Vaping debate heats up in UK

The launch in the UK of Philip Morris International’s IQOS heat-not-burn vapor device is opening another chapter in the country’s debate about harm reduction.

According to a bbc.com story by Dominic O’Connell, users of IQOS ‘get the same nicotine hit, but 90 percent less of the nasty toxins that come with cigarette smoke’.

‘It [PMI] says trials – not yet externally verified – found the new cigarette had the same impact as quitting smoking,’ O’Connell, a Today program business presenter, wrote.

‘The firm is not pushing that finding, saying only that the new product is likely to cause less harm.’

In his first UK broadcast interview, Andre Calantzopoulos, PMI’s chief executive, said he would like to work with governments towards the “phase-out” of conventional cigarettes.

He told the Today program that the company knew its products harmed their consumers and that the only correct response was to “to find and commercialise” ones that were less harmful.

“That is clearly our objective,” he said.

Calantzopoulos said that trials in Japan had shown that 70 percent of smokers stayed with IQOS, which compared with a general conversion rate of 20 percent for electronic cigarettes.

But not everybody is won over. The Guardian newspaper reported Deborah Arnott, chief executive of the anti-smoking group Ash as saying that Philip Morris claimed to be moving towards a post-smoking future but, like other tobacco companies, was still actively promoting smoking around the world, using methods that would be illegal in the UK.

And the newspaper quoted Rae Maile, tobacco industry analyst with City of London firm Cenkos Securities, as saying that Calantzopoulos was vague about how long it might take for cigarettes to disappear.

“He didn’t say when … so it’s any time in the next century,” he said. “There are one billion people quite happy with smoking,” he said. “Cigarettes are easy to use, convenient and don’t need recharging. People know the health risks and are willing to accept them.”