The tobacco industry’s hopes of meeting the Minister for Health went up in smoke recently when requests were snubbed citing commitments to World Health Organisation (WHO) articles on tobacco regulation.
Two of the largest tobacco companies in the world have urged the Irish Government to regulate nicotine pouches and to add age restrictions to the product, according to documents released to The Irish Times under the Freedom of Information Act.
Concerns around vaping and nicotine pouches are very much the issues of the day, so to hear Japan Tobacco International (JTI) and British American Tobacco (BAT) lobbying for these changes is perhaps not surprising.
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Notably, though, tobacco companies are blowing the whistle on nicotine-inhaling products which are targeting young people.
“We have seen products with ‘Gummy Bear’, ‘Jolly Ranger’, ‘Skittels’ and ‘Slushee’ flavour descriptions. Products which are shaped like toy guns and ‘fidget spinner’ toys,” JTI said in a consultative submission on the Further Regulation of Tobacco and Nicotine Inhaling Products.
Owning Nordic Spirit- and Velo-branded pouches respectively, JTI and BAT are seeking to get ahead of and shape the regulation of their products. These attempts, however, were not hugely successful.
Representatives of both then minister for health Stephen Donnelly, and current Minister, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, responded identically to the two companies, citing Article 5.3 of the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, to which Ireland is a signatory.
“In setting and implementing their public health policies with respect to tobacco control, Parties shall act to protect these policies from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry in accordance with national law,” their representatives said.
“In this context, it would not be appropriate for the Minister to engage on the topics posed in your letter.”
Conveniently for any journalists sniffing around the topic, the representative reminded JTI that the company must include their letter and attempt at shaping the sector’s regulation to the Standards Commission under lobbying regulations.
Ironically, it was pointed out that the “correspondence may be made available to the public under a Freedom of Information request”.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
