26
TOBACCO BUSINESS
MARCH/APRIL 2014
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 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 Department of Health and
Human Services’ Safety Reporting
Portal now has a new category
for tobacco products, providing a
standardized way for consumers and
health care professionals to let the FDA
know when they suspect an
unexpected
health or safety issue with a specific
tobacco product
, such as a product
believed to be damaged, defective or
contaminated, to have a strange taste
or smell, or to cause allergic reactions,
poisonings, or an unusual reaction in a
longtime user, among other problems.
…The
Smoke-Free Alternatives
Trade Association
’s Annual Summit
was rescheduled from January 2014 to
sometime in the spring, given that no
FDA deeming regulations have been
issued and an abundance of e-cig/vapor
conferences closed out 2013. However,
SFATA will offer a webinar free to
its members to review the deeming
regulations once they are released.
…The National Academies posted
on its website a public announcement
regarding the Committee on the Health
Implications of
Raising the Minimum
Age for Purchasing Tobacco Products
(IOM-BPH-13-02),
whereby
the
Institute of Medicine will establish an ad
hoc committee of public health, medical,
and other experts to conduct a study
and prepare a report to be issued to the
FDA CTP on the likely public health
impact of raising the minimum age to
buy tobacco products to 21 and to 25.
…As the
European Parliament
considers proposed revisions to the EU
Tobacco Product Directive (TPD),
some member states, including France,
Belgium, Finland, Ireland and the UK,
are expressing strong support for the
European Commission’s proposal, while
other nations, mostly from eastern and
southern Europe, are opposing the
measure,claiming that it would harm their
economies and hurt thousands of families
that depend on tobacco cultivation
for their living. Commenting on this
opposition, EU Health Commissioner
Tonio Borg said he is worried that
economic concerns are starting to
dominate what is predominantly a
health issue, and British MEP Linda
McAvan, who is guiding the legislation
through Parliament, verbalized her belief
that the economic objections being
used by MEPs and member states are
actually coming from the tobacco lobby.
…A Nielsen survey of empty cigarette
packs collected from 20 cities and
towns in Lithuania between September
and October 2013 found that 28.2
percent of the
packs were illegal
.
…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 like the mezcal-
based “Oaxacan Fizz” at the Father’s
Office restaurant in Los Angeles,
which is sweetened with pipe tobacco-
infused sugar syrup, the bourbon-based
“Smoker’s Delight” at the restaurant
named PX 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., incorporating
a dash of homemade tobacco
bitters and cynar, an Italian liqueur.
…On January 10 in the U.S. District
Court in Washington, D.C., the U.S.
Department of Justice andmajor cigarette
makers filed an agreement on
publishing
corrective statements
per U.S. District
Judge Gladys Kessler’s November 2012
ruling ordering the companies to pay for
corrective ads that say they misled the
public about the dangers of smoking.
Each company must publish full-page ads
in the Sunday editions of 35 newspapers
and on the newspapers’ websites, in
primetime TV spots on CBS, ABC or
NBC five times per week for a year, on
the companies’ websites, and on a certain
number of cigarette packs three times
per year for two years. Each corrective
ad is to be prefaced by a statement
that a federal court concluded that the
defendants “deliberately deceived the
American public.”The ads are to include
five categories of corrective statements:
1) the adverse health effects of smoking;
2) the addictiveness of smoking and
nicotine; 3) the lack of significant health
benefits from smoking cigarettes with
descriptors like “low tar” and ‘‘light;” 4)
the manipulation of cigarette design and
composition to ensure optimum nicotine
delivery; and 5) the adverse health
effects of exposure to environmental
tobacco smoke. Some of the statements
read, “Smoking kills, on average,
1,200 Americans. Every day;” “Philip
Morris USA, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco,
Lorillard, and Altria intentionally
designed cigarettes to make them more
addictive;” and “There is no safe level
of exposure to secondhand smoke.”
…TheStreet.com reports that
“discerning” marijuana smokers are
switching
from pipes and other smoking
devices
to vaporizers
marketed for use
with nicotine liquids because they can
get more THC from vapor rather than
smoke without damaging their throats
and lungs.
TB
TMA REPORT
ON OTHER tobacco news…
