Page 9 - TOB Magazine Jan/Feb 2013

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TOBACCO OUTLET BUSINESS
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013
TMA REPORT
uncommon, it is possible that the case will get the full
court hearing for having “extraordinary” significance
or involving disagreements between appeals courts on
similar issues, adding that if the full appellate court does
not overturn its panel’s decision against the proposed
warning labels, the DOJ is likely to appeal to the U.S.
Supreme Court.
…In an interview with the editor of the Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation’s publication New Public Health,
Dr. Lawrence Deyton, director of the FDA Center for
Tobacco Products, said among other things that: the CTP
wants comments from all stakeholders on its proposed
regulations; the CTP’s “vision is to make tobacco-related
disease and death part of America’s past, not its future;”
regulation of tobacco products is “a new arrow in the
prevention quiver” and uses a “new standard that takes a
population health approach;” and the CTP hopes to “get
a regulatory proposal about FDA jurisdiction over other
tobacco products out for comment in the near future.”
…The CTP recently awarded tobacco retail
compliance inspection contracts to Idaho, Montana and
South Carolina, bringing the total number of states that
conduct retail inspections on behalf of the FDA to 40.
…A Food and Drug Administration notice published in
the Federal Register on October 5 requests nominations
for voting members to serve on the agency’s Tobacco
Products Scientific Advisory Committee and specifies that
it seeks to include the views of women and men, members
of all racial and ethnic groups, and individuals with and
without disabilities on its advisory committees. Another
FDA notice says the FDA is accepting nominations for an
upcoming vacancy for a non-voting industry representative
to represent tobacco growers on the TPSAC, and requests
that industry organizations interested in participating in the
selection notify the agency in writing.
…The FDA sent a warning letter to Yuriy Pak of
Cendano Corporation Ltd in Gibraltar, stating that some
cigarettes offered for sale to US customers on his
websites galastore.com, shopcig.com, mcity4.com, and
cigarettesmania.com are adulterated under the Federal
Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act , as amended by the Family
Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act , because
they are promoted as modified risk tobacco products,
with the descriptors “Lights” and “Super Lights,” without
an FDA order in effect that allows such promotion.
…Speaking strictly in a personal capacity
during an interview conducted by Paul Bergen of
TobaccoHarmReduction.org for E-Cigarette Direct,
Clive Bates, former director of Action on Smoking and
Health UK, said “[t]he idea of ‘harm reduction’ is always
controversial,” whether for needle exchanges for IV
drug users, contraception for teenagers, or even bicycle
helmets, adding that while some people think that
promoting anything other than complete abstinence is
“an unacceptable compromise,” that approach does not
account for real human behavior.
…The National Institute for Health and Clinical
Excellence (NICE) in the UK launched a public
consultation on October 24 that ran until December
19 on its draft guidance, “Tobacco: harm-reduction
approaches to smoking,” which recommends, among
other things, that health professionals and smoking
cessation advisers offer NRT products, either singly
or in combination, to smokers, depending on the
individual’s preference and level of dependence, while
also informing smokers that some nicotine-containing
products such as electronic cigarettes, which are not
currently regulated by the Medicines and Healthcare
Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), are likely to be
less harmful than cigarettes.
…Commenting on the World Health Organization’s
recommendation in its 2012 report on e-cigarettes
that parties to the Framework Convention on Tobacco
Control prohibiting the device as allowing them would
contradict the FCTC objective of reducing tobacco use,
Prof. Siegel of Boston University’s School of Public
Health questioned how using e-cigarettes to quit
or reduce smoking would lead to an increase in the
“prevalence of tobacco use,” when there is no evidence
that smokers who would otherwise have quit smoking
are using e-cigarettes as an alternative to quitting, or
that non-smoking youth are becoming addicted to
smoking after using e-cigarettes.
…The UK National Institute of Health and Clinical
Excellence is soon expected to release its draft guidance
on tobacco harm reduction that will evaluate the efficacy
and cost-effectiveness of nicotine replacement therapy,
other nicotine-containing products such as electronic
cigarettes, behavioral support and counseling, and self-
help techniques in helping smokers cut down on or quit
smoking.
…Dr. Steve Stotesbury, head of regulatory science
at Imperial Tobacco, writes in EurActiv.com that the
emergence of smokeless tobacco in Sweden, and
more recently in Norway, should make the European
Commission reconsider its ban on the product, as
some researchers and organizations believe it may help
reduce smoking-related illnesses, and “[u]nderstanding
On Harm reduction…