Tobacco Politics

The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

In any business there is politics. And one of the older ones is tobacco.

The new manufactured products named e-cigarettes, e-cigs or simply vapes are getting the latest headline of recent health cases across USA. Fifteen deaths and more than one thousand illness are attributed to the vaping habit. The USA politicians, congressmen and policy makers are getting more and more seemigly worried for the widespread epidemic. Even Trump from his personal account in twitter has called for a ban for the product. The FDA (Food & Drug Administration in USA) had issue a warning ban if they don’t follow the new regulations and a plan to safeguard from underage use.

Juul is the largest company on the e-cigarette market, having a net worth of over 38 billion of dollars after the 35% stake acquisition from Altria. Whereas Altria is the parent company of Philip Morris the owner tobacco brand Marlboro. It is important to note following the crack-down on e-cigarettes the stocks of traditional tobacco swing back up after an increase period of decline.

Quite a few countries except USA have banned electronic cigarettes. Some of them being Brazil, Singapore, Uruguay, Canada and India. India being the biggest market attributed to almost 12% of world  smokers, according  to World Health Organization (WHO). UK and in general the EU has followed a stricter regulation without all-together banning the new vaping products, believing it can act as an alternative option assisting in the reduction the smoking population.  

With all the discourse over the e-cigarettes, we should remind ourselves that still regular cigarettes exists. Tobacco kills up to half of its users. It kills more than 8 million people each year. More than 7 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while around 1.2 million are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke. Around 80% of the world's 1.1 billion smokers live in low- and middle-income countries. (Data from WHO 2019).

Still tobacco is part of our lives. The new e-cigs or vapes are just the newly evolution of that with their cool design and different unique flavors had become desirable among young people.  They were a new-product outside the common regulation; and due to that it had significant more freedom to be advertised through traditional (television and radio) and new media (facebook, twitter).  Some would argue that it had an effect in the reduction of sales of regular tobacco, however it can’t be verified. The smoking numbers according to WHO had been steadily being reduced to almost 1 bllion across the world. Though vaping numbers were steadily increasing from 7 million in 2011 to 41 million in 2018.

Tobacco started as a product with health benefits freely advertised everywhere. Slowly it became regulated and controlled,  offering though companies such as PhilipMorris (which as it was mention above its parent company acquisition 35% of Juul) to have the main role in the new scheme of laws which would in a way impede new investors and competitors for the market. As Wiston Churchil said “Politics is not a game it is a serious business” and big tobacco certainly is.   

By this time writing this article, according to WHO, only 48 countries, representing 18% of the world’s population, have completely banned all forms of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship. 
It is still unknown the health implications of vaping. Being that  as it may caution on its usage is advisable. However, what we know certainly is that regular tobacco is as harmful as it was before and signifies an important health risk to us and to the people around us.

Choose wisely~

Suggestions (Affiliating Links) : 

TobaccoIndustry and Smoking (Library in a Book), Fred C. Pampel, 2004

RegulatingTobacco, Alcohol and Unhealthy Foods: The Legal Issues, Tania Voon, 2016 

AshesTo Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War, the Public Health and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris Paperback , Richard Kluger, 1997

The Rediscovery of Tobacco: Smoking, Vaping, and the Creative Destruction of the Cigarette, Jacob Grier, 2019

Sources:

Tabacco, World Health Organizatiion, 2019
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/tobacco

E-Cigarettes, Thruth Iniatiative, 2018 

https://truthinitiative.org/sites/default/files/media/files/2019/03/Truth_E-Cigarette_FactSheet_FINAL.pdf

About Electronic Cigarettes (E-Cigarettes) OCD, 2019
https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/basic_information/e-cigarettes/about-e-cigarettes.html

Outbreak of Lung Injury Associated with E-Cigarette Use, or Vaping, CDC, 2019 https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/basic_information/e-cigarettes/severe-lung-disease.html

Burden of Tobacco Use in the U.S. CDC, 2019 https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/resources/data/cigarette-smoking-in-united-states.html

Vaping deaths in the US: what do you need to know? Guardian, 2019 

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/sep/13/vaping-deaths-in-the-us-what-do-you-need-to-know

Lung Illnesses Associated with Use of Vaping Products, FDA, 2019
https://www.fda.gov/news-events/public-health-focus/lung-illnesses-associated-use-vaping-products

Health Effects of Tobacco Use, FDA, 2019
https://www.fda.gov/tobacco-products/public-health-education/health-information

Here Are All The Valid Health Reasons Why So Many Countries Are Banning Vapes, Science Alert, 2019
https://www.sciencealert.com/more-and-more-countries-are-banning-e-cigarettes

Don’t Ban E-Cigarettes, Jacob Grier, 2019
https://slate.com/technology/2019/09/vaping-illnesses-dont-warrant-an-ecigarette-ban-philip-morris.html

We Are Completely Overreacting to Vaping, Jacob Grier, 2019
https://slate.com/technology/2019/01/vaping-is-good-anti-smoker-bias.html

Why do we still permit tobacco use? NCBI, 2015
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4631133/

Why the tobacco industry fears point of sale display bans
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2564675/