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British American Tobacco's response to U.S. Food and Drug Administration announcement regarding vaping products

PRESS RELEASE

9 SEPTEMBER 2019

British American Tobacco's response to U.S. Food and Drug Administration announcement regarding vaping products

On 6th September 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a statement  in response to recent reports of respiratory illnesses following the use of vaping products. This statement included a recommendation that consumers should “avoid buying vaping products of any kind on the street, and to refrain from using THC oil or modifying/adding any substances to products purchased in stores”. Below is British American Tobacco's response to this statement.

Dr David O’Reilly, Director of Scientific Research, British American Tobacco, said: “As one of the world’s largest vapour companies, providing high quality products to more than 9 million consumers, we take our consumer safety responsibilities very seriously. We apply industry-leading standards of quality and safety testing to the way we develop and manufacture our products all around the world.

“Every single ingredient and component in these products has been scrutinised by our toxicologists for their suitability for vaping. Consistent with this, oils containing THC and Vitamin E Acetate are not, and have never been, added to our vaping products.

“From the FDA's statements we have seen, these tragic events appear to be a new phenomenon linked to liquids that were not sourced from reputable manufacturers and which contained ingredients, including THC and Vitamin E Acetate, which we do not use.

“These cases highlight the importance of effective regulation and enforcement to ensure product safety.

“We fully support the FDA’s view that vapers should always source their devices and liquids from reputable manufacturers, should avoid modifying or adding substances to the products they purchase and should only ever use the devices as the manufacturer intended.

“We are monitoring the situation in the U.S. and will work closely with all relevant public health authorities around the world such as the FDA, the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and Public Health England.”

Forward looking statements

 

This is a release by British American Tobacco p.l.c. Associate companies are excluded. References to ‘British American Tobacco’, ‘BAT’, ‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘our’ when denoting opinion refer to British American Tobacco p.l.c. (the Company, and together with its subsidiaries, the “Group”), and when denoting tobacco business activity refer to Group operating companies, collectively or individually as the case may be. This release contains certain forward-looking statements, made within the meaning of Section 21E of the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934, regarding our intentions, beliefs or current expectations reflecting knowledge and information available at the time of preparation and concerning, amongst other things, prospects, growth and strategies. BAT undertakes no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

These statements are often, but not always, made through the use of words or phrases such as “believe,” “anticipate,” “could,” “may,” “would,” “should,” “intend,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “will,” “estimate,” “strategy” and similar expressions. It is believed that the expectations reflected in this release are reasonable but they may be affected by a wide range of variables that could cause actual results to differ materially from those currently anticipated.

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