LATEST ALERTS
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1st June 2023
Vietnam: National Assembly member Nguyen Anh Tri has proposed a ban on the sale, distribution and use of “new generation cigarettes”, such as e-cigarettes and heated tobacco, press reports. Ministries are currently coordinating efforts to regulate such products, with a proposal expected to be submitted to the government by the end of June.
31st May 2023
- Kuwait: During an awareness campaign about the dangers of tobacco, the vice president of the National Anti-Smoking Programme (from the Ministry of Health), Ahmed El-Shatti, said that Kuwait is the cheapest in the Gulf region in terms of tobacco prices, and called for an increase in tobacco taxation to reduce consumption rates and the number of tobacco users, press reports. It should be noted that Kuwait has not yet adopted the 100% customs duty imposed by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
31st May 2023
- UAE: The Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre has launched the “Tobacco Control Awareness Programme” to raise awareness about the health risks of tobacco and electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS). It emphasises their association with heart attacks, strokes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, and addiction, and stresses that ENDS are just as harmful as traditional tobacco products, with flavourings and nicotine levels that make them more addictive.
31st May 2023
- India: The Ministry of Health has issued new rules today pursuant to which media streaming services must display anti-tobacco warning messages whenever a tobacco product or its use is displayed. The same rules establish the type of messages and the requirements that these warnings must meet. The rules will enter into force on 31st August 2023.
30th May 2023
Turkey: The re-election of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to a third term as president, while the People’s Alliance led by his Justice and Development (AKP) party secured a majority in Parliament, is unlikely to lead to any opportunity for a legal market in heated tobacco. In 2017, Parliament, led by the AKP, failed to pass a bill to legalise heat-not-burn tobacco products. However, in 2020 the AKP passed Law No. 2149/2020 banning the use and circulation of heated tobacco.
29th May 2023
- Saudi Arabia: The country's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), has announced the establishment of a nicotine products company called Badeal. The company will support the country's Tobacco Endgame 2030 strategy, which aims to halve the current smoking rates, by developing and distributing tobacco-free nicotine products.
26th May 2023
- Vietnam: Deputy minister Tran Hong Ha has signed the National Strategy on Tobacco Harm Prevention and Control 2030. Measures include reducing the use of e-cigarettes, heated tobacco, and new tobacco products, and promulgating regulations for these products. Other details on how the measures will be implemented were not presented.
26th May 2023
- Uzbekistan: A bill to regulate novel tobacco and nicotine products and ban their sale to under-21s has been officially published. It will come into force on 26th August 2023.
25th May 2023
23rd May 2023
India: The Health Ministry has called for stricter enforcement of the statutory ban, which covers manufacturing, import, export, distribution and advertising of heated tobacco devices as well as e-cigarettes, including parts and accessories, press reports.
22nd May 2023
- Bangladesh: Hossain Ali Khondoker, co-ordinator of the National Tobacco Control Cell (NTCC), told press that the government is currently working on amending Act No. 11/2005 on Smoking and Tobacco Products Usage (Tobacco Control Act) in order to ban electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS). Khondoker warned against ENDS, and reported that a harm-reduction approach is a misleading concept that misguides youths. Heated tobacco is not defined as a tobacco product in the Tobacco Control Act, or in its amendments.
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