20
TOBACCO BUSINESS
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2013
TMA REPORT
By FARRELL DELMAN
…In a new research paper presented at a
meeting of the American Chemical Society,
researcher Joseph Caruso said
hookah
tobacco and smoke
contain lower levels of
four toxic metals—arsenic, lead, cadmium
and chromium—that are found in cigarettes,
suggestinghookahsmokemaybe lessharmful.
He added, however, that health implications of
thefindingsarecomplicatedbydifferenceswith
cigarette smoking, such as number of puffs in
an hour-long hookah session (200) compared
with puffs from a cigarette (20), and that many
shisha smokers smoke less often than cigarette
smokers.
…Livingston, New Jersey-based e-cig
company
LOGIC Technology
announced
August27thataLOGIC-sponsoredclinicalstudy
conducted by Dr. Keith Ablow, a psychiatrist
who contributes commentary and analysis for
Fox News,
found that 70 percent of smokers
who were provided disposable e-cigs said that
theystoppedsmokingentirelyafter ninetydays,
47 percent of which also stopped using e-cigs
and continued not to smoke at the end of the
three-month trial.
…Prof. Brad Rodu of the University of
Louisvillesaid that recentmediacoverageof the
studyledbyDr.GregoryConnollyoftheHarvard
School of Public Health, which concluded that
72 percent of current
smokeless tobacco users
and 81 percent of snus anddissolvable tobacco
users also smoke cigarettes, used the results
“to attack tobacco harm reduction,” though
nothing in the study’s findings was damaging
or relevant to THR, adding that “it is clear that
Dr. Connolly was campaigning to insert…the
fictitious idea that [smokeless tobacco] use
causes smoking.”
…
Reynolds American
has hired J.L.
Mann Consulting, the lobbying firm of
former Democratic Pennsylvania House of
Representatives Member Jennifer Mann,
which will provide “strategic advisory services”
and work on RAI’s “transforming tobacco and
tobacco harmreduction initiatives” nationwide.
…The Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free
Alternative Association reported that in “the
first definitive study of
e-cigarette chemistry
,”
funded by CASAA, Prof. Igor Burstyn of the
Drexel University School of Public Health
reviewed over 9,000 observations about the
chemistry of e-cig vapor and e-liquids and
found “no evidence that vaping produces
inhalable exposures to contaminants of the
aerosol that would warrant health concerns by
the standards that are used to ensure safety of
workplaces.”
…An updated proposal in New York City,
which aims to
raise the legal age for buying
tobacco
products to 21, to ban retail display
of tobacco products, and to prohibit the use
of tobacco product coupons, now contains
language that targets e-cigs. The proposal
redefines “tobacco products” under city law
to include e-cigs and related components and
accessories, essentially banning the display of
e-cigarettes in retail stores and prohibiting the
sale of e-cigs and e-liquid in flavors other than
tobacco,menthol,mintandwintergreeninareas
other than age-restricted “tobacco bars.” Prof.
Michael Siegel of Boston University’s School
of Public Health opined that the preamble of
NYC’s proposedordinance to restrict the saleof
flavored e-cigs stating that “[e-cig] marketing is
often designed to deter smokers fromquitting,”
is an “inane statement,” given that e-cig
companies want their customers to replace
tobacco cigarettes with e-cigs, not to continue
smoking cigarettes. Siegel also questioned
why NYC would want to protect cigarette sales
and ban the sale of a product that hundreds of
thousands of consumers across the U.S. are
using to quit cigarette-smoking.
…The U.S. Food and Drug Administration
announced on September 26 that its Center
for Tobacco Products (CTP) Office of Science
issued additional tobacco product review
decisions, allowing the sale and marketing of
four new products through the
substantial
equivalence
pathway: 1) Elements Aficionado
1¼ roll-your-own papers and tips by HBI
International; 2) Elements Aficionado KS Slim
RYO papers and tips also by HBI International;
3) Top Regular 100MM RYO filtered cigarette
tubes byRepublicTobacco, LP; and4) TopGold
100MM RYO filtered cigarette tubes also by
Republic Tobacco, LP.
…Forty attorneys general sent a letter to the
FDA on September 24, urging it to issue by
October 31 proposed
regulations to address
e-cig advertising,
ingredients and sales to
minors, as “there are no federal age restrictions
that would prevent children from obtaining
e-cigarettes, nor are there any advertising
restrictions” at this time.
…On September 24, CASAA asked the
president to urge the FDA to take the time
needed to develop
science-based regulations
thatwill servepublichealth interests, rather than
“promptly” asserting authority over tobacco
products not currently under its jurisdiction as
requested recently by four health organizations.
…The CTP sent a warning letter with
reference number RW1300108 to Muhammad
Farooq of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, stating that
the smokeless tobacco products sold on his
website
are
misbranded because their ads do not carry
warning label statements
as required by the
Comprehensive Smokeless Tobacco Health
Education Act
, as amended by the
Family
Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control
Act.
The CTP sent a similar warning letter, also
on smokeless tobacco health warnings, with
reference number RW1300096 to Ira T. Lapides
of Gatlinburlier inGatlinburg, Tennessee.
…The CTP produced a seven-minute
training video to assist retailers in complying
withthefederallawagainstthesaleofcigarettes,
cigarette tobacco and smokeless tobacco to
On harm reductiOn…
Farrell Delman,
President, TMA
Breaking news From the tma
the following are excerpts from harm reduction, to-
bacco regulation and other tobacco-related news.
On the Fda…
