Vaping crackdown: new law will ban under-18s and advertising

Sales of vaping products to under-18s will be banned, flavours restricted and vapers barred from lighting up in smoke-free areas under a law change set to be introduced to Parliament on Monday. But the Government has ruled out a complete ban because it sees vaping as one way to help smokers quit more harmful cigarettes. Vaping laws will be brought closer to tobacco laws under the proposed law change, including a prohibition on advertising and sponsorship of vaping products and e-cigarettes.

2020-02-24
stuff.co.nz

London researchers holding first-of-its-kind forum on vaping risks for teens

London researchers are sounding the alarm about teen vaping, launching a first-of-its kind local forum to boost public awareness about the potential lung health threat. Experts will provide facts about the potential risks of vaping at Generation Vape, a public forum March 10 at the Museum London lecture theatre. “There’s been a crisis in the high school system and with young adults vaping, both in the local area and in North America,” said Grace Parraga, a panel member and medical biophysics professor at Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry.

2020-02-24
lfpress.com

Exclusive: Juul halts Indonesia e-cigarette sales, throwing Asia expansion in doubt

Juul Labs Inc is halting sales in Indonesia, citing concerns that it can’t stop retailers from selling its high-nicotine e-cigarettes to young people in a largely unregulated tobacco market. Juul said in a statement that it would suspend Indonesia sales “indefinitely” until it could ensure that online and traditional retailers there will “increase and enforce age restrictions and compliance measures.” The firm’s decision to retreat from the world’s fourth most populous nation - which has not been previously reported - marks a major setback for Juul’s larger plans to expand in Asia. [...]

2020-02-24
reuters.com

Cigarette manufacturers raise list prices for first time in 2020

The Big Three tobacco manufacturers are again testing the elasticity of smokers’ habit and budget by raising their list prices by 8 cents per pack, effective today. The list price is what wholesalers pay manufacturers for their products. The increase typically is passed on to customers at retail. It is the first time in 2020 that Philip Morris USA, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and ITG Brands LLC apply a strategy that has become at least a semiannual occurrence since 2014.

2020-02-24
journalnow.com

Vaping and heart disease: setting the record straight

In June 2019, a paper by prominent US academics found that people who used e-cigarettes were at greater risk of a heart attack. The authors concluded that e-cigarettes were just as risky as tobacco in provoking heart attacks, and that using e-cigarettes and traditional cigarettes at the same time was even riskier. Unsurprisingly, this caused a stir in the media – in the form of 35 news stories, to be exact. Also unsurprisingly, it provoked vigorous scientific debate. Eight months later, the paper was retracted. When a paper is retracted it means we can’t trust its results. [...]

2020-02-24
theconversation.com

Veil off doctors’ bid to stall e-cigarette ban

Dozens of doctors had joined coordinated and independent campaigns to stall the Narendra Modi government’s slow tilt towards a ban on electronic cigarettes legislated by Parliament in December 2019, public health experts have said. The campaigns conducted through letters to experts who could influence policy, a “consensus statement” from doctors and press releases, although irrelevant now after the ban, showed how sections of the medical community had backed dubious commercial goals, the experts said.

2020-02-24
telegraphindia.com