Call for different rules for different smokes

Philip Morris International’s SA division has urged the government to ease rules restricting tobacco advertising for “smoke-free” products such as its iQos device, arguing it needs greater scope to inform consumers about alternatives to smoking. The manufacturer of cigarette brands Marlboro and Chesterfield has said it aims to derive half its net revenue from smoke-free products by 2025.

Philip Morris Internationals ’ SA division has urged the government to ease rules restricting tobacco advertising for “smokefree” products such as its iQos device, arguing it needs greater scope to inform consumers about alternatives to smoking.

The manufacturer of cigarette brands Marlboro and Chesterfield has said it aims to derive half its net revenue from smoke-free products by 2025.

“Heat-not-burn” products such as iQos contain tobacco that is heated to a lower temperature than a combustible cigarette, and release vapour containing nicotine. These devices, along with other alternatives to traditional tobacco products such as e-cigarettes, are at the centre of a fierce public health debate about their use and regulation. Proponents argue they are safer than cigarettes and opponents worry about their long-term effects, particularly among the youth.

“iQos and heated tobacco products are regulated the same way as cigarettes, so we are limited in how we communicate to consumers. It makes it difficult for consumers to know about [iQos], what it does, where [they] can find it, and the best way to make the switch [from smoking],” said Philip Morris SA consumer experience director David Kadalie.

“If we want to make a meaningful change and impact the big numbers, we need to be able to make consumers aware and inform them. We are for regulation, but we need to have sensible regulation,” he said in an interview with Business Day.

Kadalie’s comments come as the government considers the draft Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill, which seeks to tighten rules governing the use and marketing of tobacco products and bring e-cigarettes into the regulatory fold.

A draft version of the bill, released for comment in 2018, proposes banning smoking in indoor public places and certain outdoor places, introducing plain packaging for tobacco products, banning vending machine sales and prohibiting point-of-sale advertising.

The bill has been approved by a cabinet subcommittee, and is expected to be considered by the full cabinet “in the next week or two”. The bill will then be submitted to Nedlac and could be tabled in parliament before the end of 2022, she said.

Philip Morris introduced iQos to SA five years ago and it remains the only Sub-Saharan country in which the device is available. Philip Morris SA aimed to convert 365,000 of the 15million people who use nicotine containing products to iQos by 2025, said Kadalie, conceding its price puts it out of reach of the majority of South Africans.

About seven out of 10 iQos users have stopped smoking entirely, but the company does not have data on how many of them remain nonsmokers, or for how long they continue to use iQos devices, he said.

His call for differentiated regulation for heated tobacco products echoes the sentiments of Philip Morris director for external affairs Ondrej Koumal, which he expressed on the sidelines of the fifth scientific summit on Tobacco Harm Reduction, under way this week in Athens.

He told Business Day that differentiated regulation and taxation could be used to reduce prices and incentivise consumers to use less harmful tobacco products, such as iQos.

“There are lots of misperceptions about the harms of nicotine. A lack of information makes informed decision-making very difficult. We need differentiated regulation and taxation,” he said.

The conference, which has drawn 240 attendees, has cast the spotlight on the safety of alternatives to traditional tobacco products and their efficacy as smoking-cessation aids. It has also highlighted the variety of approaches governments around the world have taken to regulate these products.

Among the challenges facing regulatory authorities is that much of the research on these products has been conducted by the tobacco industry, which in the past has failed to disclose the health risks of cigarettes.

THERE ARE LOTS OF MISPERCEPTIONS ABOUT THE HARMS OF NICOTINE. A LACK OF INFORMATION MAKES INFORMED DECISIONMAKING DIFFICULT

Ondrej Koumal Philip Morris external affairs director