Big tobacco touts new cigarette technology
Company: Product eliminates majority of toxins from smoke
Philip Morris says it has created a less toxic cigarette — an innovation it claims could save lives and eliminate smoking in America.
The new technology, called IQOS, consists of a tube that gently heats up sticks of tobacco instead of burning them. By using heat instead of flame, the company says, IQOS eradicates 90 to 95 percent of toxic compounds in cigarette smoke.
The Food and Drug Administration is expected to decide in the next two months whether to allow IQOS into the U.S. market. And that has triggered debate and worries among health experts about whether IQOS will help or hurt public health in this country.
Among their most pressing concerns: whether the new device will lower tobacco-related deaths, or if it is just substituting one harmful product for another. Fueling such doubts is the fact that many of America’s leading health organizations and experts remain deeply suspicious of Philip Morris.
This is the company, they point out, that makes Marlboro — the world’s best-selling cigarette — and misled the public for years about the hazards of smoking.
“They are masterful liars. That’s not an exaggeration — that’s a fact proven by decades of evidence,” said Matthew Myers, longtime president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “So the question we’re all asking ourselves is: What’s their ultimate game plan with this thing?”
Only one independent study has examined the risks of IQOS and found higher levels of several toxic compounds produced by the device than Philip Morris has claimed.
The company’s response to the study was so forceful — the bosses of the three Swiss researchers received alarming letters from Philip Morris accusing their employees of bad methodolgy, a response almost unheard of in the scientific community — that the scientists have gone silent, refusing to talk publicly about their work.
Even if Philip Morris’ health claims turn out to be true, health officials warn, IQOS could be a Trojan horse.
Smoking in America has dropped to an all-time low. Some health advocates worry Philip Morris — which spent $3 billion to develop IQOS — wants to use its new machine to halt that progress. If IQOS attracts new smokers, it could hook a new generation on nicotine.
“The skepticism is not surprising for us,” said one of Philip Morris’ chief scientists, Moira Gilchrist. “You don’t have to trust or believe us. You don’t have to take our word for it. But what we ask is that people have an open mind. Look at the science we’ve done on this and base your decision on that.” On a recent sunny day, standing outside Philip Morris’ Washington office, Gilchrist clicked open a smooth, sleek battery pack.
With two fingers, she pulled out what looked like a hollowed-out electronic cigar — the latest IQOS prototype.
To use it, she explained, you push into its hollow end a short modified cigarette, called a HeatStick. A heating blade inside the IQOS pierces the HeatStick and gently warms the tobacco inside.
Gilchrist lifted the IQOS and took a long drag. As she exhaled, a slight musty-sweet smell permeated the air.
“Because there’s no combustion involved, there’s no smoke,” she said.
Unlike vaping machines, which use a liquid solution to deliver nicotine, the IQOS deliberately uses tobacco. Many smokers have trouble quitting cigarettes even after trying vaping, studies have shown. Philip Morris scientists argue that for smokers to quit, you need to offer something with the same buzz and taste of tobacco.
“You have to give them that satisfying experience,” Gilchrist said. “You have to deliver nicotine at roughly the same speed and amount.”
Philip Morris chief executive André Calantzopoulos predicts that smokeless products like IQOS will one day be so common that his company stops selling all regular cigarettes.
The company has built a $120 million research center in Switzerland to focus on smokeless products. IQOS is now sold in 25 countries.
But the clearest sign of its potential has been Japan.
Last spring, IQOS became available nationwide there, and in the brief time since, IQOS has grabbed 10 percent of Japan’s tobacco market — a feat that has investors salivating over its U.S. prospects.
Philip Morris says 72 percent of users in Japan quit cigarettes entirely and converted to IQOS. That’s significantly higher than the 7 percent quit rate among those who tried vaping and 6 percent quit rate of nicotine patch users in a trial published by the journal Lancet. The Swiss study compared the harmful compounds in the air generated by IQOS with those of regular cigarettes. The study found that although IQOS generated many toxic chemicals at lower rates, some were much higher than Philip Morris claimed. It also found that IQOS produced 295 percent more of one hazardous compound than traditional cigarettes.
In their study, the scientists accused Philip Morris of “dancing around the definition of smoke” and argued that “there can be smoke without fire.”
Philip Morris has posted an academic rebuttal online, questioning the Swiss study’s methodology and interpretation.
“When a study like that picks up so much media interest, smokers who have already converted to IQOS and been helped by it have the potential to be misled,” spokesman Corey Henry said.