Strategic and contested use of food laws to ban smokeless tobacco products in India: a qualitative analysis of litigation

ObjectiveTo understand how food laws are used, contested and interpreted to ban certain forms of chewing tobacco in India.MethodsA qualitative study analysing all the tobacco-related litigation under the food laws in India. We used an inductive thematic analysis of the litigation contents.ResultsThe tobacco industry systematically deployed litigation to (1) challenge the categorisation of smokeless tobacco products as food, and hence, questioned the use of food laws for regulating these products; (2) challenge the regulatory power of the state government in banning tobacco products via the food laws; and (3) challenge the applicability of the general food laws that enabled stricter regulations beyond what is prescribed under the tobacco-specific law.ConclusionDespite facing several legal challenges from the tobacco industry, Indian states optimised food laws to enable stricter regulations on smokeless tobacco products than were feasible through use of a tobacco-specific law.

Identification characteristics of non-smoking tobacco products

Modern trends in the reduction of cigarette consumption have led to the spread of smokeless tobacco and non-tobacco nicotine-containing products [1]; their variety creates certain problems with the identification of products in this segment. Sucking tobacco (snus) has been banned in the Russian Federation for wholesale and retail trade since 2015, but it is a product similar to chew- ing tobacco in packaging, ingredient composition and physiological effects. Therefore, establishing the identification characteristics of chewing tobacco is an urgent task. The attitude towards chewing tobacco is controversial. The absence of the smoldering / burning process characteristic of cigarettes indicates a decrease in the harmful effect on the human body. At the same time, the physiological ef- fect on the consumer is based on the effect of nicotine extracted from tobacco through the oral mucosa. Consumer indicators of samples of smokeless tobacco / non-tobacco nicotine-containing products have been investigated: moisture content, fractional composition and nicotine content. The moisture content of samples of non-smoking products ranges from 19,0 % to 36,5 %. The nicotine content in the investigated tobacco / non-tobacco products is 0,3–2,4 % / 1,0–8,8 % respectively. To establish the identification signs of smokeless tobacco products the following methods have been used: product fractionation, optical microscopy, spectrophotometry, and liquid chromatography / tandem mass spectrometry (LCMS / MS). The main feature of the difference between smokeless tobacco products and non-tobacco nicotine-containing products has been determined – the presence of tobacco in the ingredient composition, confirmed by the structure of the product and the content of specific tobacco nitrosamines. As a result of the research, experimental data were obtained on the quantitative determination of the content of tobacco specific nitrosamines by the LCMS / MS method in smokeless tobacco products. The main identification feature of chewing tobacco has been established: the presence of raw tobacco in the ingredient composition with a coarse fraction content is at least 15 %.