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** 4 May 2023
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** UK
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** Nisa invests £2m in tobacco price reductions (#1)
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** International
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** Australia’s tobacco tax is among the highest in the world – and it’s about to get higher (#2)
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** USA: Banning fruity and menthol vapes could slash teenage e-cigarette use, study finds (#3)
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** UK
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Retailer Nisa is investing over £2m into price reductions on tobacco, claiming the decrease makes it “cheaper than a number of competitors.” In a letter to retailers, seen by Better Retailing, Nisa said: “With the government recently introducing its biggest ever duty on tobacco, along with other market pressures, we’re making over £2m of further price investments into the tobacco category. We’re reducing the WSP of 321 lines, which will be live [on Tuesday 2nd May], making us cheaper than a number of our competitors.”
The reductions will be spread across over half of Nisa’s tobacco products, with an average reduction of 2%. The letter sent by Nisa states that items on lower price tiers are seeing higher reductions.
A spokesperson for Nisa told Better Retailing: “In order to mitigate the impact of the increase in tobacco duty rates, and to support our retailers at a time of rising costs, Nisa has announced a price investment in tobacco of over £2m. The investment will reduce the price of more than half of tobacco products, helping our retailers to remain competitive and support their margins. Following retailer feedback we’ve also made changes to a number of RSPs across the category to better align with the wider market and manufacturer recommendations.”
Source: Better Retailing, 2 May 2023
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** International
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Australians already pay some of the highest tobacco tax in the world, and a pack of cigarettes will become even expensive as the government aims to reduce the number of daily smokers to below 10% of the population by 2025 and below 5% by 2030. According to data collected by the Cancer Council of Victoria, the cost of a pack of 25 or 30 cigarettes has increased from a few dollars in the early 1990s to well over $40 [~£21.23].
Taxes on tobacco are already pegged to rises in the average wage but there will be a further 5% rise a year over the next three years. National tobacco-specific taxes already make up more than 65% of the retail price of a cigarette in Australia, according to the latest data from the World Health Organization. This is the sixth highest rate in the world.
Experts say increasing the rate of tobacco taxes helped decrease rates of smoking. The rate of daily smokers aged over 15 in Australia has dropped from over 24% in 1991 to just over 11% in 2019.
People living in the most disadvantaged areas of the country have the highest rates of daily smoking (16%) compared with those in areas of least disadvantage (5.3%).
Until 2010, the Australian government increased the tobacco excise in line with inflation. Tobacco taxes were raised by 25% in April 2010, increasing the cost by about 7 cents a cigarette. The excise continued to rise by 12.5% annually between 2013 and 2020, in addition to increases that matched changes in average earnings.
Even as the price of cigarettes has gone up, the amount Australians spend on tobacco has stagnated. Australian households spent $13 a week on average in 2017 – the latest data available. This is the same as it was in 2009; although these numbers are likely significantly higher among heavy smokers.
In 2020 a pack of 20 cigarettes was only more expensive than Australia in two other countries – New Zealand and Sri Lanka – according to the WHO, when accounting for differences in exchange rates and the cost of living.
Source: The Guardian, 3 May 2023
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The study was published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs ([link removed]) .
Researchers at Ohio State University surveyed 1,400 vapers aged 14 to 21 years old from across the US who had vaped at least once in the previous 30 days — defined as regular use. Participants said their favourite flavours were fruit (45%), which included pineapple lemonade and blue raspberry and fruit ice (30.5%), or fruit and menthol, such as juicy grape ice and banana ice. For comparison, only one in ten said menthol was their favourite while 3% said they preferred tobacco.
They were all asked the hypothetical questions: 'Would you use your [e-cigarette] if it were only available in tobacco and menthol flavours?' and 'Would you use your [e-cigarette] if it were only available in tobacco flavour?'
Results indicated that 549 teenagers (38.8%) said they would quit under a flavoured e-cigarette ban. But if this was extended to menthol vapes too, then 1,001 (70.8%) said they would no longer use e-cigarettes.
Researchers noted in their study that it was hypothetical and could not prove that youngsters would actually drop vaping, should flavours be banned. Limitations of the study included that the participants were majority white and female, meaning the results could not be generalised to the child population. There was also a risk that children had misunderstood the question, researchers said, and thought that the bans would only apply to the specific vape device they used — rather than all flavours.
Four US states — Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island — have already banned flavoured e-cigarettes, while California has restricted their sale in stores. Studies have suggested, however, that when bans were brought in they raised the risk of youngsters switching to smoking instead of vaping ([link removed]) .
Source: Mail Online, 4 May 2023
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