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- Category: September 2019
Ten lakh people in India die from tobacco-related diseases every year. India, after China, has the second largest population of tobacco consumers in the world—30 crore consume oral tobacco, mainly women in rural areas, often risking head and neck cancers, and another 20 crore, predominantly men, risk lung cancer, coronary artery disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by smoking. Health policy should aim to add years to life and add life to years. As smoking and oral tobacco take so many lives in India, reducing the number of such deaths should be high priority for policy makers and medical professionals. Fortunately, technological advances have made that task easier. In 2004, Chinese pharmacist Hon Lik developed the world’s first commercially viable electronic cigarette. This produces an aerosol that provides nicotine while avoiding the tar and other toxic products of tobacco combustion.
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- Category: September 2019
Information revealed in the Senate this week is the first detail made public since the ANU vaping study was commissioned last year and it has transpired that our Health Minister Greg Hunt did not even provide any terms of reference to the ANU before granting them the $750,000 to undertake the study. Yes, we believe that Greg Hunt's vape study delay is designed to kill off vaping (and kill Australian smokers)! A two-year wait until an Australian National University (ANU) scientific study into vaping is completed which may lead to a change in government policy could see at least 38,000 Australians die unnecessarily. Legalise Vaping Australia Campaign Director Brian Marlow said instead of waiting for two years and 38,000 deaths to complete yet another review of the evidence, Australia could follow virtually every other advanced nation and legalise vaping today and save lives immediately.
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- Category: September 2019
Altria Group Inc. reported its second quarter earnings. Although revenue beat Wall Street expectations, adjusted earnings fell short. The Company attributes this to the decline of cigarette sales, as e-cigarettes grow in popularity. Altria sells Marlboro, the largest U.S. cigarette brand, but declines in cigarette sales puts the Company in a rough spot, forcing them to look for growth in other areas, such as e-cigarettes, oral nicotine pouches and cannabis products. Shares of the market fell 1% in premarket trading. According to Refinitiv analysts, the Company reported earnings per share of USD 1.10, adjusted vs. earnings per share of USD 1.11, expected and a revenue of USD 5.19 Billion vs. an estimated revenue of USD 5.09 Billion.
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- Category: September 2019
The World Health Organization’s recent report on the global tobacco epidemic will do little but perpetuate smoking by making non-combustible alternatives to smoking like electronic cigarettes less accessible, more expensive and less consumer friendly, the New Nicotine Alliance (NNA) said in a statement Tuesday. Whilst the NNA, a leading educational charity concerned with improving public health through a greater understanding of risk-reduced nicotine products, supports an effective regulatory environment for nicotine delivery devices, it is our strong view that this new report from the WHO completely ignores credible third-party scientific evidence, including Cancer Research UK and Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), of the harm reduction potential afforded by such products.
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- Category: September 2019
The company recently launched its new smart e-cigarettes. These devices will collect information regarding the user, even tracking when and where they vape. The device will reportedly even utilize facial recognition software to keep the device out of the hands of children. However, there have already been some concerns about how the company will use the data they collect from their customers. Dan Thomson, a spokesperson for Juul, recently stated that the company’s intention is to offer the data they collect to their customers for their own access.
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- Category: September 2019
In China, there are currently no regulations pertaining to the use and production management of e-cigarettes. In 2018, Chinese tobacco regulators urged the government to regulate the devices in the same way as other tobacco products. “We are currently calling for relevant departments to look into regulation for standardized control on e-cigarettes and prohibit its public use like tobacco,” says Zhang Jianshu, president of the Beijing Tobacco Control Association. This call for regulations came shortly after the renowned Air China vaping-related incident, which made international news.
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- Category: September 2019
The eight Wisconsin teens had become so short of breath that they needed to be hospitalized. Although the cause of their lung injuries remains to be determined, the teens had one thing in common: All reported vaping in the weeks and months before their hospital stays in July. The health department’s investigation into these cases has just begun. But vaping as a culprit isn’t a stretch. With more adolescents using JUUL and other types of electronic cigarettes, sometimes frequently, “it is not surprising” that we are starting to see some children developing lung injuries, says pediatric pulmonologist Sharon McGrath-Morrow of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. “Studies already have reported more chronic respiratory symptoms and more severe asthma symptoms in adolescents who vape,” she says.
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- Category: September 2019
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong launched an investigation into e-cigarette company Juul Opens a New Window. in light of a recent Yale study. Their investigation will focus on smoking cessation claims and marketing practices. This comes on the heels of Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey announcing a lawsuit Opens a New Window. against the national retailer of electronic cigarette and vaping products, alleging the company violated state law by targeting minors for sales of its merchandise (..)
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- Category: September 2019
The building is the headquarters of Juul, a large company that markets vaping products — electronic cigarettes — that has been running full-page ads in major newspapers ostensibly attempting to limit sales of its product: “Youth vaping is a serious problem” that justifies “cracking down on underage sales at retail stores” and removing from stores “flavored products.” Juul’s flavors include mint, mango, fruit and cucumber. Other companies’ flavors have included “Unicorn Puke” and “Zombie Juice.” The target audience is not mature. This city, Juul’s host, recently banned such products from being sold in stores or online and delivered to city addresses. Its purpose is to limit cigarette smoking, the nation’s foremost cause of preventable death (..)
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- Category: September 2019
Finally, the government has released some details of the Scientific Inquiry into vaping, in response to a question by Senator Cory Bernardi in the Senate yesterday. Surprisingly, there are no terms of reference for the review. The inquiry was announced by Health Minister Greg Hunt in November 2018. However, there has been very little information forthcoming since then. The study is to be carried by out the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University, by the highly regarded epidemiologist, Professor Emily Banks (pictured above) and her research team, listed here. The grant for the project of $750,000 commenced on 27 February 2019.
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- Category: September 2019
E-cigarettes have proven effective at helping people quit smoking, a massive potential public health gain, considering nearly half a million people die every year from smoking-related illnesses. The big question is: How can we help smokers quit and at the same time discourage young people from taking up either smoking or vaping? Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has paid some lip service to “preserv[ing] e-cigarettes as a tool to help adult smokers while snuffing out the teen smoking epidemic,” but it’s difficult to believe Gottlieb or the FDA when they’ve been lying to us so far. Teen smoking remains a concern, but let’s be honest about the size and scope of the problem: There is no teen smoking epidemic.
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- Category: September 2019
New Zealand’s Ministry of Health and the Health Promotion Agency, have just launched a website that promotes vaping as a safer smoking alternative. Additionally later this year, the Kiwi government is expected to roll out another campaign targeted at promoting vaping as a way to stop smoking. “Māori women are the focus of this campaign due to their high smoking rate: 32.5 percent compared with the country’s total rate of 13.8 percent,” said Ms Salesa.
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- Category: September 2019
A new Stanford study finds that people perceive cigarettes with pro-environment marketing on the packaging as less harmful not only to the environment but also to the health of smokers and people around them. The survey, published recently in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, is the first to gauge the effect of such marketing on cigarette packaging, which is viewed about 20 times a day by the average pack-a-day smoker
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- Category: September 2019
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released a new report “On The Global Tobacco Epidemic”. It has been funded by anti-vape billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who also acts as WHO Global ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases and Injuries Founder. Understandably, the document has been strongly criticised from many individuals and bodies. Introducing the report, Bloomberg says: “This report shines a spotlight on global efforts to help people quit tobacco, and it details some of our most important gains. India, for example, has greatly increased (..)"
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- Category: September 2019
(..) Fortunately, e-cigarettes are disrupting the government’s fuzzy math. In fact, e-cigarettes have become more effective than traditional nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) in helping smokers quit. Keep in mind, the government also applies its nonsensical mathematical approach to NRT via massive subsidies. To understand the less harm produced by e-cigarettes compared to traditional cigarettes, one needs to simply look at the numbers — after all, they say that numbers never lie. For starters, combustible cigarettes contain nearly 600 ingredients. When burned, combustible cigarettes emit “more than 7,000 chemicals.” By the way, cigarettes include ammonia and magnesium carbonate, which “has a role as an antacid and a fertilizer.” Even worse, chemicals in cigarette smoke include acetone, butane, and formaldehyde.
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- Category: September 2019
The popularity of traditional cigarettes is waning, as e-cigarettes have seen a significant boost in sales this year. The Ministry of Economy and Finance reported that cigarette sales reached 1.67 billion packs between January and June this year, which was a 0.6 percent decrease from last year. Among them, traditional cigarettes recorded sales of 1.47 billion packs, which was a 3.6 percent decrease since last year. Compared with 2014, before the price hike in cigarettes, sales have decreased by 27.6 percent. E-cigarettes, including IQOS and lil, recorded sales of 190 million packs, increasing by 24.2 percent since last year.
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- Category: September 2019
During the Kigali Global Dialogue held July 3-5 that straddled Liberation Day, many issues were discussed from a Rwandan and broader African and Indian perspective. (..) One of the most compelling speeches was by the Former President of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed. His speech on ending climate change carried the same urgency and focus Rwanda is achieving more broadly. Nasheed also stressed the importance of supporting the likely “losers” in the energy change process – coal miners. For tobacco control, the analogous losers are tobacco farmers, especially individuals in poor rural communities of Africa and Asia where smallholder women farmers are common. The demand for tobacco is decreasing and will affect already vulnerable populations. The tobacco farmers know this and so do their governments. Increased support for ways to transition smallholder tobacco farmers to alternative livelihoods makes both economic and ethical sense.
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- Category: September 2019
China National Tobacco Company (CNTC) is the world’s largest manufacturer of cigarettes, accounting for a third of the total global output. The powerful state-owned tobacco monopoly, previously focused on the vast domestic market with 350 million smokers, has been nurturing growing global ambitions since the early 2000s. Faced by an increasingly saturated domestic market and the potential for stricter tobacco control regulation, CNTC adopted the central government’s “Go Global” strategy in 2003, to replace lost domestic revenue with exports. It has since expanded its global reach to 20 countries, operating through 34 off-shore facilities, which include sales offices, manufacture plants, and specialized procurement companies.
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- Category: September 2019
In nearly 95 percent of lung cancer cases and other serious health complications in India, tobacco consumption is a major contributory factor. In 2018, India became the second-largest consumer of tobacco in the world, with over 1.35 million people dying of tobacco-related illness each year. One of the most common types of cancer in India, lung cancer accounts for 5.9 per cent of all new cancer cases diagnosed in the country. Tobacco consumption is a major contributory factor in nearly 95 per cent of lung cancer cases and causes other serious health complications. Smoking is a major reason for cancer-related deaths in India. At a time like this, we are missing the focus on India’s biggest problem, which is tobacco.