Author: Bill Tarling

“According to state c-store owners, cigarette sales in the state dropped 24 percent in August, two months post-prohibition, and the state has seen a nearly $32 million drop in tobacco excise taxes in the three months since its first-in-the-nation ban on menthol cigarettes took effect. “We are not surprised to see the revenue losses continue to add up in Massachusetts, nor are we shocked to see New Hampshire reaping the benefits of the policy,” said Jonathan Shaer, executive director of the NECSEMA. “They are now being brought into Massachusetts from over its borders for personal consumption and illegal distribution. The state and our stores both lose,” he added.”

ARTICLE LINK:

Flavored Tobacco Ban Impacts Cigarette Sales in Massachusetts

“European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (ETHRA) is launching a major survey. The survey is available in 10 different languages. Published in the run up to the revision of the European Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), this is the only questionnaire to survey nicotine consumers, the people most affected by possible regulatory changes to nicotine products. ETHRA brings together 22 European groups representing consumers of safer nicotine products. It is calling for maximum consumer participation and is asking for consumers to take part in the survey and help with its distribution by sharing on social media.”

ARTICLE LINK:

Major Survey Launch

“One of China’s most adamantly anti-smoking cities has vowed to stop selling e-cigarettes near schools and reduce children’s exposure to secondhand smoke at home as part of a new “smoke-free communities” campaign. In a more focused update to its “smoke-free city” campaign launched in 2018, the southern metropolis of Shenzhen pledged Saturday to strictly prohibit the sale of not only tobacco products but also e-cigarettes within 50 meters of primary and middle schools. Shenzhen, despite producing around 95% of the world’s e-cigarettes, has some of the strictest e-cigarette policies in China, having last year included vaping under its ban on smoking in public.”

ARTICLE LINK:

Shenzhen Expands Its War on Tobacco, E-Cigarettes

“E-cigarettes and vaping products are facing headwinds from all sides — from regulatory challenges to competition from nicotine replacement products to disruption amid COVID-19, which has nudged some vapers back to combustible tobacco products. Municipal and state bans are nothing new to vape manufacturers and retailers. And until federal guidelines, in the form of policy and/or legislation, set a standard for all jurisdictions those local restrictions will continue to trouble more convenience operators. Still, demand for e-cigs and vape products continues to grow. C-store dollar sales of electronic cigarettes have risen a hefty 6.8% for the 52 weeks ending Aug. 9, according to IRI, and unit sales are surging, seeing a 15.6% rise for the same period.”

ARTICLE LINK:

Vape Steams Ahead

“A quit smoking programme which uses vaping as a stepping stone has seen 70 per cent of participants ditching or cutting down on cigarettes. Te Piki Oranga quit coach Sonia Hepi-Treanor has spearheaded the programme since 2017. More than 100 had taken part in the Nelson-Tasman area and 90 per cent of referrals used vaping devices as a tool to quit smoking. She said the success rate was more than 70 per cent. Success was not just about quitting, but could be making a big reduction in cigarettes smoked a day, and saving money.”

ARTICLE LINK:

Vaping successfully helping whānau to quit smoking

“Governments should regulate vaping based on a scientific approach that would allow users to be informed of the facts, say industry players. This startling admission followed a “vaping conversations” webinar conducted by the Vapour Products Association of SA (VPASA), during which the panellists agreed that science-based regulation was vital to educate consumers and end the ongoing controversies around vaping safety. “Contrary to popular belief, the industry wants to be regulated,” said VPASA CEO Asanda Gcoyi. She stressed, however, that any laws — which would protect both users and the industry — should be guided by science. “Unfortunately, the influence of the World Health Organisation (WHO), fake news around electronic vapour products-associated lung injury (EVALI), the moral panic around certain brands and the idea of the ‘gateway theory’, which has been disproved, have all influenced negative perceptions of EVP and electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS),” she said.”

ARTICLE LINK:

Vaping industry would welcome regulation, ‘but please be scientific’

NEBRASKA
“AG Peterson Joins Coalition Urging Creative Community to Protect Young Viewers from Tobacco Imagery. Mitigate the historic and cumulative impact of watching tobacco imagery by running strong anti-tobacco spots, especially before content with smoking or vaping. Attorney General Peterson joins the attorneys general of Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, the Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, the Virgin Islands, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin in sending the letters.”

ARTICLE LINK:
AG Peterson Joins Coalition Urging Creative Community to Protect Young Viewers from Tobacco Imagery

CALIFORNIA
“California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson today led a coalition of 43 attorneys general in urging the creative community to take action to protect young viewers from tobacco imagery in streamed movies and programs. Letters were sent to the Directors Guild of America, Producers Guild of America, Screenwriters Guild of America, Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees.”

ARTICLE LINK:
Attorneys General Becerra and Peterson Lead Bipartisan Coalition in Urging Creative Community to Protect Young Viewers from Tobacco Imagery

OHIO
“Yost believes the guilds’ assistance and support is critical to stopping the renormalization and glamorization of tobacco use, especially youth vaping.”

ARTICLE LINK:
AG Yost Joins Coalition Urging Hollywood to Protect Young People from Tobacco Imagery

NORTH CAROLINA
“Attorney General Josh Stein today urged the creative community to take action to protect young viewers from tobacco imagery in streamed movies and programs.”

ARTICLE LINK:
Attorney General Josh Stein Works to Protect Young Viewers from Tobacco Imagery and Vaping Risks

MICHIGAN
“Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel recently joined a coalition of 43 attorneys general in urging the creative community to take action to protect young viewers from tobacco imagery in streamed movies and programs.”

ARTICLE LINK:

Attorney General Nessel Joins Bipartisan Coalition

“Lame duck City Council member Michael Nowakowski has decided that one of his last moves in office is to try and ban flavored tobacco products, including everything from vapes to wintergreen dip and menthol cigarettes. Assuming he’s doing this to combat illegal underage vaping, the intent of his proposal is admirable, but the approach is dangerously misguided. A prohibition on these adult products is shortsighted and has the potential to do irreversible economic harm that affects more than me, but also my employees and their families. If the Phoenix City Council votes to implement a flavored tobacco ban, it will only further decimate small, locally owned businesses that have struggled to stay afloat in recent months.”

ARTICLE LINK:

City Council proposal to ban flavored tobacco will devastate small business

“A Kentucky-based e-cigarette retailer lacks standing to challenge an FDA deadline for regulatory filings on vapor and nicotine products because the deadline was issued by a federal judge, not the government, the Sixth Circuit held Monday. U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell, an appointee of George W. Bush, sided with the government and ruled that Vapor Stockroom could not sue the FDA because any injury caused by the accelerated deadline was the result of action by the federal judge in Maryland. A three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit agreed with Caldwell in a brief, 11-page per curiam opinion on Monday. “The Maryland court’s injunction was not an action by the FDA – it was an action taken by the court itself,” the ruling states.”

ARTICLE LINK:

Sixth Circuit Tosses Challenge to E-Cigarette Paperwork Deadline

“The Irish Heart Foundation is urging the Government to introduce an excise tax of 6c per millilitre of e-cigarette liquid – which would add in the region of 10-25% to the price of e-cigarettes.”

BILL TARLING — The organizations continue to use the repeatedly debunked bogus claims of e-liquid vape products being a strong smoking gateway [even though all legitimate science and studies from various countries have found it was not only a deterrent from smoking, it was also the most successful product in creating ex-smokers

ARTICLE LINK:

Government facing calls to introduce new tax on e-cigarettes