Heated tobacco device said to be safer than cigarettes really is not, studies say – News – The Columbus Dispatch

The FDA is still deliberating, but the authors of the new studies have reached their own conclusion: IQOS should not be sold in the U.S.

In 30 countries around the world, consumers can slide into a sleek device, heat it to 350 degrees and inhale. The result is a hit of nicotine that feels like it's coming from a traditional cigarette.

Tobacco giant Philip Morris International wants to sell this device in the United States and is seeking regulatory approval that the IQOS system is less dangerous than old-fashioned smoking. IQOS aims to achieve a better quality of life. It may even cause some health problems that do not include liver disease.

The analysis was spearheaded by Big Tobacco foe Stanton Glantz, who reports to the University of California, San Francisco Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education. The findings appear in eight papers published Tuesday by the BMJ Journal Tobacco Control.

The IQOS system features a cylinder in the form of a "HeatStick" and warmed to 350 degrees. But unlike a cigarette, which burns at 600 degrees, a HeatStick never ignites.

That's why Philip Morris and its U.S. partner Altria call IQOS has "reduced harm" tobacco product. The FDA is one of the most important examples of U.S.

In January, an FDA advisory panel agreed that switching completely from cigarettes to IQOS significantly reduces smoker's exposure to harmful chemicals. But the panel said Philip Morris had not shown that the reduced exposure would likely result in a "measurable and substantial" decline in disease and / or death.

The FDA is still deliberating, but the authors of the new studies have reached their own conclusion: IQOS should not be sold in the U.S.

One of the eight studies challenges the sustainability of the tobacco company's claim, compared with continuing smokers, which is often referred to as "biomarkers". Virtually none of the comparisons between those who have been tested and those who have met the standard

On the basis of Philip Morris, "Glantz wrote, Glantz wrote. FDA, a standard glantz called "routine for such scientific analysis" _ Philip Morris' documents "simply stress the direction of changes," he wrote.

It would be a bit of a statistic that he would not have any more of a negative opinion, he added: "No tobacco company would tolerate such assertions made by the FDA or other public health authorities."

Another of the studies published Tuesday, March 24th, 2009, p.

In claiming reduced pulmonary inflammation for those using its product, Philip Morris' submission to the FDA cites improvements in two biological measures of C-reactive protein and white blood cell count among those who switched to IQOS. A team from UCSF is one of those indicators of system inflammation in humans, which is a poor measure of lung function or inflammation in those vital organs. And the team's analysis is not very robust.

That did not prevent Philip Morris from claiming that "smokers who switch to (IQOS) would have a lower risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease compared with continued smoking," noted the research team led by Dr. Farzad Moazed, a pulmonary and critical care specialist. .

The tobacco giant "not only fails to accurately assess pulmonary inflammation in their human studies," the researchers wrote, but it "also misleadingly concludes that their claim to inflammation and the risk of COPD in humans is a claim that is simply not supported. their data. "

Still another study offered a warning about ill effects as yet unknown.

Tobacco smoke contains over 7,000 distinct chemical substances, many of them capable of inducing illness, including cancer. The FDA has identified 93 harmful or potentially harmful constituents that it wants makers of tobacco products to measure in their emissions.

Philip Morris alled emissions-comparisons of 58 products, including 40 that are recognized by the FDA as harmful or potentially harmful. In all of these constituents, it found IQOS emissions lower than standard cigarette smoke.

But the tobacco company's chemical analyzes also found that IQOS produced levels of 56 other constituents at higher concentrations than were found in cigarette smoke. In the case of seven constituents, the HeatSticks emitted levels at least 10 times higher than those found in cigarette smoke.

These constituents are not included in the FDA's list of harmful or potentially harmful constituents. But the effect of these substances "is not known," the researchers wrote. "Since the constituents of HeatSticks may be different from that of combustible cigarettes, including flavourants and additives, it is plausible that the aerosol may contain substances not present in tobacco smoke."

"While some impacts of IQOS may be less than that of cigarettes, others may be as bad or worse," Glantz said in summarizing the new research. "The evidence does not support Philip Morris International's broad claims of reduced harm."

Researchers noted that, in various forms, "heated" tobacco products have been touted as safer alternatives to cigarettes since the 1960s.

The FDA should have required Philip Morris to assess the appeal of added flavoring, as well as the "high-tech look" of the IQOS, on younger consumers, wrote by Stanford researcher Karma McKelvey. Her team would also be convinced that Phillip Morris would be willing to give up their cigarettes altogether.