Entries from October 2009 ↓

So who will actually be selected for the key roles of deciding, among other things, whether menthol stays on the US market?  The FDA gave the industry until September 25th to name individuals for the three non-voting slots on its Scientific Advisory Board and then gave itself another 30 days, until October 24th, to send letters to those organizations telling them if they won a slot.  So I guess we will know pretty soon who these “deciders” will be.

American Blend cigarettes like Marlboro are now banned in Canada so the Philip Morris International subsidiary Rothmans, Benson & Hedges is now able to only exports its AB products.    Canada’s law banning the manufacture, importation and sale of flavored cigarettes and small cigars, except those with menthol, and prohibiting tobacco product advertising in newspapers and magazines, took effect on October 8th, despite criticism from the tobacco industry and lawmakers in US tobacco-growing States that the measure was too broad and would unfairly restrict the import of US-grown burley leaf since most of it is exported as licorice-cased blended strip ready for use along with other  cocoa and vanilla flavored leaf.  Anti-smoking groups said the criticism was unfounded since Canada did not import any US-grown burley leaf in 2007 and 2008, and “American-blend” cigarettes make up less than 1% of the Canadian cigarette market. The anti-smoking groups also said fruit-flavored cigarettes and small cigars were marketed like candy to lure young smokers. The law had support from both government and opposition lawmakers (Reuters 10/8).

What makes this particularly interesting is that it now appears that at the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control meeting taking place now in Jordan, the TobReg committee, which is tasked with making recommendations about flavors in cigarettes, is apparently seriously looking at the possibility of recommending the elimination of all flavors – not just the characterizing flavors such as cherry, lemon etc.

Wouldn’t it be ironic if the Altria juggernaut, the one that worked with the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids to create the FDA regulation and its ban on characterizing flavors, except menthol and something called “tobacco flavor,” ultimately ended up by creating an FDA regulatory scheme that defined “tobacco flavor” so narrowly as to eliminate the vanilla, cocoa, licorice and other flavors that go into burley “toasting” and that were recently banned in Canada?  Now that the World Health Organization’s TobReg group is meeting this weekend in Jordan to lock down definitions of things like “tobacco flavor” as part of their work on Articles 9 and 10 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control wouldn’t it  be ironic if they came out against the American Blend cigarette?  Could it be that the success of Marlboro Lights as the kids’ cigarette of choice is due to the smoothness of an American Blend product?  What if the tobacco control world only wants harsh products on the market as the next stage in reducing tobacco consumption? Talk about Altria having opened up a pandora’s box.  No wonder they want the regulators to focus on flavored little cigars which are rarely if ever smoked by kids.

Prof. Michael Siegel of Boston University School of Public Health welcomed Action on Smoking and Health UK’s statement (http://www.ash.org.uk/files/documents/ASH_715.pdf) supporting the use of e-cigarettes by smokers who are otherwise unable to quit smoking, as it represents one of the first major anti-smoking groups that is in favor of allowing the product on the market.  ASH UK’s statement says it supports a “harm reduction approach to tobacco,” and for those who do not wish to stop smoking or find it difficult to quit, products that deliver nicotine in a safe way should be made available. Since most of the smoking-related diseases are caused by inhaling smoke, the e-cigarettes, which deliver nicotine without the harmful toxins in cigarette smoke, are “likely to be a safer alternative to smoking,” ASH UK said. ASH’s US counterpart has called for a ban on e-cigarettes. Siegel said anti-smoking groups in the US support a policy of banning e-cigarettes, though such an approach would result in ex-smokers returning to cigarette smoking (tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com 10/15).

In a new twist the FDA appears to have included vendors / materials of any component / raw materials to the cigarette or its packaging.

Previously it was thought only cigarette producers / importers had to provide an ingredients list to FDA by December 22.

Suppliers of papers, filters, packaging, aluminum foil, poly-wraps and tear tapes will all have to comply.

FDA is curently pilot testing an electronic web-site version to facilitate this registration.

More to follow………………

Will be held this November 11 – 13 at the Centara convention centre in Bangkok Thailand, hosted by Tobacco Reporter and organised by Think Event Marketing. Besides the exhibition there will be a concurrent congress on topical issues affecting the industry presented by Global leaders from the Tobacco Industry.

I plan on attending and will be pleased to see you there.

Let me know