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TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
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argued that
taxing e-cigs
at the same rate
as cigarettes would reduce an incentive
for smokers to switch to the devices,
which some studies have said are much
less harmful. Critics like state Health and
Human Services Secretary Terry Cline and
the American Cancer Society’s deputy
medical officer Dr. Leonard Lichtenfeld
counter that existing evidence on e-cigs
is not enough to recommend the devices
as a safer alternative to cigarettes or as a
cessation aid.
…Appearing on “The Diane Rehm
Show” on National Public Radio to
discuss the latest Surgeon General’s
report that expands the list of adverse
health effects caused by smoking,
FDA
Center for Tobacco Products Director
Mitch Zeller
commented that the report
“is a clarion call that the real harms are
associated with the use of the combusted
products and, principally, cigarettes.” He
noted that the FDA has an opportunity
under the Family Smoking Prevention and
Tobacco Control Act to reduce smoking-
related morbidity and mortality by both
informing the public and using regulatory
tools to try to shift people away from the
most harmful forms of nicotine delivery.
Zeller also acknowledged that “[i]f a
current smoker, otherwise unable or
unwilling to quit, completely substituted
all of the combusting cigarettes that they
smoked with an electronic cigarette at
the individual level, that person would
probably be significantly reducing their
risk,” but added that the challenge for the
FDA, as it shapes e-cig regulation, is to
figure out what the net population-level
health impacts would be.
…The FDA launched an “
advisory
committee membership nomination
portal
,” an online interactive system that
allows individuals to submit membership
applications to any of the agency’s 33
advisory committees, including those for
non-voting industry representatives on
the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory
Committee.
…In a letter to the FDA, the
National
Association of Tobacco Outlets
(NATO)
called on the agency to immediately
remove two TV commercials from its
new $115 million multimedia youth
anti-smoking campaign dubbed “The
Real Cost.” NATO asserted that the ads,
which show a c-store clerk selling a
cigarette pack to a girl and a boy without
checking their photo identification and
accepting a piece of the girl’s facial skin
and an extracted molar from the boy
as partial payment for the cigarettes,
are a “false portrayal” of a real world
transaction involving cigarette sales and
are “offensive” to the retail industry.
…National Public Radio’s food news
program “The Salt” reports that even as
smoking bans spread across the U.S.,
mixologists are
bringing tobacco back to
bars
by using it as an ingredient in their
mixed drinks. Such practices include
the mezcal-based “Oaxacan Fizz” at
Father’s Office restaurant in Los Angeles,
which is sweetened with pipe tobacco-
infused sugar syrup, the bourbon-based
“Smoker’s Delight” at PX restaurant in
Alexandria, Virginia, which contains a
sweet tea made with pipe tobacco or
clove cigarettes, and the cognac-based
“Step-dad” at Bar Charley in Washington,
D.C., which incorporates a dash of
“homemade tobacco bitters” and cynar,
an Italian liqueur.
…Despite Governor Made Mangku
Pastika of Bali, Indonesia cancelling the
international cigarette and other tobacco
products trade exhibition known as
Inter-
Tabac Asia 2014
that was scheduled to
be held in Nusa Dua on February 27 to
28, the management of the Bali Tourism
Development Center has reportedly
begun preparations for hosting the event,
saying it obtained a permit from the
police.
…An unnamed source at Ukraine’s
diplomatic mission in Geneva said that
under current political circumstances in
Ukraine, “it may be very difficult to find
money to continue” its case against
Australia’s plain-packaging legislation
,
which was launched by now-ousted
President Viktor Yanukovich in March
2012 at the World Trade Organization, as
Ukraine’s future trade policy is likely to be
focused more on concrete steps to help
its ailing economy than on “theoretical”
questions about tobacco products,
though the source added that the
legal challenge might continue if other
countries help fund it.
…After British American Tobacco
reported its 2013 results, Legal Director
Neil Withington said in an interview that
if the UK government requires
plain
packaging for cigarettes
, the company
would consider filing a legal challenge to
protect “consumers’ rights to choose and
our ability to compete.”
…A federal trial judge in Ohio recently
denied the
plaintiff’s motion for class
certification
in the Phillips Lights case,
which Morgan Stanley analysts said
continues “the industry’s universal
success in defeating the class certification
of federal ‘Lights’ cases” on the basis that
common issues do not “predominate”
and that the class structure is not a
“superior” litigation form, with all existing
class-certified ‘Lights’ cases residing in
state courts.
TBI
TMA REPORT
ON THE FDA…
ON OTHER tobacco news…
