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December 2nd, 2016:

Do cigarette graphic warnings encourage smokers to attend a smoking cessation programme

Dec 2nd, 2016
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Do cigarette graphic warnings encourage smokers to attend a smoking cessation programme: a quasi-experimental study

http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2016/12/02/tobaccocontrol-2016-053207

Abstract

Objective

This study assessed whether exposure to cigarette graphic warning labels (GWLs) increased attendance to a smoking cessation programme.

Method

From 2014 to 2016, alternating cohorts of smokers in 3 residential drug treatment programmes received either GWLs (experimental) or transparent (control) labels placed on their cigarette packs for 30 days. The primary outcome was the proportion of participants who chose to attend a smoking cessation group after the labelling period.

Results

The sample (N=601) was 72.6% male, with a mean age of 41.9 (SD=11.16) and included African-American (37%), White (29.4%) and Hispanic (19.6%) participants. While similar on most measures, controls were more likely to be married, had been in the treatment programme longer and registered higher on expired carbon monoxide (CO).

After labelling, the proportion attending at least one cessation group was 26% in the experimental condition and 18.8% among controls. In an intent-to-treat analysis adjusting for group differences at baseline, and for 2 levels of nesting, those who received GWLs were more likely than controls to attend the smoking cessation group (OR=1.58, 95% CI 1.02 to 2.44).

Conclusions

Smokers who received GWLs on their cigarette packs were more likely to attend a cessation programme. Thus, this study is one of the first to document a change in a directly observed behavioural outcome as a function of month-long exposure to cigarette pack GWLs.

Doubt cast on ‘safer’ tobacco vaporiser

Dec 2nd, 2016
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Advocacy groups are casting doubt over claims a new kind of cigarette called Iqos is less harmful than traditional tobacco products.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/health/doubt-cast-on-safer-tobacco-vaporiser-35261612.html

Big tobacco company Philip Morris has reportedly invested US$3bn (€2.8bn) on developing the technology.

It works like a vaporiser, by heating tobacco without burning it. The company claims the vapour still contains nicotine, but has 10pc less harmful ingredients.

But the Asthma Society of Ireland has pointed to claims made in the past by the tobacco industry, to raise concerns over these claims.

“Tobacco companies lied for years about the link between smoking and cancer.

“Now Marlboro manufacturer Philip Morris is making fresh health claims. We would be crazy to believe them without independent proof,” CEO of the organisation Averil Power said.

“Tobacco companies will do and say anything to sell their products,” she added.

Donal Buggy, head of services and advocacy at the Irish Cancer Society, backed the scepticism.

“There is no such thing as a safe cigarette. The only safe level of consumption of cigarettes is none whatsoever,” he said.

Irish Independent

Big Tobacco Gets Into Retail Storefronts

Dec 2nd, 2016
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British American Tobacco and Philip Morris International have both opened stores to educate consumers on how to vape.

http://www.nacsonline.com/Media/Daily/Pages/ND1202162.aspx

Big tobacco firms are getting into the retail business more directly than in past years. British American Tobacco (BAT) has opened a store in Milan to sell Vype, its e-cig product, while Philip Morris International has stores in England, Italy, Japan and Switzerland to promote its heat-not-burn product iQOS, the Wall Street Journal reports.

For BAT, the strategy to having an actual store extends beyond selling electronic cigarettes. The firm wants to use the location as another way to promote new products, such as Pebble, a Vype-branded vaping device that debuted yesterday. “If we’re going to massify the market—inject life into it—we have to come up with these innovative, groundbreaking products,” said Kingsley Wheaton, who heads BAT’s next-generation products.

This increased emphasis on connecting with customers on the ground comes as sales of cigarettes continue to soften. Philip Morris even said this week that the company could stop selling traditional cigarettes one day and is focusing on developing tobacco alternatives.

BAT CEO Nicandro Durante has a long-term view in mind when it comes to e-cigs and other vaping devices, which have experienced slow growth. Wheaton predicted that next-generation products will reach $18.7 billion within five years, but he doesn’t see cigarettes disappearing altogether.

BAT Bets on Vaping as Tobacco Makers Do Battle With New Devices

Dec 2nd, 2016
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http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/bat-bets-on-vaping-as-tobacco-makers-do-battle-with-new-devices/42723034

Trailing Philip Morris International Inc. in the contest to move smoking alternatives beyond e-cigarettes is just fine with British American Tobacco Plc.

According to Kingsley Wheaton, head of BAT’s next-generation products, longer-established electronic products hold more promise than the heat-not-burn technology pioneered by its main rival. The high acceptance of Philip Morris’s iQOS tobacco device in its debut market of Japan won’t be easy to replicate elsewhere, he said in an interview Thursday.

“Are we behind Philip Morris on the tobacco-heating journey? The answer is yes,” Wheaton said. “But we have a different take. Vapor is going to be a bigger category worldwide.”

More than 1 million smokers have switched to Philip Morris’s iQOS since it first went on sale in 2014. Demand has proven strongest so far in Japan, where Philip Morris has had a two-year headstart on BAT. While analysts at Exane BNP Paribas and Wells Fargo say the Marlboro maker has invented the most promising smoking substitute, BAT contends that heat-not-burn will only become dominant in a few countries, and that Japan alone may represent as much as half of the potential demand.

“Japanese consumers are very tech-savvy and vapor is banned,” Wheaton said. “The consumer is highly socially considerate and really worried about their hygiene impact on others. When you put all that together, you create a real melting pot of reasons why tobacco heating will work in Japan.”

Companies Divided

Tobacco companies are divided on where the future of their $770 billion industry lies. Philip Morris Chief Executive Officer Andre Calantzopoulos has said his company may one day stop making traditional cigarettes as the market for alternative products takes hold. His non-combustible iQOS devices have taken a 5 percent share of the Japanese market.

While BAT plans to compete against its rival with a heat-not-burn product called Glo, Wheaton said the bulk of his company’s efforts will remain in the vapor market.

In the second half of next year, BAT will start selling a new product called Vype Raptor. The device gets nicotine into the bloodstream faster and more closely mimics the sensation of smoking because the vapor particles are larger, according to BAT.

The company is also opening a store in a fashionable neighborhood of Milan as well as pop-up shops in London to sell Vype-branded vapor products. And it will introduce a 17.99-pound ($23) brightly-colored plastic device called Pebble that delivers nicotine infused with flavors such as wild berry and smooth vanilla.

BAT aims to sell vapor products in more than 15 markets by the end of next year, according to next-generation marketing director Frederico Monteiro. It currently has a presence in 10 and plans to be in 30 to 40 markets by 2020.