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BAT to take £25bn hit on US cigarette brands
British American Tobacco is to write down the value of some of its US cigarette brands by £25bn because of economic headwinds damaging sales in its biggest market.
The one-off impairment charge sent shares 9 per cent lower by early afternoon on Wednesday, making it the worst performer on the FTSE 100 as its market capitalisation was slashed to £51.4bn at one point, before closing down 8.4 per cent.
The group, whose North Carolina-based subsidiary Reynolds American is the second-biggest US cigarette maker by sales, said smokers switching to cheaper cigarette brands or quitting altogether had led to the writedown.
Brands affected by the writedown are those acquired by BAT as part of its £40bn takeover of Reynolds in 2017. They include the Camel, Newport, Natural American Spirit and Pall Mall brands.It cuts the value of the affected brands on BAT’s balance sheet assets by more than a third to £42bn, from just under £67bn last year.
Source: Financial Times, 6 December 2023
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Youth vaping: The impact of e-cigarette use in schools
As a government consultation on measures to tackle youth vaping comes to an end, BBC South East speaks to head teachers, teaching staff and students to find out the impact e-cigarettes are having in schools.
"You find them asking to go out of the lessons to go into the toilets," said Sade Afolabi, a teacher in Surrey, and spokeswoman for the NASUWT teaching union.
A recent survey by the anti-smoking group ASH found that 20.5% of children aged 11 to 17 had tried vaping, up from 15.8% in 2022.
Many schools have introduced vape alarms to detect whether pupils are using electronic cigarettes in the toilets.
Ashley Crittenden, chair of the Association of Kent Headteachers, said: "It's about schools having really stringent policies in place, some schools do now have vape alarms and I think they can be effective.
"Whilst suspensions can be an effective tool with managing behaviour, actually it's about changing people's mindsets, changing people's behaviours and whilst young people can get hold of vapes very easily, I think it does come down to the government making some really tough decisions" she added.
Meanwhile, the government has outlined plans to tax vapes and tighten restrictions to curb vaping in young people.
Caroline Barlow, a head teacher in East Sussex, says: "It is a challenge all schools are facing." She said she backed measures being considered by the government.
Industry representatives said they did not condone targeting children and backed punitive action against those that did.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: "We know there's been a surge in youth vaping and this government is taking the long-term health decisions to protect our children and reverse this trend.
"That's why we've consulted on ways to reduce the appeal and availability of vapes to young people - including by reducing the number of flavours and colours of vapes available, regulating how vapes are displayed in shops to keep them out of sight for children, and restricting the sale of disposable vapes."
Source: BBC news, 6 December 2023
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New Zealand's Indigenous people are furious over plans to snuff out anti-smoking laws
In December 2022, New Zealand passed pioneering legislation to cut down on smoking: limiting the amount of nicotine in cigarettes to non-addictive levels, slashing the number of retailers that sell cigarettes by 90% and banning anyone born after 2008 from ever buying cigarettes in the country.
For the indigenous Māori and Pasifika populations of about 1.3 million, which have smoking rates of 18% to 20%, three times higher than the European population, the smokefree bill was "a cause for celebration," says Teresa Butler, who is Māori and a member of the Ngāti Porou and Te Arawa tribes — and a former smoker of 28 years. "We were ecstatic, so, so happy."
But now the newly elected conservative government, which took power in November, has announced plans to scrap the bill, offering as a rationale that it violates freedom of choice, fuels crime and exacerbates a cigarette black market. They hope to accomplish this repeal within their first 100 days in power, putting it to a vote in Parliament before March 2024.
"Money's more powerful than lives," Butler says bitterly. "They don't care about our communities and our well-being; they don't care about Māori. They have made that very clear."
Even though Māori and Pasifika had some criticisms about the smokefree bill — notably that it lacked enough support and consideration for indigenous communities — they were eager to move forward to a smokeless future.
What was remarkable about New Zealand's smokefree legislation is the mountain of evidence behind the bill, including randomized trials, modeling, epidemiological investigations and systematic reviews of how these policies would affect health outcomes, says Andrew Waa, an associate professor of public health at the University of Otago who is Māori and a member of the Ngāti Hine tribe. As Waa wrote in a 2023 study in Tobacco Control, the smokefree bill was estimated to, over the next 20 years, save New Zealand $1.4 billion in social costs and reduce the mortality gap between Māori and non-Māori by 10% in males and 23% in females.
If the bill is officially repealed, New Zealand's goal to slash its smoking rate to 5% by 2025 will become impossible for Māori and Pasifika, says Ben Youdan, director of the Action for Smokefree 2025 advocacy group.
Source: NPR, 6 December 2023
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China e-cigarette titan behind 'Elf Bar' floods the US with illegal vapes
The article discusses how Zhang Shengwei, a veteran of China's vape industry and the founder of Heaven Gifts, which makes popular brand Elf Bar and Lost Mary, has become a major player in the global e-cigarette market. Zhang's company, based in Shenzhen, has successfully navigated shifting regulations, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom, where flavoured vapes have raised concerns about teenage addiction.
In the U.S., Heaven Gifts ignored regulations on new products and capitalized on poor enforcement, flooding the market with popular flavoured vapes like Elf Bar. The company has faced criticism for allegedly targeting teenagers, but Zhang's spokesperson emphasizes that flavoured e-cigarettes are still helpful for getting adults to switch from cigarettes and that the company is taking steps to modify packaging and discontinue certain flavours.
The article points out the challenges faced by the FDA in curbing the surge of illegal Chinese vapes, with limited resources and a slow regulatory process. Chinese firms have been able to capitalise on the lack of regulation in the US market and have been actively flouting FDA approval requirements.
Hazel Cheeseman, deputy chief executive of ASH, said disposable-vape manufacturers such as Heaven Gifts “have not been taking remotely seriously that their products are so appealing and so widely used by under-18s.”
The article emphasizes the complex challenges faced by regulatory bodies and advocates for stronger enforcement to address the rise of illegal and potentially harmful e-cigarette products, particularly those targeting young consumers.
Source: Reuters, 6 December 2023
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ASH Daily News is a digest of published news on smoking-related topics. ASH is not responsible for the content of external websites. ASH does not necessarily endorse the material contained in this bulletin.
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