Vapouround magazine Issue 25 | Page 14

N F E R NEWS H SHORT FILLS Two pages fi lled with short vape-related stories and research making news from around the world. CANADA: “REGULATE E-CIGS LIKE TOBACCO” Health bodies are calling on the Canadian government to regulate vape products in the same way as tobacco to prevent “a torrent of addiction amongst young people.” The call comes as it emerged that there have been four cases of people being treated in hospital for respiratory conditions with “probable or possible” links to vaping. Several provinces have made lung illnesses notifiable conditions that require hospitals to report cases to provincial or national health authorities. Dr. Andrew Pipe, a smoking cessation physician in Ottawa, said: “We’ve just unleashed a torrent of addiction amongst young people in Canada through our thoughtless disregard of the need for effective regulation of these products.” He supports calls for vaping products to be given the same advertising and flavour restrictions as tobacco. CLAMPDOWN ON VAPING: TURKEY AND NZ Turkey wants to ban sales of e-cigarettes and prevent them from entering the country, Health Minister Faruk Koca has announced. Turkish news site Diken reported that the Minister is currently working on the legal framework for the ban which would soon be brought before parliament. The country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has previously branded e-cigarettes as “bizarre and addictive.” Meanwhile New Zealand is considering banning all flavoured e-liquids, allowing only the sale of tobacco, menthol and mint varieties. Associate Health Minister Jenny Salesa said the ban is part of new vaping legislation to be introduced to Parliament soon. New advertising restrictions, both online and offline, are also being proposed to prevent vape stores from offering discounts or promotions. ARMY VAPE BAN BAT TO FOCUS ON VAPING British American Tobacco (BAT) will cut 2,300 jobs by 2020 as it moves its focus to non-tobacco products. Chief Executive, Jack Bowles said he wanted to make BAT “a stronger, simpler and faster organisation” that was ready for a future where people moved away from cigarettes. He added: “My goal is to oversee a step change in New Cat- egory growth and significantly simplify our current ways of working and business processes.” The company’s New Category arm includes vaping, heated tobacco and oral to- bacco products. BAT said it planned to cut 2,300 jobs globally in a move which would see 20 percent of the senior roles within the organisation affected. 10 VM25 Teenage recruits will be banned from smoking or vaping during their basic training at the Army Foundation College in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. The smoking ban was imposed last month and it will be extended to include vaping next year in a bid to “develop recruits’ health and fi tness.” Commanding offi cer Lt Col Richard Hall said it was unacceptable that “most recruits don’t smoke on arrival, yet most do by graduation.” He said: “I hope that this will discourage smoking amongst new recruits and reverse the recent trend we’ve seen in recruits taking up the habit.” The college trains recruits aged between 16 and 17 with several hundred junior soldiers being trained at the facility each year.