FDA OKs marketing of IQOS tobacco heating system
Posted by freemexy on March 31st, 2021
FDA OKs marketing of IQOS tobacco heating system
The FDA recently authorized Philip Morris International to market its IQOS Tobacco Heating System. Physicians told Healio Primary Care that the public health impact of the agency’s decision is not immediately apparent.To get more news about Hitaste, you can visit hitaste.net official website.
The FDA’s website states that IQOS consists of a paper-wrapped tobacco stick placed in an electronic heating device, which punctures the stick with a glass-covered ceramic blade that heats the tobacco, making an aerosol. IQOS is not the same as traditional cigarettes, which use an open flame, nor is it the same as e-cigarettes, which use an electric source to heat a liquid.Philip Morris CEO André Calantzopoulos said in a press release that with the FDA authorization, the company can “inform adults that switching completely to IQOS is a better choice than continuing to smoke.”
Although IQOS is promoted as a safer alternative to smoking, Frank T. Leone, MD, MS, a pulmonologist and director of comprehensive smoking treatment programs at Penn Medicine, explained that “cancer is not the only definition of harm.”The size of the particles in the aerosol, the temperature, pH, and other physical characteristics — these make a difference in how a device impacts the body,” he told Healio Primary Care. “I'm not suggesting there's something nefarious going on with the FDA, but the agency is making decisions based on basic logical fallacies.”
Richard O’Connor, PhD, professor of oncology at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, N.Y., said that Calantzopoulos’ premise of adults switching “completely to IQOS” is critical to understanding the public health impact of IQOS.“If current cigarette smokers switch completely to IQOS in large numbers, then their exposure to harmful chemicals will go down and health benefits may be realized,” O’Connor told Healio Primary Care. “But the benefit is predicated on complete switching. Emerging studies from markets where these products are more popular indicate that most IQOS users continue to smoke.”
