IQOS ignites new debate between tobacco industry from wisepowder's blog

A new battle in the decades-long war between tobacco companies and health advocates recently began when the FDA permitted Philip Morris’ IQOS Tobacco Heating System to go on the U.S. market.To get more news about Heat not Burn tobacco products, you can visit hitaste.net official website.

According to Philip Morris’ website, the IQOS Tobacco Heating System consists of a battery pack that lasts about a year and a hollowed-out cylinder. A modified cigarette, called a HeatStick, is inserted into what looks like a hollowed-out cigar at one end, lighted and warmed to about 350°C without ash, combustion, fire and smoke that contains a “significantly reduced level of harmful chemicals,” according to the company. Each HeatStick lasts about 6 minutes or 14 puffs — similar to most of its combustible counterparts — and burns about 600° lower than traditional cigarettes, research suggests.
“It’s time to treat [millions of U.S. smokers] like adults and — under the FDA’s careful oversight — enable them to leave cigarettes behind forever, including by switching to scientifically substantiated better alternatives such as the one FDA has now authorized,” Moira Gilchrist, PhD, Philip Morris’ vice president of scientific and public communications, said in a statement.

Some public health advocates said that no matter how it is packaged, tobacco and nicotine is a harmful combination.

“FDA’s decision is as helpful to smokers who want to quit as offering hand sanitizer to the person with obsessive compulsive disorder who needs to wash their hands constantly — it doesn’t fix the problem,” Frank T. Leone, MD, MS, director of comprehensive smoking treatment programs and professor of medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania said in an interview.Though IQOS has been available in parts of Europe and Asia for some time, stateside awareness of the device may be limited. The FDA granted IQOS’ applications through its premarket tobacco production application pathway, which is intended for tobacco products that are “appropriate for public health.”

The agency was also quick to also note that their action “does not mean these products are safe or ‘FDA approved.’ All tobacco products are potentially harmful and addictive,” it said in a statement.According to FDA’s website, companies seeking that ‘public health’ designation must address a myriad of questions, including: how the health risks of the new product compare to the health risks of other products, how the new product influences chances that current tobacco users will stop using other tobacco products or how never-users and former-users of tobacco products will respond to the new product.

“This is a big win for public health and adult smokers who are seeking out satisfying reduced-risk alternatives. Heated tobacco products are not safer than traditional vaping products, but both products are clearly far less hazardous than smoking cigarettes,” he said in a statement.