- Details
- Category: October 2018
Two dramatically different views on the best way forward in reining in smoking were on display, with organizers and activists maintaining the tobacco companies had nothing to offer, and the industry insisting its new products are key to halting a smoking epidemic that causes some 7 million deaths each year.
“This is not a time to be complacent,” Vera Luiza da Costa e Silva, who heads the secretariat of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), said as delegates from 137 countries gathered to discuss the treaty.
- Details
- Category: November 2018
In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched an anti-smoking mass media campaign that included ads featuring Rebecca, a real person who agreed to speak on camera about her use of tobacco and her struggles with depression.
About 32 percent of people with mental health conditions smoke compared to 23 percent of smokers without mental illness. The CDC’s 2016 Tips from Former Smokers or "Tips" campaign [...] was one of the first to deliberately feature someone who had a mental health condition and successfully quit smoking.
- Details
- Category: October 2018
The New Nicotine Alliance (NNA) is urging UK delegates who are attending the WHO FCTC’s COP8 summit in Geneva, to promote the country’s success in reducing smoking rates, thanks to endorsing e-cigarettes for harm reduction and smoking cessation. [...] “COP8 is a perfect opportunity for the UK to showcase this success and share our positive experience with the world.
Sarah Jakes, Chair, New Nicotine Alliance
- Details
- Category: November 2018
With votes by Italy’s League and Five Stars (Coalition), the consumption tax on e-liquids is reduced by a significant 90% on non-nicotine-containing liquids, and 80% on the nicotine containing types. With regards to online sales, e-cig manufacturers will also be able to sell e-liquids online after registering with the tax (customs) warehouse. Additionally, from now on, manufacturers must comply with the European Tobacco Directive (TPD), and can only sell nicotine liquids that contain a maximum nicotine concentration of 20 milligrams per milliliter.
- Details
- Category: October 2018
"Cigarette" might appear in the term "e-cigarette" but that is as far as their similarities extend, reports a new Northwestern Medicine report published Friday, [...] Assuming e-cigarettes are equal to cigarettes could lead to misguided research and policy initiatives, the paper says.
"Comparing cigarettes to e-cigarettes can give us a false sense of what dangers exist because it misses the gap in understanding how people use them and how they can make people dependent," said first author Matthew Olonoff [...]
- Details
- Category: November 2018
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today issued a warning letter to Electric Lotus LLC for selling nicotine-containing e-liquids used in e-cigarettes with labeling and/or advertising that cause them to resemble kid-friendly food products, such as cereal, candy and peanut butter and jelly. [...] “We’re seeing too many cases where companies are designing e-liquid products in packages that resemble children’s food items and this sort of egregious marketing can lead to accidental ingestion of potentially lethal doses of nicotine by young kids.
- Details
- Category: October 2018
Seventy leading public health experts and anti-tobacco campaigners have urged the World Health Organization to adopt a more sympathetic attitude to ecigarettes and other alternatives to smoking, “which have the potential to bring the epidemic of smoking-caused disease to a more rapid conclusion”.
Their joint letter to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, is intended to influence this week’s conference of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in Geneva, which frames international health policy on the issue.
- Details
- Category: November 2018
No health issue has the capacity to divide public opinions more than smoking.
Even as countries around the world introduce more measures to curb the unhealthy habit, industry players, experts and consumers are calling on authorities to hold discussions and work towards substituting regular tobacco products with purportedly less harmful options such as e-cigarettes. For one, governments in Asia are largely averse to having such discussions as the debate over the issue remains “polarised and emotional”, said Professor Tikki Pangestu, [...]
- Details
- Category: October 2018
As delegates gather for the World Health Organization's (WHO) biennial conference on tobacco, the authors of a new report, "No Fire, No Smoke: Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction," are fiercely criticizing the WHO's record. The public health experts accuse the WHO of failing to comply with international treaty obligations to back reduced-harm alternatives to smoking. They deplore that the WHO instead recommends bans on e-cigarettes—a move that has been implemented by dozens of countries.
- Details
- Category: November 2018
One in two forensic mental health patients in Christchurch are believed to have used synthetic drugs, which is contributing to significant numbers of mental health admissions.
Patients are routinely arriving at Hillmorton Hospital under the influence of the drugs, also known as synthetic cannabinoids, according to staff.
Users could display schizophrenia-like symptoms, and become aggressive and agitated, according to a leading psychiatrist. [...]
- Details
- Category: October 2018
California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) on Saturday vetoed a proposed ban on smoking at state parks and beaches for the third year in a row.
Three bills passed by state legislators would have imposed $25 fines on the use of tobacco, marijuana and e-cigarettes at parks and beaches, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The measures cited wildfire concerns and public health as reasons to ban smoking in those outdoor areas.
- Details
- Category: November 2018
Union health ministry has directed all States to make government buildings and offices “Tobacco Free” in order to protect public health. Health secretary Preeti Sudan has written to all State Chief Secretaries and Secretaries of all government departments that the ministry is ready to extend any technical support if required for the initiative. [...] The ministry of health and family welfare housed in Nirman Bhawan has already taken this initiative and issued a circular for banning use of any form of tobacco in the building.
- Details
- Category: October 2018
Philip Morris International has filed a lawsuit against the South Korean government, demanding the disclosure of detailed information on Seoul’s recent test results of harmful substances found in electronic cigarettes.
The lawsuit against the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety follows its announcement in June that five cancer-causing substances were found in heated tobacco products, with the level of tar detected in some of them far exceeding that of conventional cigarettes.
- Details
- Category: November 2018
Phillip Morris South Africa is offering a new range of reduced risk products to reach their vision of a smoke free world.
- Details
- Category: October 2018
Ireland risks missing its tobacco-free target date of 2025 by 27 years, the HSE has warned.
The shocking delay is putting new pressure on Health Minister Simon Harris to soften his stance on e-cigarettes to help more smokers quit.
The Government is committed to being "tobacco-free" - with less than 5pc of the population still smokers - by 2025.
But the HSE report says that, based on current trends, this target will not be met until 2052.
- Details
- Category: November 2018
The decision by the Scottish Government has already sparked fear that greedy lags are stockpiling cigarettes and tobacco before flogging them for up to 25 times their value. It’s estimated that 80 per cent of Scots lags smoke so there will be no shortage of takers looking for an illicit puff.
We’ve already told how inmates are being offered e-cigs and vaping kits, inset, to help wean them off fags.
- Details
- Category: October 2018
Tobacco sustains 50 million livelihoods in India and earns substantial revenue through exports and tax, but it also kills a million citizens every year and mounts an economic burden of over Rs 1 lakh crore in direct and indirect costs.
Caught between these two competing forces are the country’s 27 crore users who find themselves pushed to the frontlines in the state’s half-hearted war against tobacco.
- Details
- Category: November 2018
The Altria Group, whose fortune was built on traditional cigarette brands like Marlboro, is in talks to buy a minority stake in Juul Labs, the start-up that has captured much of the market for e-cigarettes, two people briefed on the matter said on Wednesday.
If a deal is struck, Altria will get a piece of a popular e-cigarette maker — but one that critics say has targeted teenage customers.
- Details
- Category: October 2018
Every two years, the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control meet to discuss how to advance the treaty. [...]
I was one of those agitating for the FCTC back in 1999-2003. Generally, the FCTC doesn’t do what normal international treaties do – address some transboundary issue like climate change, international trade or intellectual property. It tries to establish norms for regulation of tobacco commerce within countries – a kind of solidarity mechanism for national anti-tobacco policy.
- Details
- Category: November 2018
Smokers who switch to vaping don't lapse for long—according to new research from the University of East Anglia. While vapers may occasionally have the odd smoking lapse, they don't see it as 'game over' for their quit attempt and it doesn't have to lead to a full relapse. Lead researcher Dr. Caitlin Notley, from UEA's Norwich Medical School, said: "E-cigarettes are the most popular aid to quitting smoking in the UK. [...]