Tag: news

  • Comment Period for Ireland’s Vaping Rules Begins

    Comment Period for Ireland’s Vaping Rules Begins

    Credit: Milbsie

    Vapers in Ireland can now have their say from today on the future regulation of vaping products.

    Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has brought legislation before the Oireachtas that will ban under-18s from buying e-cigarettes.

    Minister of State Hildeguarde Naughton said the Department of Health wants to know if the public favors further restrictions as well.

    “I have given a commitment to further legislation in this area,” she said, according to NewsTalk.

    “That’s why we’re launching this consultation today; it runs until January 5th to get people’s views about what other measures we need to introduce in order to decrease the appeal of nicotine and inhaling products.”

    Over the next four weeks, the public will be consulted on a number of areas, including:

    • The display of nicotine-inhaling products in shops
    • Nicotine-inhaling product flavours
    • The appearance of nicotine inhaling products
    • Proxy sales of tobacco and nicotine-inhaling products
    • Smoking in outdoor dining areas
    • Extending smoke-free restrictions to vaping
    • Increasing the age of sale for tobacco products
    • Increasing the price of vapes

    Naughton wants “as many people as possible” to engage in public consultation over the coming weeks.

    The public consultation is now open for submissions for a six-week period until Friday, January 5, 2024.

    The smokers’ rights group Forest has criticized recommendations to regulate the sector further, saying there is a risk that policy will be created “in haste.”

    Forest spokesperson John Mallon said: “We urge the government not to succumb to some moral panic about vaping and to regulate reduced risk products with a light touch that doesn’t impact on their effectiveness as a safer alternative to cigarettes.”

  • New Zealand Ditches Generational Tobacco Ban

    New Zealand Ditches Generational Tobacco Ban

    Photo: asanojunki0110

    New Zealand’s new coalition government plans to scrap the country’s controversial generational tobacco ban, which would have prohibited tobacco products for people born after 2009, reports CodeBlue.

    The coalition agreement signed on Nov. 24 by the National Party, the ACT and New Zealand First in the wake of country’s general elections calls for a repeal of amendments to the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act 1990 and regulations, which took effect Jan. 1, 2023,

    In addition to prohibiting anyone from selling or supplying smoked tobacco products to people born on or after Jan. 1, 2009, the amendments would have restricteded the sale of smoked tobacco products to a limited number of approved retail outlets and extend the act’s regulatory powers over the composition of smoked tobacco products, such as nicotine levels.

    While ditching the generational tobacco ban, the new government vowed to get tough on vaping by banning disposable e-cigarettes and increase penalties for illegal sales to those aged under 18.

    Health advocates criticized the reversal of the amendments. “Way to start being health minister—by caving into the tobacco industry,” New Zealand’s former Health Minister Ayesha Verrall wrote on X about her successor, Shane Reti. “Repealing smokefree laws will mean thousands of deaths and billions of health.”

    Smoker rights’ group Forest welcomed the repeal, and urged British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to follow suit by abandoning similar measures in the United Kingdom.

    “The policy treats future generations of adults like kids and it won’t work. It will simply drive smokers into the hands of illegal traders and criminal gangs,” said Forest Director Simon Clark.

    “The consequences of the policy, which would eventually allow a 40-year-old to legally buy cigarettes while denying that right to a 39-year-old, are absurd.

    “Having stolen the idea from the previous New Zealand government, the prime minister should follow the example of the next New Zealand government and scrap this crazy idea.”

    On the same day of the announcement in New Zealand, Malaysia’s approved revisions to the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Bill 2023 that decoupled that country’s planned generational end game ban from the tobacco and vape control bill.

     

  • Report Finds Tobacco Control Efforts Have Slowed

    Report Finds Tobacco Control Efforts Have Slowed

    Photo: DenisNata

    Implementation of tobacco control policy measures required by the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) decelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to new data acquired by the Global Tobacco Control Progress Hub.

    The MPOWER tobacco control scorecard, which reports country-level implementation of key FCTC policy measures, reveals that two-thirds (68 percent) of 195 countries reported no improvement or a reduction in key policies to reduce tobacco use between 2020 and 2022, with one-third of countries (35 percent) reporting a decline. Only 32 percent of reporting countries reported an improvement.

    The largest declines occurred in low-income countries and those located in the eastern Mediterranean and southeast Asia. However, the slowdown was observed around the globe.

    “We are very concerned with the deceleration in the adoption of high-impact tobacco control policies,” said Joanna Cohen of the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in a statement.

    “This disruption is very troubling, especially following 12 years of steady progress in implementing these policies. We urge all countries to redouble efforts to reduce tobacco use to make up for lost ground. We cannot allow this setback to further impair global efforts to curb the tobacco epidemic. Progress delayed is improved health denied.”

    The news comes prior to an abbreviated summit of the FCTC treaty scheduled for later this week in Geneva. The treaty’s 10th Conference of the Parties (COP10) is being convened virtually on Nov. 23 and Nov. 24, to be followed by a full session in early 2024.

    “This slowdown is a wake-up call and we urge all countries to adopt strong measures to get tobacco control back on track and reignite global efforts to reduce tobacco use,” said Les Hagen of ASH Canada.

    “The enactment of high-impact tobacco control policies was delayed during the Covid-19 pandemic, and we cannot allow the tobacco industry to take further advantage of the situation. This disturbing slowdown could have dire consequences for millions of people worldwide, especially if it is sustained. We urge all FCTC Parties to throttle up efforts to reduce tobacco use and bend the curve back to its previous trajectory.”

    Introduced in 2003 by the WHO, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is the world’s only public health treaty. The treaty is credited with preventing millions of deaths resulting from tobacco use. Tobacco kills over eight million people annually worldwide, representing one of the leading causes of death and disease.

    The Global Tobacco Control Progress Hub is an independent public health treaty surveillance platform and it is a collaboration of ASH Canada and the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

  • Vuse Continues to Grow Market Share Over Juul

    Vuse Continues to Grow Market Share Over Juul

    Credit: RJR Vapor Co.

    The latest Nielsen convenience store report covering the period ending November 4th shows the market share for R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co.’s Vuse electronic cigarette continues to grow over rival Juul.

    Vuse’s market share rose from 41.8% to 42.1%, compared with No. 2 Juul being unchanged at 24.4%.

    As recently as May 2019, Juul held a 74.6% U.S. market share in the electronic cigarette category. That’s when a series of regulatory actions led to product-reduction concessions by Juul.

    Meanwhile, Altria Group’s ownership of No. 3 NJoy hasn’t resulted in a meaningful market-share increase so far. It remained unchanged at 2.5%, according to the Winston-Salem Journal.

    Fontem Ventures’ blu eCigs, an affiliate of Imperial Brands Plc, was unchanged at 1.3%.

    According to Barclays, Nielsen largely covers the big chains. For the smaller chains, the group extrapolates trends, which is why trend changes don’t appear immediately in Nielsen.

    Altria Group and British American Tobacco have issued a warning about the surge in “illicit” synthetic nicotine electronic cigarettes in the U.S. vaping market. Both companies have estimated those synthetic products represent about half of the overall domestic market.

    In July, BAT’s president and chief executive Tadeu Marroco expressed his frustration to analysts about the proliferation of “unauthorized products” in the U.S. vapor market.

    Marroco’s concerns come in large part because of the pivotal revenue role Vuse is playing toward BAT achieving its fiscal 2024 goal of achieving annual profitability for its new-category products and its 2025 goal of at least $6.4 billion in new-category product revenue.

    By comparison, Reynolds’ Vuse was down 1% in the latest report, while NJoy was down 13.7% and blu eCigs were down 15%. The overall e-cigarette category was down 8.1%.

    The recent heightened pressure on overall tobacco industry volumes and sales remained steady over the four-week period.

    The Nielsen report reflects the banning of traditional menthol cigarettes in California in December, which represents about 8% of the national marketplace.

  • Australian Lobbists Refuse to Disclose Vape Funding

    Australian Lobbists Refuse to Disclose Vape Funding

    Lobby groups in Australia representing convenience and grocery stores have refused to tell a Senate inquiry how much they receive in vaping and tobacco industry funding.

    The failure to disclose industry funding follows public hearings into the public health (tobacco and other products) bill earlier in November. It comes as concerns are raised about one lobby group having a parliamentary access pass, according to media reports.

    If introduced, the reforms will see updated and improved graphic warnings added to tobacco packaging and included on individual cigarettes, and specific additives in tobacco and vaping products, like menthols, banned.

    Neither the chief executive of the Australasian Association of Convenience Stores [AACS], Theo Foukkare, nor the chief executive of Master Grocers Australia [MGA], David Inall, disclosed the value of the funding their groups received from the vaping or tobacco industries, despite being asked to provide conflict-of-interest statements before attending.

    The AACS represents convenience stores and petrol stations, while the MGA is the industry association for independent grocery and convenience stores. Both groups have corporate members, including tobacco companies, and both groups support the tobacco industry’s campaign against plain packaging reforms.

    During the inquiry’s public hearings, Foukkare and Inall said proposed tobacco and vaping reforms would fuel the illicit markets, a claim rejected by health experts who gave evidence.

  • Costa Rican Health Ministry Warns of Vaping Dangers

    Costa Rican Health Ministry Warns of Vaping Dangers

    Credit: Joao

    The Costa Rican Ministry of Health in Costa Rica has again warned the population about the use of electronic cigarettes by minors and mentioned the provision that prohibits the sale of vaping products to youth.

    “In the last months worldwide, there have been events linking the use of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS), Similar Systems Without Nicotine (SNNS) and electronic devices that use heated tobacco, and analog technologies with lung diseases and even cases of death,” Costa Rican media reports.

    “For this reason, this ministry, in a statement, reminds and warns the population about the harmful effects associated with the use of these devices.”

    Vaping misinformation is rampant in Costa Rica.

    In 2021, the Red Nacional Antitabaco (RENATA) – National Anti-Smoking Network – expressed satisfaction with approving a law banning vaping in Costa Rica.

    “It is important to consider the vulnerability of all consumers of tobacco products, including electronic devices or vapers, to any disease of the respiratory system, since the first studies on the effects of the use of vaporizers and heated tobacco products show negative consequences for the lungs and the immune and cardiovascular systems,” said Nydia Amador, president of RENATA.

    RENATA also stated that vaping advocates “tried to confuse public opinion by claiming that vaping is 95 percent less harmful than tobacco use.”

    Many organizations, such as the United Kingdom’s Royal College of Physicians and Public Health England (PHE) have released studies that show vapor products have been scientifically proven to be 95 percent less harmful than cigarettes and related tobacco products. This is supported by the U.S. Academies of Science, which has also found that e-cigarettes have a lower harm profile than their combustible competition. 

  • PMI Expands IQOS Iluma in Middle East Region

    PMI Expands IQOS Iluma in Middle East Region

    Philip Morris International has launched IQOS Iluma in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain, with a goal of creating a smoke-free future in the Gulf Cooperation Council region, according to the Saudi Gazette.

    “Adult smokers may be unaware of the choices they are making, largely due to the lack of information and knowledge on products that bring them harm, versus scientifically backed products that reduce the likelihood of smoking-related disease,” said Tarkan Demirbas, area vice president of the Middle East at Philip Morris Management Services (Middle East) Limited. “At PMI, we are invested in providing existing adult smokers with better alternatives through harm reduction innovations, which can help them take a step back from cigarettes toward better alternatives.”

    “Smoking-related diseases today call for a pragmatic solution that places consumers at the forefront while moving away from cigarettes,” said Saim Yasin, director of marketing and digital at PMMS. “IQOS Iluma is our latest innovation in tobacco-heating systems that will accelerate our goal toward a smoke-free future. Through a growing portfolio of smoke-free alternatives, we are reaffirming our commitment to create realistic, society-wide change that can reimagine the world we are living in—without cigarettes.”

    The IQOS Iluma series offers three devices: IQOS Iluma Prime, IQOS Iluma and IQOS Iluma One. All the devices use new induction heating technology but offer different designs.

  • FDA Continues Crackdown on Youth Appealing Vapes

    FDA Continues Crackdown on Youth Appealing Vapes

    Credit: iCheer

    Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued warning letters to seven online retailers for selling and/or distributing unauthorized e-cigarettes.

    The unauthorized e-cigarettes are packaged to look like youth-appealing toys and drink containers, including milk cartons, soft drink bottles, and slushies. The products’ design may also help youth conceal the e-cigarettes from adults or be confused with an everyday object and the contents accidentally ingested by young children, according to the agency.

    “As we continue into the school year, it’s critical that parents, teachers, and other adults are aware of illegal e-cigarettes deceptively packaged to look like everyday items,” said Brian King, director of FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP). “These types of products can be easily concealed and contain nicotine, which is highly addictive and can harm the developing adolescent brain.”

    The unauthorized products described in the warning letters issued today include e-cigarettes that:

    • Imitate drink containers for youth-appealing drinks such as milk, soft drinks, and slushies.
    • Are designed to look like youth-appealing toys such as dice, phones, and action figures.

    “FDA uses a variety of surveillance tools to monitor the rapidly evolving e-cigarette landscape and to identify emerging threats to public health,” said Ann Simoneau, director of the Office of Compliance and Enforcement within the CTP. “We use data from these tools to help prioritize investigations of youth-appealing products across the supply chain to ensure illegal products stay off the shelves.”

    The retailers receiving these warning letters sell and/or distribute e-cigarettes in the United States that lack authorization from the FDA, which is a requirement under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic (FD&C) Act to legally market a new tobacco product.

    In addition to the specified products mentioned in the warning letters, the retailers were warned to address any violations that are the same as or similar to those stated in the warning letter, and promptly take any necessary actions to bring the tobacco products that they offer for sale in the United States into compliance with the FD&C Act.

    The seven retailers issued warning letters were given 15 working days to respond with the steps they will take to correct any violations and to prevent future violations. Failure to promptly correct the violations can result in additional FDA actions such as an injunction, seizure, and/or civil money penalties.

    Today’s warning letters are the latest in a series of FDA’s efforts across the supply chain to address illegal e-cigarettes that appeal to youth.

    As of November 2023, FDA has issued approximately 630 warning letters to firms for manufacturing and/or distributing illegal e-cigarette products and devices, issued more than 400 warning letters to retailers for the sale of unauthorized e-cigarettes, filed civil money penalty complaints against 35 e-cigarette manufacturers and 42 retailers for manufacture or sale of unauthorized products, and worked with the Department of Justice to seek injunctions against 6 manufacturers of unauthorized e-cigarettes.

  • Postponed COP10 Expected to Prioritize ENDS Rules

    Postponed COP10 Expected to Prioritize ENDS Rules

    Image: Tobacco Reporter archive

    The regulation of new and emerging e-cigarette, heated-tobacco and nicotine products will be one of the central topics of discussion at the COP10-MOP3 international tobacco control conferences next year, said Adriana Blanco, head of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), in a virtual press conference on Nov. 14, reported ECigIntelligence.

    Speaking from the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Blanco said that proposals to create more stringent rules and health guidelines to govern new tobacco and nicotine product use will be prioritized at the COP10 (10th Conference of the Parties to the WHO FCTC) and the MOP3 (third session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products), which will now take place in Panama next year.

    Last week, the WHO postponed COP10 to 2024 due to security issues for attendees and no new date has been announced.

  • Hyla Files to Market Vegan Vape Systems in EU

    Hyla Files to Market Vegan Vape Systems in EU

    Endexx Corp.’s Hyla division is filing an EU Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) application for its vegan formulated e-cigarette products.

    “Our proprietary botanical ingredient profile, flavoring and vegan sensitive formulations created in the United States will carry through in Hyla’s nicotine-enhanced products. These factors are what differentiate Hyla’s product quality,” stated Nick Mehdi, CEO of Hyla. “Hyla’s distribution partners in Europe are the top tobacco and e-cigarette distributors in Europe and have directly requested this product expansion due to ongoing demand and need for compliance leadership provided by Hyla.”

    The TPD registration accelerates Hyla’s product placement into Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Several of the listed countries have already reviewed Hyla’s non-nicotine products. The TPD registration opens the European market to all Hyla’s products.

    “Endexx’s investment into Hyla has generated early success by providing non-nicotine electronic devices into the international markets. The Hyla brand represents high-quality, vegan and natural products, with attention to all regulations and compliance required to conduct commerce in each country,” said Todd Davis, CEO of Endexx. “This registration process helps secure the success of our long-term target of being a dominant player in the international age-restricted CPG markets.”