Stories

Postponing its 10th Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control hasn’t stopped the World Health Organization (WHO) from doubling down on its efforts to ban safer alternatives to cigarettes. Originally planned for November, COP10 will now begin on February 5 in Panama City. All the evidence has pointed to the WHO using the event to advance draconian anti-harm reduction proposals, which would have global policy impacts.

France is set to ban disposable vapes in an effort to combat environmental waste and potential gateway risks - but do these fears add up? Claude Bamberger joins us to discuss these latest policy changes and the reality of disposable vape use in France.

The first time I saw an IQOS, the innovative tobacco product on which Philip Morris International is betting billions of dollars to replace cigarettes, was at a wedding in 2016. A friend had excitedly pulled me outside to try this new device that had enabled him to finally kick his smoking habit. Not quite a cigarette because it didn't ignite, not quite a vape because it used actual tobacco, supposedly less toxic than conventional cigarettes but satisfying enough to compete with them, it seemed that this heated tobacco might be the future of nicotine.

British American Tobacco Plc said Wednesday it has introduced a new version of its heated cigarette brand "glo" that has debuted in Italy, Japan and Poland — three of at least 20 global markets. However, glo has not been authorized by the Food and Drug Administration. Heated cigarettes are marketed as a potential reduced-risk alternative for nicotine. Unlike a traditional cigarette that burns tobacco — producing carcinogens in the process — heated cigarettes warm tobacco leaves to release nicotine.

Public health, not potential tax revenue losses, was the reason Singapore decided to ban electronic cigarettes in 2018, Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said on Wednesday (Jan 10). Member of Parliament James Lim (WP-Sengkang) had filed questions on e-cigarettes or vapes, asking if the potential loss of tax revenue was a factor in disallowing e-cigarettes. In a written reply, Mr Wong said the ban was to protect Singapore's population from the harms of e-cigarettes, also known as vapes.

Almost a quarter of a million fewer Kiwis are now smoking daily, and it puts us in a tiny club of countries that have smoking rates under 7 per cent. What we have in common with these successful countries is people switching from smoked tobacco to less harmful alternatives. To reach the smoking goal of 5 per cent or less (that is, 95 per cent or more of all adults being “smokefree”), around 100,000 smokers need to quit over the next two years. Our decline in smoking in the last four years is extraordinary - equivalent to what took two decades to achieve. The unprecedented progress shown in the New Zealand Health Survey should have been a cause to celebrate. [...]

Electronic cigarettes (ECs) are handheld electronic vaping devices which produce an aerosol by heating an e‐liquid. People who smoke, healthcare providers and regulators want to know if ECs can help people quit smoking, and if they are safe to use for this purpose. This is a review update conducted as part of a living systematic review. We included trials in which people who smoke were randomized to an EC or control condition. We also included uncontrolled intervention studies in which all participants received an EC intervention as these studies have the potential to provide further information on harms and longer‐term use. Studies had to report an eligible outcome.

Uzbekistan has indexed excise tax rates for tobacco products for 2024. Local tobacco products were indexed by 12 percent, and imports were reduced by 5 percent. According to UZ Daily, the new excise rates on cigarettes, cigarillos, bidis and kreteks produced in the country are UZS250,700 ($20.31) per 1,000 pieces plus 10 percent.

The authorities have cracked down on those found with vapes at the end of 2023 and the start of 2024, with hundreds being fined after being found with e-vaporisers in several operations in December. Amid these actions, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s estranged younger brother, Lee Hsien Yang, has called on the Government to lift its ban on e-cigarettes. In response to a crackdown in early December at Zoukout, Mr Lee Hsien Yang wrote on Facebook on 8 Dec: “Singapore should lift the ban e-cigarettes. The benefits that would accrue from regulated use of e-cigarettes outweigh the potential risks involved.”

In the study published in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, researchers highlight the dangers of thirdhand smoke, revealing the alarming presence of toxic tobacco by-products on surfaces in smoking households that children live in. Lead author Ashley Merianos, a tobacco researcher at the University of Cincinnati, said the study delved into the homes of children, revealing distressing results.