in circulations that look like airpods, Van der Laan said. “That makes it look like a glamor accessory, while it is just smoking and therefore harmful to health. And young people are tempted by all those frills to start smoking.”
“E-cigarettes should look as neutral and uniform as possible. Preferably they should resemble regular cigarettes. Or else just white or black. Because it’s just smoking,” the D66 MP said. She believes a more boring appearance will make vaping less attractive to young people.
The Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, is discussing smoking on Wednesday. The D66 will submit its proposal during that debate. It seems to have majority support, according to RTL.
