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The Korea Herald
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THE INVESTOR
March 29, 2024

Retail & Consumer

Philip Morris puffs data to claim lower cancer risk of IQOS

  • PUBLISHED :August 30, 2018 - 15:41
  • UPDATED :September 03, 2018 - 16:20
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[THE INVESTOR] Philip Morris Korea announced on Aug. 30 that smoking with its heat-not-burn device IQOS can reduce risks of having lung cancer, compared to smoking conventional cigarettes.

“IQOS is not risk free. And the best choice is to quit (smoking),” Manuel Peitsch, Philip Morris International’s chief scientific officer said during a press conference in Seoul. “(But) IQOS is a much better choice for those who will continue to smoke cigarettes. We share the responsibility for providing accurate information based on science for consumers to make better choices.”

 

Manuel Peitsch, Philip Morris International’s chief scientific officer



Philip Morris Korea announced that it conducted experiments with A/J mice -- which are known to have sensitive response to cigarette smoke -- for 18 months. The mice were exposed to three different environments that were full of clean air, conventional cigarette smoke and IQOS vapor. According to the tabacco maker, the results found that mice exposed to IQOS vapor are less likely to have lung cancer compared to ones that were exposed to conventional cigarette smoke.

Furthermore, PMI once again rebutted the Korean government’s argument that IQOS releases more tar than conventional cigarettes, and is not less harmful. “As we said in June, tar includes both harmful and not harmful elements. So, it is not right to simply compare the amount of tar,” Kim Byung-chul, executive director of Philip Morris Korea said. He also added that IQOS contributes to the Health Ministry’s policy to encourage people to quit smoking, explaining that the total conventional cigarette packets that were sold from June last year -- when PMI launched IQOS here -- to May this year decreased to 3.51 billion unit from 3.62 billion during the same period a year ago.

By Song Seung-hyun (ssh@heraldcorp.com)

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