Tag: e-cigarettes

  • Korolev: Russia Plan to Ban Vapes a ‘Radical Measure’

    Korolev: Russia Plan to Ban Vapes a ‘Radical Measure’

    A vape shop in Vladikavkaz, Russia in 2019. (Credit: irinabal18)

    A proposed ban on vapes in Russia is a “radical measure,” according to Maxim Korolev, editor-in-chief of the industry news agency Russian Tabak, reports HCH. 

    In an interview with NSN, Korolev commented on the recent bill that would completely ban the retail sale of nicotine and nicotine-free vapes in the Russian Federation “for the purpose of saving people.”

    “The ban is too radical a measure because it will deprive a significant number of Russians of the opportunity to receive nicotine without carcinogens, said Korolev, estimating this size of the impacted group at between 30 million and 40 million people.

    At the same time, he noted, a significant share of tobacco sales in Russia avoids taxes and regulations. “What our smokers who want to quit are now getting as an alternative is also not very clear,” said Korolev. “Perhaps this is not the worst measure if it later makes it possible to introduce legal products for alternative purposes, that is, with nicotine, but with carcinogens, without combustible tobacco.”

    Korolev insisted that Russians should be given the opportunity to choose alternative options to tobacco products.

    “[F]or decades, we hooked the entire male population on the nicotine needle through military service: almost everyone there started smoking. Now, we need to give people the opportunity to use alternative options before simply banning everything indiscriminately.”

    In 2023, the smoking rate in Russia was 18.7 percent, down from 24.2 percent in 2019. In 2022, there was a noted increase in smokers using e-cigarettes and vapes.

  • Canada Relaunches Three-Year-Old Flavor Ban

    Canada Relaunches Three-Year-Old Flavor Ban

    Photo: DD Images

    Canada is set to enact a three-year-old flavor ban, according to Vaping360. The regulations were first published in June 2021 in the Canada Gazette but then never went into effect. Now, however, Health Minister Mark Holland has reinvigorated the ban.

    Holland previously worked at Heart and Stroke, where he was the national director of children and youth. “I was with Heart and Stroke when we dealt with the issue of vaping,” he said, “and there were many voices at that time, when information was uncertain, who said, ‘Let this exist as a cessation tool. Don’t take action.’ The result of that, unfortunately, was that the tobacco industry was able to addict a whole new cohort of young people—who had no exposure to nicotine—to something that’s absolutely deadly for their health. It has had very injurious outcomes for our health system.”

    Vaping proponents warned that the measure could backfire. “As presented, Minister Holland’s proposal will not achieve the desired public health objectives and could, on the contrary, seriously harm a significant number of Canadian adult ex-smokers, the Vaping Industry Trade Association (VITA) wrote in a press release.

    “This appears to be a personal legacy project for the Minister of Health, supported strongly by his former peers at the Heart and Stroke Foundation, the Canadian Cancer Society, the Canadian Lung Association and some smaller anti-smoking NGOs [nongovernmental organizations],” said VITA Managing Director Thomas Kirsop.

    The ban would give manufacturers a list of fewer than 100 allowable flavoring ingredients that can only be used to create e-liquid in tobacco, mint and menthol flavors. Sweeteners of any kind would be banned. The regulations will also “prescribe sensory attributes standards to prevent a sensory perception other than one that is typical of tobacco or mint/menthol.”

  • Broughton to Open Heated Tobacco Testing Facility

    Broughton to Open Heated Tobacco Testing Facility

    Photo: Broughton

    Broughton will open a dedicated facility for heated-tobacco products (HTPs) at its Oak Tree House site in Lancashire, U.K. The space will allow the scientific consultancy and testing specialist to assist manufacturers with a fully integrated HTP service, from the testing and characterization of products through to toxicology and regulatory submission support. 

    Broughton’s HTP facility will house new testing equipment, such as conditioning cabinets, smoke engines and analytical equipment.

    Broughton can test an HTP for a specific suite of harmful and potentially harmful constituents based on the PMI-58 and regulatory required analytes to ensure there are no major toxicological concerns. Its team will also conduct paper-based toxicology assessments to confirm the absence of any other ingredients or materials of high concern.

    “Heated tobacco is an area of growing interest in the next-generation nicotine market, as it’s widely accepted that most of the toxicants associated with combustible cigarettes are caused by the burning of tobacco,” said Chris Allen, CEO of Broughton.

    “Developing and commercializing heated-tobacco products can offer smokers a reduced-risk alternative—the device heats sufficiently to release nicotine but not high enough for combustion.”

    “Understanding the potentially harmful chemicals and the toxicological impact of a nicotine product is essential for marketing authorization,” said Malcolm Saxton, senior consultant at Broughton. “Our new facility will aid our provision of accredited, accurate and flexible testing for all stages of HTP product development.”

  • Kyrgyzstan Proposes Ban on Vaping Products

    Kyrgyzstan Proposes Ban on Vaping Products

    But cigarettes will remain readily available. (Photo: Taco Tuinstra)

    Shairbek Tashiev, Member of Parliament in Kyrgyzstan, has initiated a bill that would amend the Code of Offenses and the Criminal Code to protect citizens’ health from tobacco and nicotine consumption and exposure to smoke, reports the AKIPress News Agency.

    The amendments were submitted in February.

    Tashiev proposed banning import of electronic cigarettes with a tank containing special liquid. Violators would face a fine of KGS150,000 ($1,683) to KGS200,000 or imprisonment for up to two years.

    Vaping will be banned in undesignated places, with violators facing fines of KGS40,000 for individuals and KGS60,000 for legal entities.

    Individuals caught selling e-cigarettes with tanks will face fines of KGS50,000, and legal entities will face fines of KGS65,000.

  • Illinois Senate Passes 2 Vape Laws, Moves to House

    Illinois Senate Passes 2 Vape Laws, Moves to House

    Credit: High Light Vape

    The Illinois state Senate passed two bills on Tuesday aimed at curbing teen vaping.

    The first bill bans companies from selling vaping devices that resemble everyday household items. The second bill prohibits people from shipping vaping products in Illinois, except to licensed retailers and distributors. Illinois state senators Julie Morrison and Meg Loughran Cappel sponsored the bills.

    It’s already illegal to sell e-cigarettes to people under 21 in Illinois. Teens can get around the ban, however, by having them shipped to their home, according to media reports.

    Morrison said her bill comes as school officials report kids using vaping devices that look like schools supplies such as highlighters.

    “Teachers, they’ve complained that they have found these kind of products in their schools, their students have them. They’re designed to look like a school supply. And I think it’s not even limited to school supplies, stuffed animals, SpongeBob,” Morrison said.

    Both bills now head to the state House of Representatives.

  • Governor Signs Kentucky Vape Registry Law

    Governor Signs Kentucky Vape Registry Law

    Andy Beshear (Credit: State of Kentucky)

    On April 5th, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear signed House Bill 11 into law. This makes Kentucky the sixth state in the US with a registry law. The bill was passed quickly in both houses of the Kentucky General Assembly on March 28. The new law will go into effect on January 1st, 2025.

    Under the new Kentucky law, it will be illegal to sell vaping products that do not have marketing authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or are still under review by the agency. This law also applies to products that have received a marketing denial order (MDO), unless the MDO has been stayed or reversed by the FDA or a court. Manufacturers are required to certify that each product complies with state requirements before allowing its sale in Kentucky.

    Among other things, the bill also:

    • Require the Secretary of State to create and publish a list of certain tobacco product retailers;
    • Require the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to create and maintain a tobacco noncompliance database and reporting system;
    • Require wholesalers to verify a retailer’s presence in the database prior to transactions;
    • Establish and impose fines for wholesalers that unlawfully sell to a retailer that is in the noncompliance database;
    • Make ineligible any retailer with unpaid fines that are more than 60 days overdue from selling Tobacco Control Act-covered products until the fines are paid;
    • Direct manufacturers of Tobacco Control Act-covered products to provide safe harbor certification to wholesalers and retailers of their products;
    • Prohibit a retailer from selling Tobacco Control Act products to persons under 21 years of age.

    PMTA registry laws are already being enforced in Alabama, Louisiana and Oklahoma. Wisconsin passed a registry law in December and will become effective July 1, 2025. Utah also passed a registry bill that included a flavor ban that will become active on Jan. 1, 2025.

  • Ohio Preemption Law Forces 14 Cities to File Lawsuit

    Ohio Preemption Law Forces 14 Cities to File Lawsuit

    Credit: Zach Frank

    The Ohio General Assembly passed a preemption law earlier this year that prevents cities and counties from enacting tobacco regulations that are stricter than the state laws.

    The law was enacted after lawmakers overrode Governor Mike DeWine’s veto, which came after a year-long battle over the banning of flavored tobacco sales.

    This week, 14 cities filed a legal challenge to the law that, if successful, would allow those cities to introduce their own rules even if they are more stringent than state rules.

    The cities of Columbus, Bexley, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dublin, Gahanna, Grandview Heights, Heath, Hilliard, Oxford, Reynoldsburg, Upper Arlington, Whitehall, and Worthington filed the case in Franklin County. The plaintiffs claim the law violates the state’s constitution, specifically a line that states that cities “have the ‘authority to exercise all powers of local self-government and to adopt and enforce within [their] limits such local police, sanitary and other similar regulations, as are not in conflict with general laws.’”

    According to Patrick Lagreid of Halfwheel, the suit also argues that the ban would adversely affect citizens. The Ohio legislature passed the preemption law during a special session, which DeWine later vetoed.

    The ban was again passed by the state’s General Assembly as part of its budget proposal, then vetoed again by DeWine before the General Assembly voted to override the veto in January. The case seeks a temporary injunction to keep the ban from going into effect on April 24.

    Republican state lawmakers have tried multiple times to prohibit local governments from restricting the sale of tobacco, only to be thwarted by DeWine’s vetoes.

    In 2022, he struck down such a proposal. Last July, he struck the provision from the rest of the state budget, saying that local bans were “essential” to curb nicotine use, especially among children, without a statewide ban in place.

  • CTP Hires Director of Health Communication and Education

    CTP Hires Director of Health Communication and Education

    Courtesy: US FDA

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) has hired Anne Rancourt as its next director of CTP’s Office of Health Communication and Education.

    Rancourt comes to CTP from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) where she serves as the Communications Director.

    Rancourt has more than two decades of experience working in strategic communications, behavior change programs and journalism, including nearly 14 years within the federal government, according to a release.

    At NIDA, Rancourt is responsible for managing the communication branch that oversees the dissemination of a nearly $2 billion scientific research portfolio on substance use and addiction, including tobacco and e-cigarette use.

    She also advises the Institute director on communication strategies, informing agency leaders on broad public health, education, and scientific policy matters and issues.

    Prior to her tenure at NIDA, Rancourt led press outreach and media strategy on HIV as a Communications Section Chief at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

    Earlier in her career, Rancourt led media and digital outreach strategies for The Heart Truth campaign at NIH’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

    Rancourt was selected after an extensive nationwide search, multiple interview panels that evaluated a substantial and well-qualified applicant pool, and clearance through important FDA ethics and security processes.

    She will begin the new position on May 19th.

  • ATR: Scott Veto a ‘Huge Relief’ for Vermont Vapers

    ATR: Scott Veto a ‘Huge Relief’ for Vermont Vapers

    Credit: Carsten Reisinger

    Vermont Governor Phil Scott returned Senate Bill 18, a sweeping ban on flavored tobacco, vapor, and all other nicotine-containing products, without a signature after it passed the Senate 18-11 and the House 83-53. Both fell short of enough votes to override the veto.

    Tim Andrews, director of Consumer Issues for Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), said Scott’s veto is a “huge relief” to Vermonters who rely on vaping products to avoid returning to combustible cigarette use. He also said, “Rejecting the tax hike will make it easier for those who currently smoke to achieve cessation using vapor products, as flavors are proven to be a crucial factor in an adult smoker’s decision to quit.”

    In his veto letter, Scott described S.18 as “hypocritical and out of step with other initiatives that have been passed”. Alongside the double standard of enacting a tobacco flavor ban post the legalization of cannabis (flavored varieties included) in 2020 and state advertisement of flavored alcohol products, the bill also compromises the state’s revenue stability, the ATR wrote in a press release.

    This bill would have resulted in an estimated revenue loss of between $7.1 to $14.2 million in fiscal year 2027. Nearby Massachusetts has already experienced similar consequences as a result of its own flavor ban, seeing a $17 million loss in tobacco tax revenue to New Hampshire, which gained $18 million in revenues as residents drove across the border to purchase flavored products, according to ATR.

  • Qnovia Appoints Four to Scientific Advisory Board

    Qnovia Appoints Four to Scientific Advisory Board

    Photo: Mariakray

    Qnovia has appointed four new members to its scientific advisory board (SAB). The new members are Neal Benowitz, professor at the University of California at San Francisco, Ian M. Fearon, independent consultant, Darla E. Kendzor, professor at University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, and Nicole Nollen, professor at University of Kansas.

    “Our newly appointed advisors bring world-class scientific and multi-disciplinary expertise and reaffirm our commitment to advance novel therapies for the millions of people who seek to quit smoking,” said Qnovia CEO Brian Quigley in a statement.

    “We are grateful for the leadership of the chair and founding member of our SAB, Dr. Jasjit S. Ahluwalia, a professor at Brown University, who has been instrumental in shaping the direction of our SAB over the past year. The expansion of our SAB complements the regulatory expertise of our policy and regulatory strategy advisor, Mitch Zeller, who served a prior appointment as director of FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products.”

    Qnovia is a pharmaceutical company developing inhaled therapeutics across a variety of indication areas leveraging its proprietary inhaled drug delivery platform, the RespiRx.

    “Looking ahead, our SAB will serve a critical role as we advance the clinical development of our lead asset, QN-01, towards FDA and MHRA approval,” Quigley said. “We believe our proprietary drug-device combination platform has the potential to be a first-in-class and best-in-class treatment for smoking cessation.

    “Last fall, QN-01 demonstrated a superior pharmacokinetic profile compared to existing nicotine replacement therapies in our first-in-human Phase 1 clinical trial. We plan to submit our IND and CTA to the regulatory bodies and look forward to commencing our Phase 1/2 clinical study this year. Overall, we are highly encouraged by the data we have generated to date and believe that 2024 is going to be a pivotal year for Qnovia,” he added.