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Fruit-flavoured vapes popular with kids set to be banned, The Sun can reveal
Ministers are to announce a new clampdown on brightly coloured vapes.
Public Health Minister Neil O’Brien will launch a call for evidence within days ahead of restricting access to the powerful nicotine products for under 18s.
While health chiefs remain “extremely pro” getting adult smokers off of tobacco cigarettes and onto vapes there is mounting concern about how some products are targeted at kids.
Popular flavours like Apple Peach, Cotton Candy Ice, Pink Grapefruit and Strawberry Kiwi face disappearing from the shops as a result.
The review will look at the “appearance and characteristics” of such products on the market including branding, marketing, colour and flavours.
It will also investigate how certain products are advertised on social media amid concerns they are being deliberately targeted at youths.
Mr O’Brien will use a major speech early next month on smoking to signal the Government’s concerns and launch a consultation from experts on how to protect kids.
Included in his big intervention will be a formal response to an independent review by Dr Javed Khan OBE into the government’s ambition to make England and Wales smoke free by 2030.
Source: The Sun, 28 March 2023
See also: ASH – Policy briefing on vaping | The Khan review: making smoking obsolete
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UK to impose green tax on imports from polluting factories
The Government is set to announce a new tax on cheap imported goods from polluting factories.
The money will go back into middle-income families through grants to make their homes more energy efficient as part of national net zero targets. The scheme will run for three years and will be funded using a levy on energy bills known as the “energy company obligation”.
Energy Secretary Grant Shapps will announce the plans tomorrow as part of a package of proposals along with the expected announcement by the Government on a new system of “carbon border taxes” designed to protect UK manufacturers and undercut countries with lax environmental rules.
Source: The Times, 29 March 2023
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At trial, Minnesota says e-cigarette maker Juul targets kids
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison personally opened his state's case against Juul Labs on Tuesday, accusing the e-cigarette maker of using “slick products, clever ads and attractive flavors” to hook children on nicotine as the first of thousands of cases against the company reached trial.
Minnesota is seeking more than $100 million in damages, accusing Washington, D.C.-based Juul of unlawfully targeting young people to get a new generation addicted to nicotine.
“They baited, deceived, and addicted a whole new generation of kids after Minnesotans slashed youth smoking rates down to the lowest level in a generation,” Ellison said. “Now, big tobacco is back with a new name but the same game. Juul wiped out the work of our state with their slick products, clever ads, and attractive flavors.”
Juul has faced thousands of lawsuits nationwide but most have settled, including 39 with other states and U.S. territories. Not Minnesota, which won a landmark $7.1 billion settlement with the tobacco industry in 1998. Minnesota added tobacco industry giant Altria, which formerly owned a minority stake in Juul, as a co-defendant in 2020.
The lawsuit against Juul, filed in 2019, alleges consumer fraud, creating a public nuisance, unjust enrichment and conspiracy with Altria. The jury trial before Hennepin County District Judge Laurie Miller is expected to last about three weeks.
Source: ABC news, 28 March 2023
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