Tobacco Asia

8 tobaccoasia Issue 5, 2023 September / October From the Associate Editor © 2023 October Multimedia Co Ltd. TOBACCO ASIA (ISSN 2773-8701) is published bi-monthly by October Multimedia Co Ltd in January, March, May, July, September, and November. Printing and distribution of TOBACCO ASIA is overseen by October Inter Co. Ltd., Interchange 21 Bldg., Room 3221, 32nd Fl., 399 Sukhumvit Road, North Klong Toey, Wattana, Bangkok, 10110 THAILAND. Tel +66 2 660 3789. Fax +66 2 660 3881. E-mail: info@octobermultimedia.com, web: www.tobaccoasia.com. Representation for Tobacco Asia Asia/Middle East/Australasia Southern Europe/Eastern Europe China/Italy/Spain/France October Inter Co. Ltd. Interchange 21 Bldg., Room 3225, 399 Sukhumvit Road 32nd Fl. Bangkok, 10110, Thailand Tel +662 660 3789, Fax +662 660 3881 Contact: Glenn Anthony John Mobile +1 917 843 0000 or +66 818 299 409 gaj@octobermultimedia.com The Americas/Benelux/UK Germany/Scandinavia Switzerland/Austria Cardinal Media LLC 2 Glenfield, Barrington RI 02806 United States Contact: Emerson Leonard Tel +1 917 680 1050 edl@octobermultimedia.com Printing/Distribution overseen by: October Inter Co. Ltd. Interchange 21 Bldg., Room 3225, 399 Sukhumvit Road, 32nd Fl. Bangkok, 10110, Thailand Tel +662 660 3789 Fax +662 660 3881 Published by: October Multimedia Co., Ltd. Printed in Thailand © 2023 October Multimedia Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. Bylined or initialed articles represent the opinion of the author. All articles published in Tobacco Asia or www.tobaccoasia.com are copyrighted. No part of this publication may be reproduced or in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system without written permission. Subscriptions to TOBACCO ASIA magazine Subscription Rates: 1 Year – US$75.00 2 Years – US$145.00 3 Years – US$210.00 For inquiries, contact: malisa@tobaccoasia.com Secure online payment: https://www.tobaccoasia.com/subscribe Nattira Medvedeva Associate Editor There's a lot of interesting things happening around us. As the industry gathers in Dortmund for InterTabac and InterSup- ply this September, there will be a lot of new products to dis- cover, connections to establish or strengthen, and informative discussions to participate in. Then, the week following InterT- abac/InterSupply, some in the industry will convene again in Surabaya, Indonesia for WT Asia. In November, COP10 will be taking place in Panama, a return to in-person sessions after COP9 had to be held virtually due to the pandemic. No doubt there will be a hefty round of self- congratulatory back patting as this year is the 15th anniver- sary of the World Health Organization's (WHO) introduction of its MPOWER tobacco control measures. There will also likely be an increased focus on next generation products, since the topic got postponed from COP9. The cynic in us probably would say we can already predict the outcome of COP10 – more anti-tobacco rhetoric, aggressive pushing for more countries to adopt more restrictive tobacco regulations, and more hating on vapes and other new products in addition to conventional cigarettes. The optimist in us, on the other hand, may hope that there will be shining moments during COP10 that will inspire and give hope that all reason is not lost, like what happened in COP9 when some country delegations dared to stray from the WHO-approved dogma (see our story on p.26 for more details). Speaking of vapes and other new products, there are a lot of interesting new developments (check out our stories on vapes on p.22 and p.36, as well as on nicotine salts and freebase nicotine on p. 50), so one could somewhat understand why the anti-tobacco side is all up- in-arms over them. The combustible side is not doing too shabbily, either, with demand still there as can be determined from 2022 financial results reported by tobacco companies (see p.42). While new products enjoy growing popularity in some markets, new markets for com- bustible cigarettes have also come up. That being said, an unfortunate fact for the time being is that WHO and the tobacco control agenda it pushes will still dominate and influence regulations around the world. It recently announced in a report that the Netherlands and Mauritius were the latest countries to have implemented all of its MPOWER measures, a feat achieved only by Brazil and Turkey before this. Of course, it also pushed for other countries to strive to achieve this same status, which would mean more draconian tobacco control laws would need to be in place. Our story on p. 18 provides a summary on where things stand now globally in terms of smoking prevalence, complete bans, graphic warnings and plain packaging, tobacco taxes, and ENDS use and regulations, based on figures from the same report. The fact that the consumers who use tobacco products are still not allowed to have any say or involvement in this matter, despite being the ones directly affected and supposedly the ones these anti-tobacco measures and regulations aim to protect, is ironic.

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