24
TOBACCO OUTLET BUSINESS
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012
TMA REPoRT
and processes unique to regulated tobacco products.
…
In a notice in the August 17
Federal Register
,
the FDA said
it is accepting comments until October 16, 2012 on the collection
of information on
Pretesting of Tobacco Communications
to
“
assess the likely effectiveness of tobacco communications with
specific target audiences,” which will provide knowledge about
target audiences and allow the agency to assess the potential
effectiveness of messages and materials in communicating with
intended audiences.
…
On August 21, the CTP hosted a webinar for small
businesses on “Common Issues Identified During FDA’s
Scientific Evaluation SE Reports” at
http://www.fda.gov
/
TobaccoProducts/ResourcesforYou/BreakTheChain/ucm220111.
htm?source=govdelivery.
…
Doug Anderson, president of the non-profit
We Card
Program
,
said the group is offering retailers online training at
www.wecard.org
to comply with the FDA’s tobacco regulations,
given the increase in the number of compliance check
inspections, which he noted totaled more than 11,000 in June
2012.
…
The Tobacco Law Team of the Troutman Sanders firm
attended the International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers
Association’s (IPCPR) trade show in Orlando noting that the
“
talk of the show” was the
FDA’s prospective regulation of
cigars
,
given that the
Traditional Cigar Manufacturing and Small
Business Jobs Preservation Act of 2011
,
which would exempt
premium hand-made cigars from such regulation, has not
moved out of committee even if there are 219 congressional co-
sponsors.
…
On August 7, the FDA announced a new section on its
Center for Tobacco Products website called
“
Tobacco Product
Review and Evaluation,”
which provides information on the
three “pathways” tomarket new tobacco products: 1) submitting
a Substantial Equivalence Report; 2) requesting an Exemption
from Substantial Equivalence; or 3) submitting a Premarket
Tobacco Product Application, along with the process for
modified risk tobacco product applications.
…
Questioning FDA commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg’s
recent statement praising the
Family Smoking Prevention and
Tobacco Control Act
,
Dr. Gilbert Ross of the American Council
on Science and Health said in a
Washington Examiner
op-ed
that the law’s past actions, such as banning flavored cigarettes
and forcing cigarette makers to disclose ingredients, “will
save
exactly zero smokers
,”
while some of the FDA’s futuremeasures
will actually be counterproductive, adding that the FSPTCA also
“
hurts public health by creating huge obstacles to tobacco harm
reduction”.
…
A study conducted by researchers at Clarkson
University’s Center for Air Resources Engineering and
Science in Potsdam, New York and sponsored by U.S.-based
e-cigarette organization National Vapors Club compared
levels of byproducts commonly found in cigarette smoke to
the levels of the same compounds in
vaporized e-cigarette
liquid
,
and found that most of the compounds were not
present in e-cigarette vapor, while the few compounds
that were found in the vapor were at such small levels that
toxicology analysis detected no risk to public health.
…
Apollo Electronic Cigarettes of Lafayette, California, said
October 3 that it is giving away
one million e-cigarettes
as its
“
commitment to growing the community of former cigarette
smokers and helping people lead healthier lives.”
…
Former U.S. Rep. Steve Buyer (R-Indiana), who fought
tobacco product regulation while he was in office from 1993
to 2011, said last month in testimony before the Indiana
General Assembly’s Health Finance Commission that he is
now working as “an
advocate of harm reduction strategies
”
for Reynolds American Inc.
…
BAT CEO Nicandro Durante said the company plans to
invest more than £100 million (US$ 161.4 million) to develop
alternative products to cigarettes
such as non-combustible
cigarettes, which heat tobacco instead of burning it, and
nicotine inhalers as increasing public smoking bans and
higher taxes could force smokers to quit or look for smokeless
alternatives in the coming years.
In an update report on the
U.S. e-cigarette category,
UBS analysts said a UBS-CSP survey of c-store retailers
representing over 10,000 locations found that 80 percent
of the respondents saw the category grow over the past
12
months, 78 percent believe the category will continue
to grow, and about 50 percent said they carry at least two
e-cigarette brands.
…
Prof. Michael Siegel of Boston University’s School of
Public Health said the eight US anti-smoking organizations
that have called for e-cigarettes to be removed from the
market received a total of $2.8 million from Pfizer alone in
2011
andthe first half of 2012 according to the drug maker’s
financial contribution reports, yet the groups repeatedly
failed to disclose their financial interests in “Big Pharma,”
which “stands to lose enormously if e-cigarettes become
increasingly popular.”
…
Commenting on the September 26 statement by
Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANR), that proponents
of e-cigarettes are “
misleading the public
about these
products …despite their potential health risks [and]…despite
a lack of independent peer-reviewed scientific evidence
demonstrating the safety or efficacy of the products for
smoking cessation,” Prof. Siegel said ANR has no evidence
to back its allegation that e-cigarette companies know the
device is not useful in cessation, and ANR is lying when it
says there is no scientific evidence that e-cigarettes are an
effective cessation tool.
…
The Smoke-FreeAlternatives TradeAssociation (SFATA),
which was formed in March with the mission “to create a
cohesive, self-regulatory structure that serves and protects
consumer and stakeholder interests by developing and
maintaining the highest quality standard in the promotion,
education, and public safety of
personal vaporizing devices,
usually marketed as electronic cigarettes,” will make its
national debut at the 2012 NACS Show to be held October
7-10
in Las Vegas, Nevada.
ON HARM REDUCTION…