Mexico bans sales of 'harmful' e-cigarettes

Yahoo – AFP, 31 May 2022 

The World Health Organization considers electronic cigarettes to be harmful
to health (AFP/Valery HACHE) (Valery HACHE)

Mexico on Tuesday banned sales of electronic cigarettes and other vaping devices because of concerns about their health effects, the government announced. 

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said it was a "lie" to claim that e-cigarettes are a safe alternative to inhaling tobacco smoke.

"The vapors are also harmful for health," Lopez Obrador told reporters as he announced the signing of a presidential decree introducing the ban on World No Tobacco Day. 

He showed a pink vaping device to illustrate how the products are intended to appeal to young people. 

"Look at the color, the design," Lopez Obrador said. 

Mexico prohibited the import and export of vaping devices and cartridges in October, but the companies have continued to sell their inventory, Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said. 

The new ban covers "the circulation and marketing of these new products," he added. 

E-cigarettes heat up a cartridge of liquid typically containing nicotine and other chemicals into an aerosol. The user inhales the resulting vapor, mimicking traditional cigarettes. 

Proponents of vaping say it is safer than traditional tobacco. 

The World Health Organization considers electronic cigarettes to be harmful to health and has called for tight regulation to stop young people in particular from using them. 

More than 30 countries have banned sales of electronic cigarettes, the WHO said last July. 

In April, e-cigarette firm Juul agreed to pay $22.5 million in a US lawsuit that alleged the company deliberately targeted teenagers and lied about how addictive its products are.

Cosmetics and personal care products are riddled with microplastics

DutchNews, April 7, 2022 

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Personal care and cosmetic products are riddled with plastic ingredients, with nine in 10 popular brands using them, according to research by the Netherlands’ based Plastic Soup Foundation. 

The EU is poised to take steps to control the unnecessary use of microplastics but most will be exempt, particularly those used by the cosmetics industry, the organisation says in a new report. 

The campaign group looked at the ingredients in 7,704 cosmetic and personal care items from the 10 most popular European brands. 

Of them, 87% contained microplastics, defined as ‘all possible synthetic polymers, whether added in solid, liquid, semi-liquid or water-soluble form, as well as nanoplastics and biodegradable plastics’. 

The foundation said it approached L’Oreal, Beiersdorf, Procter & Gamble and Unilever to find out about their current and future plastic policies.

‘All four have indicated that they want to do more against plastic pollution, but they focus only on microplastics in solid form. They follow the limited definition of microplastics as proposed by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). 

The ECHA says every minute, over seven kilos of microplastics from cosmetics and personal care products end up in the European environment, but this would be 25 times higher using the wider Plastic Soup definition, the campaign group said. 

‘We want to urge the cosmetics industry to look beyond the proposed definition by ECHA, to ensure the environmental and human health safety of the products they bring on the market,’ the campaign group said. 

‘We want to encourage consumers to demand transparency from brands and accountability for the ingredients these brands put into our personal care and cosmetic products.’ 

Two weeks ago, researchers at Amsterdam’s VU university reported finding microplastics in human blood for the first time.

New rules for tattoo artists create confusion ahead of EU pigment ban

DutchNews, November 1, 2021

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Tattoo artists in the Netherlands will have to abide by new rules from January, in line with both Dutch and EU legislation, but with two months before the switch, much remains unclear, tattoo shop owners have told broadcaster NOS. 

The biggest changes involve new regulations for inks which contain substances which can cause cancer and genetic mutations, or irritate the skin. 

This means thousands of hazardous chemicals found in tattoo inks and permanent make-up will be restricted from 2022, the European ChemicalsAgency has said. 

Two colours – Pigment Blue 15:3 and Pigment Green 7 – do not yet have safer and technically adequate alternatives and will not be banned until 2023, the agency said. 

Tattoo artist Amanda Remmington told NOS she understands little of the European rules. ‘My colleagues and I have never had a complaint,’ she said. ‘The only colour that causes irritation is red.’ 

The ink ban will also have an impact on larger tattoos which take time to complete and may not now be finished, said tattoo artist Timen from Assen. 

Chaos 

The Netherlands’ most famous tattoo artist Henk Schiffmacher, told the AD in September, he is furious about the new rules. 

‘This is the work of an overzealous civil servant and will create chaos,’ Schiffmacher said. ‘I’ve been doing it for 45 years and now you are telling me I am doing it wrong?…The people in charge don’t know a thing about tattooing, but are being influenced by all kinds of lobbyists when making their decisions.’ 

Coloured ink is only an health risk when it starts to move to other parts of the body, as it does when a tattoo is being removed. 

Hygiene 

The new Dutch rules involve stricter hygiene measures, and also state that the area where tattoos are placed must be separate from the rest of the shop. 

In the longer term, the Netherlands may also raise the minimum age to get a tattoo from 16, or 12 with a parent’s permission and increase training requirements, NOS said. 

Monitoring compliance with the new rules will be up to the Dutch food and product safety board and will start from January, the health ministry has said.

US court denies appeal in Roundup cancer case

Yahoo – AFP, 14 May 2021 

Roundup weed killer is the subject of thousands of lawsuits in the US

A US federal court in San Francisco on Friday denied an appeal by Monsanto in the cancer trial over its Roundup weedkiller and upheld an award of $25 million in damages. 

It was the latest setback for Monsanto's parent, German chemical giant Bayer, in its campaign to put an end more than 13,000 US lawsuits over the chemical. 

The three-judge panel affirmed the district court's judgment in favor of Edwin Hardeman, who blamed the chemical in Roundup for causing his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. 

The ruling found the district court properly denied Monsanto's appeal "because evidence showed the carcinogenic risk of glyphosate was knowable at the time of Hardeman's exposure." 

A jury originally ordered the company to pay $75 million but a judge later reduced that amount. 

The ruling Friday said the award was "at the outer limits of constitutional propriety" but was acceptable, "Considering the evidence of Monsanto's reprehensibility." 

Hardeman said he used Roundup extensively on his land in Sonoma County -- north of San Francisco -- from the 1980s until 2012. 

He filed a complaint against Monsanto in early 2016, a year after being diagnosed with cancer. 

The case was considered a "bellwether" in the litigation against Monsanto, but the judges cautioned that "different Roundup cases may present different considerations, leading to different results." 

"We are disappointed with the court's decision as the verdict in this case is not supported by the evidence at trial or the law," Bayer said in a statement, adding it would consider appealing to the US Supreme Court. 

The agrochemicals and drugs giant has been plagued by legal woes since it bought Monsanto in 2018. 

Bayer, which is not admitting any wrongdoing, maintains that scientific studies and regulatory approvals show Roundup's main ingredient glyphosate is safe. 

The company set aside some $11 billion to deal with a wave of US lawsuits, and in February said it had settled some 90,000 of the cases.

Bayer pays $10 bn to settle weedkiller cancer cases

Yahoo – AFP, Michelle FITZPATRICK, Jun 24, 2020

Roundup weedkiller. The deal relieves a major headache for Bayer, going on since
it bought US firm and Roundup maker Monsanto for $63 billion in 2018
(AFP Photo/Odd ANDERSEN)

Frankfurt am Main (AFP) - German chemical giant Bayer said on Wednesday it had agreed to pay more than $10 billion to end a wave of lawsuits from Americans who say their cancers were caused by its Roundup weedkiller.

The deal relieves a major headache for Bayer, which has been going on since it bought US firm and Roundup maker Monsanto for $63 billion in 2018.

"The Roundup settlement is the right action at the right time for Bayer to bring a long period of uncertainty to an end," said CEO Werner Baumann in a statement.

At the same time Bayer announced it had also agreed separate multi-million-dollar payouts to resolve longstanding legal issues involving other Bayer products, as the group tries to turn the page on its courtroom dramas.

Bayer's share price climbed nearly six percent to 74.06 euros in after-hours trading following the surprise announcement.

The Roundup deal would bring closure to around 75 percent of current litigation that involves roughly 125,000 filed and unfiled claims, the statement said.

It would also settle about 95 percent of the cases currently set for trial and establish "key values and parameters" to resolve the remainder of the claims, Bayer added.

- 'Hard-fought battle' -

Roundup is a flagship Monsanto product containing glyphosate, a widely used weedkiller that tens of thousands of plaintiffs say caused their illness -- with many suffering from the blood cancer non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Bayer suffered a clutch of financially painful setbacks in first-instance US court rulings last year, although the amounts awarded were later reduced.

The legal woes have weighed heavily on the group's share price with many observers and investors questioning the wisdom of the Monsanto takeover.

Jennifer Moore, a lawyer representing several Roundup plaintiffs, welcomed the deal.

"This settlement is significant for our clients because this has been a long, hard-fought battle and it brings justice for our clients," she told AFP.

Bayer maintains that scientific studies and regulatory approvals show Roundup's main ingredient glyphosate is safe, but said when it released first-quarter earnings data in April that it "continues to engage constructively in the mediation process".

The settlement announced on Wednesday consists of a payment of $8.8 billion to $9.6 billion to resolve the current Roundup litigation, Bayer said, and $1.25 billion to address potential future litigation.

Bayer stressed that the agreement would not cover three cases currently going through the appeals process.

They include the landmark first Roundup case brought by school groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson who was eventually awarded $78.5 million.

Dicamba deal

In the same statement, Bayer said it would pay $820 million to settle decades-old complaints over Monsanto-made toxic chemicals known as PCBs that caused water contamination.

It also agreed to settle US lawsuits involving dicamba herbicide which has been blamed for wrecking crops in America, by drifting on to plants unable to resist it.

The group said it would pay up to $400 million to resolve pending claims in Missouri for the 2012-2015 crop years.

Bayer said it expects co-defendant BASF -- which also manufacturers a type of dicamba -- to contribute towards the settlement.

It comes after a US jury in February awarded $265 million to Missouri peach farmer Bill Bader who accused the two companies of encouraging farmers to use the weedkiller irresponsibly.

Bayer said the Bader case was not included in the proposed settlement.

"The company believes the verdict in Bader Farms is inconsistent with the evidence and the law and will continue to pursue post-trial motions and an appeal, if necessary," it said.

Bayer said it would make the first cash payments related to the mass settlements starting this year. Part of the funds will come from the sale of its profitable animal health unit.

"All three settlements are in the best interest of the company and our stakeholders," said supervisory board chairman Norbert Winkeljohann.

US farmer wins damages over Bayer AG, BASF herbicide

Yahoo – AFP, February 17, 2020

Farmer Bill Bader claimed the companies encouraged farmers to use the dicamba
weedkiller irresponsibly (AFP Photo/INA FASSBENDER)

Washington (AFP) - A US jury has awarded $265 million to a Missouri farmer who blamed herbicide from chemical giants Bayer AG and BASF for destroying his peach orchards, in a case set to bolster 140 other lawsuits.

Jurors in federal court in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, made the ruling on Saturday after peach farmer Bill Bader claimed the companies encouraged farmers to use the dicamba weedkiller irresponsibly.

Bloomberg News reported that the case was the first US trial over dicamba herbicide, which is alleged to have wrecked crops across America's Midwest by drifting onto plants that were unable to resist it.

Much like Roundup, another much-criticized herbicide marketed by Monsanto, dicamba has been on the market many years.

Use of the chemical jumped after Monsanto -- which was bought by Germany's Bayer in 2018 -- introduced seeds that can resist the weed-killer.

But the product has been blamed for polluting around four percent of US soybean fields in 2017. A common complaint is that the herbicide spreads to nearby areas.

The fight over dicamba comes in the wake of a case in which Bayer was ordered by a California jury to pay $290 million for failing to warn a dying groundskeeper that Roundup might cause cancer.

In January, reports suggested Bayer could stump up $10 billion in a settlement with tens of thousands of US plaintiffs suffering from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

The cancer sufferers say they developed the disease after exposure to glyphosate, the key ingredient in Roundup.

Bayer, which has argued that dicamba is safe for crops as long as users follow instructions, was reported to be planning to appeal Saturday's ruling, while BASF was not available for comment.

US unveils partial ban on flavored e-cigarettes

Yahoo – AFP, January 2, 2020

The 2019 National Youth Tobacco Survey shows that more than five million US
middle and high school students are e-cigarette users, with nearly one million
using daily (AFP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Washington (AFP) - The US government on Thursday announced it would soon ban most flavored e-cigarettes as it tries to curb a rising tide of youth vaping, but stopped short of the full ban promised in September by President Donald Trump.

The Food and Drug Administration said cartridge-based e-cigarettes in flavors "other than tobacco or menthol" would be illegal unless they receive specific authorization from the government.

Companies that do not cease making and selling such cartridges within 30 days will face punishment, the FDA said.

"The United States has never seen an epidemic of substance use arise as quickly as our current epidemic of youth use of e-cigarettes," Health Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement.

Azar said prioritizing flavors most widely used by children would ensure e-cigarettes were a potential "off-ramp" for adult smokers but not an "on-ramp" to nicotine addiction for youngsters.

"We will not stand idly by as this crisis among America's youth grows and evolves, and we will continue monitoring the situation and take further actions as necessary," he added.

The 2019 National Youth Tobacco Survey shows that more than five million US middle and high school students are e-cigarette users, with nearly one million using daily.

"Additional data from another federal survey further underscore that youth are particularly attracted to e-cigarette flavors such as fruit and mint, much more so than tobacco or menthol flavored e-cigarettes," the Department of Health and Human Services said.

The flavor ban will exempt large, tank-based vaping devices, however, which are primarily sold in vape shops that cater to adult smokers.

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US says vaping market-leader JUUL's advertising was unlawful

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“…  The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. ...”

Anti-smoking campaigners want ban on too-toxic cigarettes

DutchNews, November 6, 2019

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Anti-smoking campaigners Stichting Rookpreventie Jeugd , Amsterdam city council and 18 other organisations are going to court to demand a ban on cigarettes with too much tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide, the AD reports.. 

Tests carried out by public health institute RIVM have shown that many cigarettes contain more of the harmful substances than is flagged up by the official measuring method used by the Dutch product safety board NVWA. 

An earlier request to NVWA to ban the cigarettes by the Stichting Rookpreventie Jeugd, which focuses on preventing young people from smoking, was rejected, as was a petition to the health ministry. The next port of call for the campaigners is the administrative court in Rotterdam which will look at the case on Monday, the paper said. 

Cigarettes can contain no more than 10 mgs of tar, 1 mg of nicotine and 10 mg carbon monoxide and all brands claim they are keeping to the norm. 

However, the RIVM tests showed that 43 out of 100 cigarettes exceed the norm for one or more of the toxic substances. Because there is a margin of 20% none of the producers has ever been fined, with the exception of Lexington. The size of the fine is unknown, the AD said. 

The Dutch term for a cigarette that ostensibly complies with the norm but doesn’t is ‘sjoemelsigaret’.

Juul shipped 1 million contaminated products: lawsuit

Yahoo – AFP, October 30, 2019

A lawsuit filed in a federal court in California claims that e-cigarette maker Juul
had a culture of disregarding health and safety concerns (AFP Photo/Robyn Beck)

Washington (AFP) - E-cigarette leader Juul shipped around one million mint-flavored pods that were "contaminated," and then failed to inform customers or issue a recall once it realized the problem, according to a lawsuit filed by a former executive.

It comes as the vaping industry is facing tough scrutiny amid a mysterious epidemic of lung conditions linked to e-cigarette use that has killed 34 people and sickened around 1,500 in recent months.

In the lawsuit filed in a federal court in California on Tuesday, ex-senior vice president for finance Siddharth Breja's legal team wrote he was sacked for "whistleblowing" by objecting to the contaminated pods shipment and other unsafe conduct like selling expired or near-expired products.

The claims were termed "baseless" by the company, which told AFP that Breja was terminated "because he failed to demonstrate the leadership qualities needed in his role."

But Breja's suit claimed that the company had a culture of disregarding health and safety concerns, and was led in a "dictatorial manner" by its ex CEO Kevin Burns who stepped down last month.

Breja said he had brought up concerns over a lack of expiration date labeling to Burns, who in an expletive-laden reply said half the firm's customers were "drunk and vaping like mofos" and would not even notice the quality of its pods.

The suit added that in March of this year, Breja learned that approximately 250,000 "Mint Refill Kits," or the equivalent of one million pods, had been contaminated, though the nature of the contamination was not specified.

Overriding his concerns, Juul refused to issue a product recall or issue a public health and safety notice -- despite the fact that Breja was asked to recover approximately $7,000,000 from the supplier of the eLiquid as a refund.

In a statement to AFP, Juul said: "The allegations concerning safety issues with Juul products are equally meritless, and we already investigated the underlying manufacturing issue and determined the product met all applicable specifications."

Breja's attorney Harmeet Dhillon told AFP meanwhile that Juul's admission of a manufacturing issue constituted a violation of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations.

"If the product met 'all applicable specifications,' then why did Juul destroy the remainder of the unshipped lot and instruct Mr Breja to obtain a multi-million-dollar refund from its supplier?" she said.

US tobacco merchant Altria is writing down its stake in e-cigarette start-up Juul Labs by a third, or $4.5 billion, as that company contends with a regulatory backlashhttps://t.co/FS9q6gj8z2

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 31 oktober 2019

Lung specialists step up calls for ban on ‘harmful’ e-cigarettes

DutchNews, October 7, 2019

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Dutch lung specialists have called for a total ban on e-cigarettes on the grounds that they cause lung disease and do nothing to prevent smoking. 

‘We want a complete ban on e-cigarettes in the Netherlands,  Leon van Toorn, of lung specialists’ association NVALT told AD. The association, which last month conducted a survey among its member to gauge the extent of the problem in the Netherlands, said the number of Dutch people reporting lung problems after vaping has risen from three to eight. 

One patient had to be admitted to intensive care because of the severity of his symptoms. None of the patients had had lung problems before. 

Van Toorn said he had attended a conference in Madrid last week which warned against vaping. ‘It showed convincingly that we can under no circumstances recommend the use of e-cigarettes,’ he said.

‘There is no scientific proof whatsoever for the claim that it is 95% less damaging that cigarettes and it looks as if only a very tiny number of people have stopped smoking by taking up vaping.’ 

Junior health minister Paul Blokhuis said in a response that the data the specialists have gathered will be included in the ongoing investigation into the safety of e-cigarettes. A total ban is not on the cards at the moment, Blokhuis said, because he is bound by European rules. 

The American Center for Disease Control and Prevention has recorded 1080 cases of lung disease and 21 deaths associated with vaping. It is not known which of the ingredients being inhaled is causing the disease, although in a number of cases THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, may have played a part. There have not been any incidences of disease on this scale in Europe so far, the paper said.

Final puffs for France's last tobacco factory

Yahoo – AFP, Nathalie ALONSO, October 2, 2019

Eric Tabanou, director of the France Tabac, factory in the Dordogne region of
southwest France, said keeping the country's last tobacco processing site
open became unviable. (AFP Photo/Mehdi FEDOUACH)

Sarlat-la-Caneda (France) (AFP) - Gerard Chanquoi looks sadly at the conveyor belts of France's sole remaining tobacco processing factory as they whirl for the last times ahead of its final closure, a victim of changed economic times and a different public health landscape.

Anti-smoking campaigners may cheer its demise, but for its workers and local tobacco growers, the closure of the France Tabac factory after 34 years of operation is a devastating blow to the Dordogne region of southwest France.

"It's a fine mess," lamented Chanquoi, 61, who has worked for over 30 years at the factory in the town of Sarlat-la-Caneda.

"It makes you well up a bit, it's hard. I am at the end of my career, but for my friends... who have a decade of career ahead of them, it is tough," he added.

In its heyday after opening in 1985 in one of France's main tobacco growing regions, the factory was a mainstay of the local economy, extending over 10 hectares (25 acres) and processing 20,000 tonnes of tobacco leaves from France and Europe every year.

"Our know-how is recognised across all of Europe," said Chanquoi, looking ruefully at an almost empty warehouse where only years ago bundles of processed tobacco would have stretched to the ceiling.

"This used to be a hive of activity."

The homegrown tobacco used in cigarettes like Gauloises, beloved of French film icons and philosophers, used to be a symbol of France.

But the country's last cigarette factory, la Seita in Riom in the Puy-de-Dome region, closed in 2017 and the Gauloises brand is now produced in Poland.

Inspecting tobacco leaves at the France Tabac plant, 

which will close down for good this month. (AFP Photo/

Mehdi FEDOUACH)

The number of smokers in France remains above the average for a developed country, with 32 percent of adults aged between 18-75 smoking in 2018, according to official figures.

But the number of people describing themselves as daily smokers has fallen sharply in recent years as the price of cigarettes has risen.

'Doomed'

The production line at the factory in Sarlat-le-Caneda finally came to a halt just before midday on Monday. Some workers remain in the plant this week for a final clean-up before a meeting with the director next week ahead of being laid-off.

The factory's director Eric Tabanou said that announcing the closure to the employees was painful, while insisting there was no other option.

"We stood up in front of 200 employees. It was dramatic... The factory was on borrowed time, the end was inevitable," Tabanou said.

Trouble began in 2010 when the European Union announced that, as part of its drive to cut smoking, tobacco producers would no longer receive subsidies from the bloc.

"Tobacco production diminished from year to year and certain products were not in line with the demands of the market," Tabanou said.

"Also, we had to submit to increased competition from tobacco manufacturers who would do anything to save a single cent."

In 2016, the factory was processing over 5,300 tonnes of tobacco a year, far below the 20,000 tonnes processed in the 2000s.

Patrick Maury, a tobacco grower in Mazeyrolles, France, said he hopes to 

find new buyers for his crop. (AFP Photo/Mehdi FEDOUACH)

"French production makes up just one percent of Europe's output, and it is doomed," Tabanou said.

French tobacco will now be processed outside the country, notably in Croatia.

"It is the turning of a page in our agricultural history," Jean-Jacques de Peretti, the mayor of Sarlat-la-Caneda, said when the closure was announced in late August.

'New opportunities'

But some producers hope that all is not lost, and say they will focus on the high-end market and also producing the raw material needed to create vaping cartridges.

"It is a tough blow, but we will try and find new opportunities," said Patrick Maury, who grows tobacco and also runs a dairy farm in Mazeyrolles, around 35 kilometres from Sarlat.

"Along with my son, we need this crop to live, it makes up 40 percent of our revenues," he said.

Laurent Testut, head of the local Perigord Tabac cooperative, said the industry had managed to adapt before, for example by moving to lighter tobacco blends in line with changing tastes and regulations.

"We risk having to come closer to world prices, but it is up to us to focus on production niches. We have some leads already," he said.

At tobacco industry forum, panic over possible e-cigarette ban

Yahoo – AFP, Ivan Couronne, September 26, 2019

Electronic cigarette devices are prevalent around the world, but could be a thing
of the past in the United States if President Donald Trump moves ahead
with a national ban (AFP Photo/Prakash SINGH)

Washington (AFP) - While most of Washington is gripped by the impeachment storm swirling around Donald Trump, a few blocks up Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, hundreds of executives are pondering another potential presidential upheaval.

Trump has floated the possibility of soon banning flavored e-cigarette products -- and even banning vaping altogether. And stakeholders in the world of tobacco and nicotine are none too pleased.

The consensus at a global industry forum that ends Thursday in the nation's capital? Times are tough.

In the past three weeks, India and the US state of Massachusetts have banned the sale of e-cigarettes. Two other states -- New York and Michigan -- have prohibited flavored e-cigarettes.

And from October, the Trump administration wants to ban all but tobacco-flavored products.

While Europe so far has escaped similar measures, the product that many industry experts believed would be their future is instead under attack.

At the Global Tobacco & Nicotine Forum, the nearly 400 in attendance are in agreement that the priority is to stop what they see as knee-jerk bans by worried governments.

"This is a pivotal moment for the industry," said Howard Willard, the chairman and CEO of tobacco giant Altria, a major stakeholder in the top US e-cigarette maker Juul.

"Vaping is at an inflection point."

On Wednesday, just before the industry forum opened for the day in Washington, Juul announced a corporate shake-up, including the replacement of its CEO.

The industry is facing two problems: the increasing popularity of vaping among young people and the recent explosion of cases of pulmonary illnesses, some of them fatal, apparently linked to tainted vaping refill cartridges bought on the black market.

So far, the toxic ingredient has not been identified.

The industry agrees that consumption should be limited to those over the age of 21, and has placed the blame on governments failing to punish stores for selling to underage buyers.

'It's crazy, basically'

But a total ban on electronic cigarettes in the name of harm reduction is out of the question and downright absurd, those at the Washington conference said, noting that cigarettes have far worse effects and are not banned.

At event booths, cigarette makers highlight less harmful alternatives -- tobacco lozenges and pouches, but also tobacco heating systems.

Philip Morris International is betting on its IQOS: a sort of short cigarette inserted into a device that heats the tobacco and releases a vapor which the company says is less harmful.

At one forum session, Greek cardiologist Konstantinos Farsalinos took issue with India's ban, noting that one million smokers die in the country every year.

"They banned the least harmful nicotine products that they had on the market," he said with disdain.

David Sweanor, an adjunct professor of law at the University of Ottawa, chimed in: "That's public health negligence."

In Japan, liquid nicotine is banned, but cigarettes are legal.

"It's crazy, basically," Farsalinos said.

Fact or fiction?

US Senator Richard Burr, a Republican from tobacco-producing state North Carolina, slammed what he called a "frenzy" over the dangers of e-cigarettes and compared a possible ban to a "witch hunt."

He accused states like Massachusetts of instituting bans when "they really have absolutely zero facts to make a conclusion."

For industry executives and those who back them, the furor over e-cigarettes is first and foremost the fault of the media.

They say the stories about the summer spate of illnesses and youthful users were jumbled, and failed to take into account the idea that vaping might be the best alternative for traditional smokers who want to quit.

"We can't allow misinformation assumptions to drive policy and become accepted truths," said Willard, the Altria CEO.

At another panel discussion, participants took aim at the World Health Organization, which reiterated its opposition to e-cigarettes this summer.

Among the most powerful regulatory agencies, "by far the worst and the most dangerous is the WHO," said consultant Clive Bates, adding that the Geneva-based body has "a general tendency to extreme positions."

To survive the crisis, industry executives concede that they have to resolve their credibility problem.

Part of that strategy is a communications issue: Juul targeted young users with Instagram posts until last year. On Wednesday, it announced it would forego advertising altogether.

But not everyone is on board.

Some want to be able to reach smokers seeking an alternative, and they also think it's possible to advertise to those over 21 while avoiding younger consumers, even on the Internet.

"We believe that next-generation products can be marketed responsibly to adult consumers," said Ricardo Oberlander, president and CEO of Reynolds American Inc, a subsidiary of British American Tobacco.

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"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“…  The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. ...”