VAPEAST

This report offers an overview of the market situation in South Africa. In 2021 the market share was reported to be 10% higher than 2020, and this could be due to a reported popularity of disposable e-cigarettes. Independent vape retailers are currently positive about the future, however the possibility of further restrictions concerns them.

The new Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill, first announced in May 2020 by Deputy Health Minister Joe Phaahla, has been going through a review process. It would prohibit smoking in public spaces, and also set in place stricter e-cigarettes regulations, that include restrictions on the use, marketing, and sales of certain tobacco products. Moreover, it would set in place a provision allowing the government to implement a “100% public cigarette ban”.

The proposed vape tax

Moreover last December, South Africa’s National Treasury published a discussion paper outlining a plan for a tax on vaping products whether they contain nicotine or not. “Unlike conventional tobacco products, these products are mostly unregulated in South Africa, hence the Department of Health has also started a process of amending the current tobacco control legislation to include these products in the regulatory framework,” said the publication. “Similarly, other governments around the world have started a process of regulating the consumption and use of ENDS through tax and non-tax measures.”

The proposal document was open for comment until 25 January 2022, and indicated that a tax could be introduced on both devices and e-liquids/capsules, which would allow for the products to be taxed relative to their nicotine content level. Meanwhile, following the COVID-related temporary ban on the sales of vaping products in 2020, prices for both hardware and e-liquids have stabilised in 2021, says the report.

The topics covered in the report are as follows:

1. 1 Executive summary
2. 2 Market background
3. 3 Market size and vaping population
4. 4 Form factors
5. 5 Distribution split
6. 6 Popular brands
7. 7 Pricing
8. 8 Vape store insights
9. 9 Heated tobacco

Companies Mentioned

• Vuse
• Vaperite
• Vapeking
• Evolution Vape
• Smok
• Voopoo
• Geekvape
• Vaporesso
• Uwell
• Aspire
• Voom
• Hellvape
• Eleaf
• Yuoto
• TKO
• 8 Ball
• Nostalgia
• Bewolk
• Joose
• Nasty Juice
• Jam Monster
• Majestic Vapor
• Loaded
• Snow Cone”

Read Further: BusinessTech

South Africa’s Proposed Vape Rules And Tax

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For many years now a lot of authorities have relied upon the “not enough information about e-cigarettes” get out clause.

But is this really true?

A study entitled “Mapping of Global Research on Electronic Cigarettes: A Bibliometric Analysis” seems to disagree with that statement!

New Research: Mapping of Global Research on Electronic Cigarettes: A Bibliometric Analysis: Electronic cigarettes (E-cigarettes) use has increased rapidly in the past decades and has been widely studied by scholars worldwide,… https://t.co/2DHk6GrWUj #PublicHealth #HealthForAll

— Frontiers in Public Health (@FrontPubHealth) July 14, 2022

For the layman reading this study it does seem to be a massive word salad! It did take my brain a lot of whirring to try and understand what it was on about but I will try and share my interpretation below…

What Did The Study Assess?

This study was conducted to try and round up all the research currently available regarding vaping.

They note that vaping has been widely studied worldwide and a total of 7,979 records were found and analysed. The records date from 2000 to June 2021.

Prior to 2010 there was only sporadic research into the topic but the number of publications has soared since.

Results

The results have various different data sets, there are a lot more in the document but as an example I have shared a few below.

Language Of Publications

The top 10 languages of published studies are:

1. English (98.22%)
2. German (0.61%)
3. French (0.5%)
4. Spanish (0.33%)
5. Italian (0.10%)
6. Portuguese (0.09%)
7. Hungarian (0.08%)
8. Icelandic (0.03%)
9. Polish (0.03%)
10. Japanese (0.01%)

Location Of Studies

The location of studies was analysed and 94 of the countries in the world contributed to all of the publications on e-cigarettes.

The top 10 countries providing research were:

1. USA (59.02%)
2. UK (10.43%)
3. Canada (4.35%)
4. Australia (4.25%)
5. Italy (2.87%)
6. Germany (2.58%)
7. Greece (2.23%)
8. China (2.18%)
9. France (2.07%)
10. South Korea (1.52%)

Institutions

A total of 4,226 institutions contributed to all research articles.

The top 10 are:

1. University California, San Francisco, USA (3.11%)
2. John Hopkins University, UK (2.66%)
3. Virginia Commonwealth University, USA (2.32%)
4. University of Southern California, USA (2.13%)
5. Yale University, USA (2.04%)
6. University of North Carolina, USA (1.84%)
7. University of California, San Diego, USA (1.82%)
8. Kings College London, UK (1.64%)
9. US FDA (Food and Drug Administration), USA (1.58%)
10. University of Waterloo, Canada (1.55%).

Authors

The top 10 authors accounted for 695 publications (8.71% of the total):

1. Eissenberg T, USA (1.08%)
2. Goniewicz ML, USA (1%)
3. McNeill A, UK (0.97%)
4. Krishnan-sarin S, USA (0.89%)
5. Cummings KM, USA (0.84%)
6. Unger JB, USA (0.84%)
7. Polosa R, Italy (0.83%)
8. King BA, USA (0.82%)
9. Fong GT, Canada (0.73%)
10. Leventhal AM, USA (0.73%)

Reaction

As you can guess the findings of this study have been positively received by a lot of vape advocates as it seems to prove there is plenty of information out there!

Tobacco Control claims that we still know next to nothing about #vaping & other types of tobacco harm reduction! Even though ‘Overall, a total of 7,979 records were identified in the database and the number of researches increased rapidly since 2010’https://t.co/dK21IqOvWZ

— Alex Wodak AM (@AlexWodak) August 8, 2022

#vaping opponents say there is not enough research so we must wait for more evidence

This study found 7,979 published science articles on #vaping to 2021.
How many more do we need before we “know enough”?

“Not enough research” is clearly just an excuse!https://t.co/jZIJ1M95Hq

— Colin Mendelsohn (@ColinMendelsohn) August 8, 2022

I’m glad and proud to be the third most cited researcher on e-cigarettes, according to this recent study: “Among the top ten co-cited authors, Farsalinos K ranked first, followed by Goniewicz ML, Etter JF” https://t.co/Xt4ABnINqA

— Jean-Francois ETTER (@etterjf) August 9, 2022

Conclusions

The paper does state that the USA seems to top most of the results in terms of research with the UK and Australia behind.

But when there is an argument of “not enough data available regarding vaping” – this does seem to be an excuse.

Thankfully more studies are being published daily, but there is a possibility of corrupt or junk studies too, which we must be wary of.

Efforts to reduce harm by enforcing further vape restrictions are misdirected.

A recent SA survey has reported that two out of three teens surveyed have said they have tried vaping. To this effect, the state’s Education Minister Blair Boyer is calling for a national approach to tackling the “issue” and is planning to raise it with his federal counterpart Jason Clare.

“This is a serious issue that needs national attention and South Australia will be leading the charge in getting this on the national agenda,” said Boyer. “We’re keen to be proactive and forward-thinking as a state government and work collaboratively with the commonwealth to ensure the health and wellbeing of our young people.”

Similarly, Health Minister Chris Picton said that vaping is clearly becoming more of a problem and increasingly prevalent in schools. “We want to do what we can at a state level to protect our children and reduce the harms caused by e-cigarettes,” he said.

Meanwhile, Executive Co-ordinator of CAPHRA (Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates) Nancy Loucas, has recently highlighted that efforts to reduce harm by enforcing further vape restrictions are misdirected.

“Much needed health resources should be directed towards providing Australians more urgent healthcare and elective surgeries, not on a pointless vaping witch hunt,” she said. Her comments follow recent actions by New South Wales Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant who has threatened law-abiding retailers that could spend up to six months in prison, or be fined up to $1,650, or both, if they keep selling nicotine vapes.

Australia is already home to some of the world’s strictest vape regulations, making the products inaccessible to many smokers who could reduce harm by switching to relatively safer products.  Infact, in a letter sent on Wednesday July 20th, vaping activists from around the world called on Australia’s Ministry of Health, urging it to cease these ongoing attacks.

The letter was written in response to a warning vape shop owners across Western Australia have received from WA health department inspectors, asking them to cease operations within 14 days.

Australia’s misguided approach

CAPHRA added that Australia is falling further and further behind in terms of adopting effective Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) policies to reduce the local smoking rates. “After a decade of a Liberal Government railing against vaping while the number of smokers barely moved, we hoped the new Labor Government would take a more progressive approach to reducing Australia’s stubbornly high smoking rate.

“Sadly, all we’ve seen in recent months is a worsening vaping witch hunt. This approach is frankly going to kill Australian smokers desperate to quit because they’re not getting the support or reasonable access to switch to considerably less harmful nicotine vaping,” she said.

Read Further: The West Australian

Global Vape Groups Call on Australian Govt. to End Attack on Legal Vape Businesses

Titled, “E-Cigarette Regulatory Report: Online Domestic Sales Allowed in Italy” the report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com’s archives, and details an up-to-date look at Italy’s regulatory regime. The report includes all aspects from product and age restrictions, public usage and notification, to advertising, labelling and packaging, and taxation.

Taking a positive stance on tobacco harm reduction, the new Italian government has loosened various strict restrictions set in place by the previous parliament, such as allowing the sales of vaping products online. That being said, Italy still has in place one of the strictest regulatory regimes in Europe.

In 2020, Italy witnessed the worst outbreak of COVID-19 outside China, forcing the local government to set in place some of the most stringent measures across the world. Most commercial businesses, including bars and restaurants, had to be been shut down.

A market severely hit by COVID-19

Originally, vape shops were included in the list of outlets to be shut down, however award winning Dr. Riccardo Polosa had explained why it would be ridiculous to keep tobacconists open whilst closing outlets that sell safer alternatives. “I got a little bit cross. And the next morning I launched a number of declarative statements,” said Polosa.

Founder of the Center of Excellence for the Acceleration of Harm Reduction (CoEHAR) in Catania Italy, Polosa has published dozens of studies on topics related to vaping. In an interview on Filter, he explained why he thought it was wrong to keep tobacconists open whilst closing vape shops.

“..hundreds of thousands of vapers would have been at risk of gatewaying back to smoking. It was an issue of public health in my opinion. Also, many vapers with respiratory diseases have seen a curtailment of their symptoms by vaping, and by stopping vaping we would have seen a rise in acute exacerbation in respiratory disease. This would have been extremely detrimental to the national health system at a time when you have ICU beds occupied and not available for anything else,” explained the professor at the time.

Italy: Milan Bans Outdoor Smoking 

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According to the Daily Record Newspaper Scottish people are pro-vaping and are in favour of government promoting vaping to those wanting to stop smoking.

A poll for the Scottish Grocers’ Federation (SGF) carried out by the Diffley Partnership asked more than 2,000 people for their views on smoking and vaping.

The poll was conducted in the wake of the Scottish Government proposals of banning displays and advertising of vaping goods.

So what did our chums in Scotland say…

Results

The poll showed these results…

• Quitting smoking using vaping should be encouraged – apparently 45% agreed with this statement.
• The majority think vaping is much safer than smoking.
• E-cigarette users choose the products because they are cheaper, less harmful and help them quit smoking.
• Most vapers purchase vapes from local stores rather than the internet, therefore any over regulation of vaping will impact small businesses too.
• Only 1 in 6 people wanted to make accessing vapes more difficult. Over half of people wanted easier access.

Reaction

The SGF article quotes Dr John Lee, SGF’s Head of Policy and Public Affairs…

“Scots – both smokers and non-smokers alike – are giving the thumbs up to e-cigarettes. This is important evidence from the real world which backs up the view of NHS Scotland that vaping is much less harmful than smoking cigarettes.

“Vapers are telling us that they are turning to e-cigarettes because they are safer, cheaper and more likely to lead to them quitting for good.

“Our member convenience stores want to play their part in the massive effort needed to switch smokers to vaping and make Scotland smoke free by 2034.”

NHS Scotland Opinion

Although not related to this survey, NHS Scotland seem to be in favour of using vaping as a tool to reduce smoking rates. They have the aim of a SmokFree Scotland 2034.

Their Consensus Statement on e-cigarettes (2017) proposes the following…

Conclusion

I am very confused on the Scottish Government stance towards vaping.

NHS Scotland are very pro-vaping and see it as a helpful tool in being able to meet the SmokeFree 2034 target. This is extremely positive.

However government proposals to regulate vaping seem quite heavy handed. They were announced in February 2022 and were discussing tightening rules on advertising and promotion of vaping. The proposals were met with a lot of backlash from retailers, the SGF and the public who felt this would limit access and information for those who want to quit smoking by vaping.

This poll shows that the public seem to really be in favour of the promotion of vaping and want to embrace it.

I suppose it is a case of “watch this space” to see what transpires in Scottish Harm Reduction policy.

The Welsh Government unveiled their plans to achieve a Smoke-Free Wales by 2030 on July 26th 2022.

This is as a result of a consultation which closed on 31st March 2022 – which I reported on here.

Obviously this is quite a lengthy document so I will try to summarise the main points.

The ambition is to make smoking prevalence rates 5% or lower in adults over the next 8 years.

Lynne Neagle – the Deputy Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing is the minister concerned and I will cover some of the proposals below.

Proposals

The main strategy breaks down into 3 key areas…

• Reducing inequalities
• Future generations
• A whole-system approach for a Smoke-Free Wales.

To achieve these goals the government will collaborate with NHS Wales, Local Authorities, Public Health Wales and other organisations.

Reducing Inequalities

• Focus on the inequalities caused by smoking.
• Work with smokers to better understand what is stopping them from quitting and what support they need to overcome their barriers, and support smokers to become Smoke-free.
• Reduce the uptake of smoking in Wales for those at highest risk of taking up smoking.
• Ensure appropriate smoking cessation support is available to all with targeted support available for those groups with higher smoking prevalence.

Future Generations

• Create an environment where smoke-free is the norm for all children and
  young people in Wales.
• Increase the proportion of smoke-free pregnancies in Wales, and promote a
  smoke-free preconception period.
• Promote a smoke-free childhood and aim to break generational smoking
  patterns to achieve a smoke-free generation.
• Make smoke-free the norm to deter social smoking amongst children and
  young people.
• Increase the proportion of teenagers and young people who remain smoke-free by reducing the uptake of smoking, whilst also discouraging the uptake
  of e-cigarettes or other nicotine products in teenagers and young people.
• Identify the groups of children and young people who are at higher risk of
  taking up smoking, and work with them to identify ways to help them to
  remain smoke-free.
• Identify priority groups of children and young people who have a higher
  prevalence of smoking, and work with them to understand their reasons for
  smoking, and provide evidence based targeted support to quit smoking.

A Whole-System Approach For A Smoke-Free Wales

• Embed tobacco control principles across all policy areas, and use all available systems, levers and mechanisms to create a smoke-free Wales.
• Support collaboration by ensuring the actions of all partners are co-ordinated at a local, regional and national level, and together contribute towards a smoke-free Wales.
• Ensure consistent application of evidence based tobacco control interventions across Wales with continuous service development and improvement.
• Explore innovative approaches and use of technologies to reduce smoking uptake and promote smoking cessation.
• Take further steps to protect people from the harms of second-hand smoke.
• Review the tobacco control enforcement and sanctions systems in Wales, including for illegal tobacco.

Impact On Vapers

Well surprisingly Vaping is barely mentioned – honestly!

Despite many mentions of how other countries are tackling the issue of smoking, even the UK, vaping appears to be totally off the radar in this strategy?

“Increase the proportion of teenagers and young people who remain smoke-free by reducing the uptake of smoking, whilst also discouraging the uptake of e-cigarettes or other nicotine products in teenagers and young people.”

So it sounds like the only role Vaping plays in this is to make sure youngsters are discouraged from e-cigarette use.

ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) Wales – have published their response and they state…

“This workstream will also examine how e-cigarettes will fit within the modern health landscape of Wales. Currently, national surveys show e-cigarettes are the most popular stop smoking tools in Wales.

The current evidence indicates e-cigarettes are significantly less harmful than smoking tobacco, and can help people to quit smoking, when combined with behavioural support. Welsh Government has committed to exploring their role as possible tobacco quitting aid.”

Again this seems to emphasise that the Welsh Government are way behind the times when it comes to alternative nicotine sources?

Responses

Disappointed to see this huge missed opportunity from the Welsh Government to recognise the public health opportunity presented by vaping. The UKVIA will continue to press for a sensible and pragmatic approach.

Find the strategy below 👇https://t.co/nnCgkK1hxu

— UKVIA (@Vaping_Industry) July 26, 2022

Today the @WelshGovernment published their tobacco control strategy & first two year delivery plan. This includes welcomed commitments on:
✅a smoke-free Wales by 2030
✅reducing inequalities
✅implementing a Help Me Quit in Hospital smoking cessation service@KatieLHowe 👇 https://t.co/zuUjKdmjlw pic.twitter.com/uK8XnG0gsD

— CRUK Policy (@CRUK_Policy) July 26, 2022

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 A smoke-free Wales by 2030 is the ambition – a healthier nation and far fewer tragic, preventable deaths. Here we detail Welsh Gov’s plans to achieve this pivotal goal: https://t.co/gltkcQywFL#SmokeFreeWales #SmokeFree2030 pic.twitter.com/FBrPmIFF1Q

— ASH Wales Cymru (@ASHWalesCymru) July 26, 2022

🚭@WelshGovernment has announced a new strategy to reach our ambition for Wales to be smoke-free by 2030

As chair of the CPG on Smoking I’m delighted by the proactive approach of @WelshLabour in committing to a healthier Wales @ASHWalesCymru

More info⤵️https://t.co/natE5zzssy pic.twitter.com/y5i19vbf85

— John Griffiths MS (@JGriffithsLab) July 26, 2022

Conclusion

Well it’s hard to pass judgement on what the Welsh Government thinks of vaping as it almost acts as if e-cigarettes do not exist?

It seems many years behind other countries, for instance England and Scotland both are formulating tobacco control policies.

Very strange indeed.

The new review followed standard Cochrane methods for screening and data extraction, and the primary outcome measures were abstinence from smoking at the longest follow‐up point available, adverse events, serious adverse events, and changes in smoking prevalence or cigarette sales.

The compiled data from most studies indicated lower exposure to harmful substances linked to cancers, heart disease and respiratory problems, meaning that switching from cigarettes to HTPs may minimize the odds of developing these diseases. However, added the research team, given that the studies were all of short duration, the data is not enough to be sure.

The researchers highlighted that while they didn’t find any studies looking at whether giving smokers HTPs helped them quit smoking, two Japanese studies reported drops in cigarettes sales after IQOS entered the market.

In fact, during a recent webinar vice director of the AOI Universal Hospital in Kawasaki, Kumamaru Hiroya, said that while nicotine replacement therapies (NRTs), such as nicotine patches, have not yielded the desired results, HTPs have. Hiroya, confirmed that since heated tobacco products were launched locally, smoking rates started dropping substantially.

“In conclusion, after nicotine replacement therapy direction has been tried, they were not really a big success. However, ever since 2014, three heated tobacco products have been launched officially nationwide in Japan and these have been penetrating 25 percent [of total smoking population] and this product has been successful to reduce cigarette smoking in Japan so far by 30 percent in three to four years,” said Hiroya during a recent webinar.

Aerosol particles from HTPs

In other news, a 2019 study conducted by researchers from Kaunas University of Technology in Lithuania, analysed the levels of aerosol particles, carbonyls and nicotine concentrations in indoor air from HTPs, referred to as Tobacco Heating Systems (THS) in the study. They did this by comparing the indoor concentrations of substances such as formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, benzene, toluene, nicotine and particulate matter 2.5, from THS, with those from conventional cigarettes and other known air pollutants.

Pollution levels from THS are insignificant in comparison to cigarette smoke

The compiled data indicated that any adverse effects on indoor air quality from THS are insignificant in comparison to those from cigarettes smoke and other pollutants. “Use of THS resulted in a statistically significant increase of several analytes including nicotine, acetaldehyde, PM2.5, and PNC as compared to the background. The obtained levels were significantly lower (approximately 16, 8, 8 and 28 times for nicotine, acetaldehyde, PNC and PM2.5, respectively) compared to the levels resulting from conventional cigarette (CC) smoking under identical conditions,” read the study Abstract.

“In the controlled environment, the use of THS [as well as an electronic cigarette] resulted in the lowest concentrations of formaldehyde, benzene, toluene, PM2.5 among majority researched pollution sources [conventional cigarettes, waterpipe, incense, mosquito coils],” according to authors Violeta Kauneliene, Marija Meisutovic-Akhtarieva and Dainius Martuzevicius.

“Such data indicate that the levels of the main indoor air pollution markers in case of THS environmental aerosol may be too low to distinguish from the background, thus raising additional challenges for epidemiological studies aiming at the assessments of second-hand exposure in real-life environments,” they added.

The EU Commission Announces Plans to Ban Heated Tobacco Products

July 2022 brought us lots of vape news – a lot of it sadly quite negative!

Wales Tobacco Control Strategy

This was released on 26th July 2022 – and it seems that the Welsh Government have no idea that vaping exists!

Read all about this here – Smoke-Free Wales – Tobacco Control Strategy – What’s Vaping?

Scottish People Are Pro-Vaping – New Poll – 2022

A poll conducted by the Scottish Grocers Federation found that the majority of Scots were very pro-vaping – despite some heavy handed proposals from government.

I tell you more on this in my article – Scottish People Are Pro-Vaping – New Poll – 2022.

Disposable Vape Bashing

It seems to be quite trendy for the UK media to be bashing disposable vapes, a heap of negative articles have been appearing lately.

What has caused this panic?

Read more here – Disposable Vapes – Why the Panic?

Also there has been a lot of discussion about the waste disposable vapes create – I can get on board with that sentiment.

I discuss this further in my article – The Issue Of Disposable Vape Waste.

Effect Of Vaping and Smoking On Lungs

A new study looked at the effect of vaping and smoking on lungs using fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) and it showed the surprising result that vaping can actually increase blood flow to the lungs.

Quite a positive outcome – fMRI Lung Scans Show Promising Results For Vaping.

Negative Media Opinions Of Vaping

As you may have seen I have been tracking the UK media for articles about vaping.

I have categorised them as either Negative, Positive or Neutral.

Sadly in July the majority of press has been negative. See how this affects the tracker –  UK Vape News Sentiment Tracker.

Ireland Needs To Embrace Harm Reduction

A recent survey by the Ireland Department of Health has shown an increase in smoking rates.

It seems that the lack of functional tobacco harm reduction policy is impacting the amount of smokers who want to quit.

Ireland Needs To Embrace Tobacco Harm Reduction.

ASH Youth Vaping Survey Results 2022

The organisation ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) have published the results of the annual YouGov youth vaping survey for 2022.

Have a read of my article to find out more – Ash Youth Vaping Survey Results 2022 – Anything To Be Concerned About?

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So that’s it for July – let’s see how August pans out!

If you want to catch up on any news articles you may have missed you can access our News Archive here.