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TOBACCO OUTLET BUSINESS
JULY/AUGUST 2012
TMA REPORT
on harm reduction ...
flavored cigars, the emergence of which they alleged
“is a transparent effort by Big Tobacco to work around”
the Tobacco Control Act’s ban on flavored cigarettes.
Prof. Michael Siegel of Boston University’s School of
Public Health said in regards to products that appeal to
children, the most important loophole in the FDA law is
the exemption of menthol cigarettes, not the flavored
cigar exemption.
…In what may be a first step towards announcing
jurisdiction over a broader set of tobacco products
,
the FDA announced two new research funding grants:
1) “Study to Measure the Subjective, Physiological and
Puff Topography Measures and Perception of Flavored
Little Cigars” to understand risks to children and
adolescents, how risks of using flavored little cigars are
perceived, and how using the products affect health,
and 2) “Research and analysis of clinical pharmacology
of tobacco products” to “evaluate the pharmacokinetics
and pharmacodynamics of nicotine, its metabolites,
as well as tobacco specific toxic compounds [of]…
dissolvable tobacco products, e-cigarettes, little cigars,
and hookahs.”
…Prof. Michael Siegel said that upon meeting Lorillard
CEO Murray Kessler at TMA’s Annual Meeting, “it is clear
[that] Lorillard is committed to developing a thriving
business for its blu product, and that means a willingness
to
promote smoking cessation
via blu cigs,” while anti-
smoking groups continue to discourage e-cigarette
use and essentially want smokers to return to cigarette
smoking.
…
The Wall Street Journal
reported that Altria Group
Inc. is planning to begin selling in more than 50 stores
in Virginia by early June a
non-dissolving, lozenge-
shaped nicotine disc
called VERVE, which, unlike the
smokeless tobacco products currently sold in the U.S.,
will be tobacco-free and contain only nicotine extracted
from tobacco, a crucial distinction that
WSJ
noted is likely
to permit Altria to market the chewable, mint-flavored
disc with milder health warning labels than those
required for cigarettes and smokeless products. Altria
later announced on May 23 that its subsidiary Nu Mark
will introduce VERVE, whose primary ingredients are
“tobacco-derived nicotine, non-tobacco cellulose fibers,
flavorings and a polymer.”
on taxation ...
…U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), Frank
Lautenberg (D-New Jersey) and Richard Blumenthal
(D-Connecticut) on May 10 introduced the
Tobacco Tax
Equity Act,
legislation that would “equalize” the Federal
excise tax on all tobacco products at the same per unit
level as that on cigarettes, with the move following a
recent Government Accountability Office report that
highlighted a market substitution of the lower-taxed pipe
tobacco for the more expensive roll-your-own tobacco
following the 2009 SCHIP Federal excise tax changes,
as well as a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
report that estimated the tax revenue losses at more
than $1.3 billion for the Federal and State governments
because of this substitution.
…
China will ban the sale
and import of cigarettes
containing more than 11 milligrams of tar per piece,
starting January 1, 2013, according to a State Tobacco
Monopoly Administration statement posted April 25 to
the government’s website.
…In a letter to India’s Ambassador to the U.S.,
Nirupama Rao, five U.S. trade groups, including the U.S.
India Business Council, opposed the Indian Commerce
Ministry’s proposal for
a complete ban on foreign direct
investment
in the tobacco industry, saying proponents
of the ban have “cited public health as a justification, but
since there is absolutely no difference in the health effects
from consuming Indian or foreign tobacco products, that
argument cannot be taken seriously.”
TOB
on trade protectionism ...