An Important Update from the Boutique Cigar Assocation
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The Boutique Cigar Association has an important update on the state of our industry! Read and share!
There are immediate problems that need to be addressed by the premium cigar industry in relations to FDA regulations.
1. The term premium cigar and it's definition needs to be adopted by NASEM, the CDC, and the FDA. See below …..
- FDA received a range of comments related to ‘‘premium’’ cigars. A recent court decision, Cigar Ass’n of Am., et al. v. Food and Drug Admin., et al., ‘‘remand[ed] the [deeming final rule] to the FDA to consider developing a streamlined substantial equivalence process for premium cigars’’ and ‘‘enjoin[ed] the FDA from enforcing the premarket review requirements against premium cigars . . . until the agency has completed its review.’’ Under the terms of the court’s order, a ‘‘premium’’ cigar is defined as a cigar that meets all of the following eight criteria:
1. Is wrapped in whole tobacco leaf;
2. contains a 100 percent leaf tobacco binder;
3. contains at least 50 percent (of the filler by weight) long filler tobacco (i.e., whole tobacco leaves that run the length of the cigar);
4. is handmade or hand rolled;
5. has no filter, nontobacco tip, or nontobacco mouthpiece;
6. does not have a characterizing flavor other than tobacco;
7. contains only tobacco, water, and vegetable gum with no other ingredients or additives; and
At the present time the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is performing a scientific review of the impact premium cigars have on health. The problem that exists is that all the scientific data that they are reviewing includes all other forms of "Cigar" combustible tobacco .... As seen in the image below. Not all cigars are created equal or have similar health effects.
Premium hand made cigars are in a category unto themselves, the tobacco is all natural. Large premium cigars are not inhaled, nor are they meant to be inhaled.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine can not clump premium cigars and the scientific date available into one "cigar" category. They will destroy and devastate nearly 85% of the premium cigar industry. Helping to create the biggest premium cigar monopoly in the history of the United States and the world.
Soon we will be reaching out to NASEM in order to have open dialogue with them to protect our interests. Boutique Cigar companies deserve the right to exist. We will never cease fighting for small family owned premium cigar manufacturing operations.
The entire industry has decided to sit and wait until the FDA comes back with the final deeming regulations... Now is the time to act, now is the time to make our voices heard.
Please contact (NASEM) Amy Geller at the 1(202)334-1599 or[email protected] to share your concerns and express why premium cigars should be in a category unto themselves when reviewing the science, as well as patterns of use.
"The scientific data does not prove that premium cigars are harmful or addictive" when compared to all other combustible tobacco products. They should not be regulated in the same fashion as all other combustible tobacco products.
Thank you,
Boutique Cigar Association of America.
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