The Swedish government has proposed a ban on nontobacco-flavored vapes, including menthol, according to Vaping360.
Credit: Luzitanija
The proposed law includes nicotine and non-nicotine e-liquid and regulates all synthetic nicotine products, setting the purchase age to 18. If the law is passed, the sale of flavored vape products will be banned effective Jan. 1, 2023.
The bill is currently being reviewed by the Council on Legislation, which considers the legal validity of proposed bills before they are considered by legislators. Parliament will vote on the bill as early as March 22.
If the bill is passed, Sweden will be the eighth European country to prohibit flavors, following Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ukraine, Denmark, Lithuania and the Netherlands.
Massachusetts law enforcement officials have reported seizing a sizable amount of banned and untaxed vaping products linked to cross-border smuggling last year. According to a new report by the Multi-Agency Illegal Tobacco Task Force, more than 213,000 electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) products were seized by state police and members of the task force in 2021.
“Inspectors and investigators are routinely encountering or seizing menthol cigarettes, originally purchased in surrounding states, and flavored electronic nicotine delivery products and cigars purchased from unlicensed distributors operating both within and outside the commonwealth,” the report states.
The seizures of vaping products dwarfed those of untaxed cigarettes, cigars and smokeless tobacco products by law enforcement agencies, according to news reports. Massachusetts banned the sale of flavored cigarettes and vaping products more than two years ago, but those products are still getting into the state through the blackmarket. The law imposed a 75 percent excise tax the wholesale cost of vaping products.
Credit: Yurii Kibalnik
The task force, which is overseen by the Department of Revenue, has partnered with federal officials to dismantle major cross-border smuggling operations and recover millions of dollars in unpaid tobacco and vaping product excise taxes. Under the new law, anyone caught bringing untaxed e-cigarettes or vaping products into the state can be fined $5,000 for a first offense and up to $25,000 for multiple violations.
The provisions also allow police to seize untaxed vaping products as well as vehicles, boats and airplanes. The state collected more than $370 million in cigarette taxes alone in its last budget year, a 23 percent decline over the previous fiscal year, according to the Department of Revenue. The stae collected more than $13 million in taxes on vaping products.
While many anti-nicotine groups have praised Massachusetts’ ban of flavored tobacco products, the ban 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.
A new study claims that people who use vaping devices are 22 percent more likely to have high blood sugar – known as prediabetes – compared with those who have never used them. However, traditional cigarettes increase a combustible smokers risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 40 percent.
Researchers from Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in the U.S. analyzed data from 600,000 people. They looked for links between e-cigarette use and prediabetes – a serious but reversible health condition in which blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not high enough to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes.
To determine the association between e-cigarette use and prediabetes, the investigators analyzed 2016–2018 data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). It said to be the largest annual nationally representative health survey of U.S. adults with data on health outcomes, health-related risk behaviors, preventive services, and chronic medical conditions.
“Our study demonstrated a clear association of prediabetes risk with the use of e-cigarettes. With both e-cigarette use and prevalence of prediabetes dramatically on the rise in the past decade, our discovery that e-cigarettes carry a similar risk to traditional cigarettes with respect to diabetes is important for understanding and treating vulnerable individuals,” said Shyam Biswal, the study’s lead investigator.
The researchers state that the possible link between combustible cigarettes, e-cigarettes and prediabetes is not understood. However, nicotine, which is in both traditional cigarettes and e-cigarettes, has long been linked to a rise in blood sugar levels, according to news reports.
The results, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, showed that current e-cigarette users are 22 percent more likely to have prediabetes compared with those who those who had never used them, while former vapers still had a 12 percent higher risk.
Prediabetes is reversible with lifestyle management, according to reports.
The Santa Ana City Council on Tuesday voted in favor (7-0) of an ordinance that would ban the sale of flavored vaping and other tobacco products, including hookah. A second reading of the ordinance has not yet been scheduled.
“Santa Ana displayed courageous leadership to save Black lives and put the health of our kids ahead of the profits of Big Tobacco. Of special note is the inclusion of flavored cigars because the abundance of cheap flavored cigars is a big problem in our community,” stated African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council (AATCLC) co-chair Carol McGruder in an email. “We applaud Mayor Sarmiento, Mayor Pro Tem Bacerra, and Councilwoman Mendoza for their leadership in passing this bill.”
A trade group representing business owners in the hookah industry asked the council to reconsider its inclusion of hookah in the ordinance. They said that one way to balance the interests of lawmakers in protecting youth from flavored tobacco products, while preserving the hookah’s rich cultural tradition, would be actions similar to the California state bill SB 793, which bans flavored tobacco products but exempts hookah tobacco, loose leaf tobacco, and premium cigars.
The statewide measure also limits hookah tobacco sales to adults only and no minor can enter an establishment that sells it. The referendum is on the ballot in California on November 8, 2022.
Kenya has struggled in regards to helping combustible cigarette smokers quit. According to recent research by Dr. Michael Kariuki, an epidemiologist, two-thirds of the country’s smokers want to quit but lack alternatives to replace traditional cigarettes.
Credit: Zero Photo
In an interview with TUKO.co.ke, Kariuki stated that as much as smoking is an addictive habit, most smokers expressed a desire to quit but admitted that they find it difficult. “The addictive product in cigarettes is nicotine, however, what kills people are the other carcinogenic products that are medically referred to as Group 1 human carcinogens,” he told Hillary Lisimba.
Kariuki added that his research was aimed at offering solutions that would make it easy for smokers to quit. He said offering them alternative products that have nicotine but are not combustible. “You see, smoking [cigarettes] gives a calming effect due to the nicotine, yet the majority of smokers who want to quit find it difficult because of the addiction,” he said.
Vaping products are not regulated in Kenya. There is no law addressing the use of e-cigarettes in indoor public places, workplaces, and public transport. The desire of cigarette smokers to stop smoking are complicated because nicotine replacement therapies, such as e-cigarettes, are too expensive for most smokers, according to Kariuki.
He also stated that, as a country, Kenya is not doing enough to help smokers quit. The country needs to offer products that can gradually assist struggling smokers.
The state Senate of Idaho narrowly passed a bill meant to clarify the legal age for vaping and tobacco product purchases with a 19-15 vote Tuesday.
Under federal law, people must be 21 or older to legally purchase or possess tobacco or vaping products. Congress raised the age limit from 18 to 21 in 2019. Idaho law, however, still lists 18 as the legal age for tobacco purchases.
Senate Bill 1284 changes that to 21, bringing Idaho law into symmetry with federal law, according to news reports.
Sen. Fred Martin, the bill’s sponsor, said the disparity between state and federal law causes confusion for Idaho retailers. Although they’re required to comply with the federal age limit, the signs they have to post indicate that 18 is the minimum age under state law.
Tobacco Technology has appointed David Johnson as president and chief scientific officer of the company and its wholly owned subsidiaries, E-LiquiTech and Emerald Green Technology. He will be replacing Richard Howell who retired earlier this month after 43 years of service.
Johnson joined Tobacco Technology as the director of regulatory affairs in 2021. He brings more than 30 years of scientific, regulatory and management experience, including over 20 years in the tobacco industry, to the Tobacco Technology family of companies.
He received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Mississippi specializing in physical analytical chemistry. In addition, he earned postdoctoral training at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in the mass spectrometry group of Maurice Bursey.
Johnson acquired much of his tobacco experience at Swedish Match North America, where he was the director of analytical, and at Turning Point Brands, where he was the senior director of scientific and regulatory affairs. Johnson also has a wealth of sales, marketing and Six Sigma experience from his years working with DuPont.
A new study concludes that vaping could potentially be less harmful for women then men who vape.
Loren Wold, the study’s senior author and associate dean for research operations at the Ohio State College of Medicine, believes this could be because the females produced a higher amount of an enzyme that breaks down nicotine. According to the study, humans carry a similar level of that enzyme.
Credit: J.A.
“The results were surprising. We were shocked at the amount of protection afforded to females,” Wold said. “The theory is that since the enzyme breaks down nicotine so much faster, the nicotine isn’t in the circulation as long and that may be why females exhibit protection from vaping.”
Funded as part of a $5.5 million grant awarded by the American Heart Association, the Ohio State University study looked at mice between the human equivalent of ages 12 to 30 in an effort to determine the impacts of vaping on young adults.
Researchers exposed both male and female mice to an e-cigarette aerosol mixture and found that, while heart function in male mice decreased over time, female mice remained unaffected.
Researchers are now working to determine whether the enzyme can help provide a higher level of protection to human women, according to a release from the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center. Meanwhile, researchers are conducting a similar study to determine the best ways to reduce youth addiction to e-cigarettes.
The Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) has written to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte asking him to urgently sign the Vaporized Nicotine Products Regulation Act into law.
Both the Philippine Senate and House of Representatives have ratified the harmonized version of the act, which will regulate the use, manufacture, importation, sale, distribution and promotion of vaping and heated tobacco products. It now awaits the President’s signature or veto.
“The weight of the scientific evidence shows that potentially thousands of Filipino lives can be saved by making this act the law of the land,” wrote CAPHRA, backed by its expert advisory group and member organizations throughout the Asia Pacific region.
CAPHRA told Duterte that, when enacted, the legislation will provide 16 million Filipino smokers with the world’s most effective smoking cessation tool, saving the lives and enhancing the health of millions of Filipino smokers and their families, friends, and co-workers.
“Hundreds of peer-reviewed international scientific studies have found innovative smoke-free products such as e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products to be far less harmful than combustible tobacco and offer the best options to make smokers switch or quit,” wrote Nancy Loucas, executive coordinator of CAPHRA. “The act will ensure the regulation of these products, so that they meet government standards to protect consumers and will contribute revenue, via taxation.”
The letter said signing the act into law and giving Filipino smokers the option of choosing less harmful alternative nicotine products will create an enduring presidential legacy. It will prove to the world that Duterte is a leader who put the health and well-being of his people, based on science, above the special interests of foreigners.
Broughton is establishing a U.S. subsidiary to enhance its presence in the region. Leading the U.S. team will be Tony Jones, who joins Broughton as managing consultant. Jones has extensive experience in toxicology and risk assessment.
“I am delighted to be spearheading this exciting next stage of the development of Broughton in the U.S. market,” said Jones. “I’m looking forward to introducing the full lifecycle development services offered by the Broughton team to U.S. clients across pharmaceuticals, nicotine and cannabinoids to help the company support their clients to accelerate innovation to market and improve health outcomes.”
Along with the appointment of Jones, Broughton has strengthened its consultancy team with several new members.
Libby Clarke and Carol Beevers have joined the company’s toxicology team. Clarke is a European registered toxicologist and has substantial experience devising toxicology testing strategies and compiling submissions to regulatory bodies, such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Health Canada. Beevers is a genetic toxicology specialist and has contributed to more than 20 papers in peer-reviewed journals. She is a member of the U.K. Committee on Mutagenicity and several international working groups on genotoxicity testing.
In recognition of the growing importance of behavioral science in regulatory submissions, Broughton has also strengthened its in-house team with the appointment of Oliver Knight-West. Knight-West has conducted multiple behavioral and clinical studies into next-generation nicotine products and pharmaceuticals for dossier submission to the FDA, the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, and the European Medicines Agency.
He has published many scientific papers in several highly cited publications.
To complement the appointment of Paul Hardman in 2021, Malcolm Saxton has joined the chemistry consultancy team. Saxton will help ensure that Broughton remains at the forefront of the industry in terms of novel method development aligned with evolving market and regulatory needs.
‘’Since 2006, our focus has always been to help our clients succeed,” said Broughton CEO Chris Allen. “With a passion for enhancing societal health and wellbeing, the establishment of a North American subsidiary is a natural next step to enable us to better partner with our customers in the region.”
