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. 2018 Nov;27(Suppl 1):s41-s47.
doi: 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2018-054596.

Heated tobacco products likely appeal to adolescents and young adults

Karma McKelvey  1 , Lucy Popova  2 , Minji Kim  3 , Benjamin W Chaffee  4 , Maya Vijayaraghavan  5 , Pamela Ling  3 , Bonnie Halpern-Felsher  1
Affiliations

Heated tobacco products likely appeal to adolescents and young adults

Karma McKelvey et al. Tob Control. 2018 Nov.

Abstract

Background: Beginning in the 1960s in the USA and globally since 1998, tobacco companies have beenaggressively promoting heated tobacco products (HTP). In 2016, Philip Morris International (PMI) applied to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seeking authorisation to market their IQOS HTP system and flavoured 'HeatSticks' in the USA as a modified-risk tobacco product (MRTP).

Methods: We systematically evaluated the publicly available data PMI submitted to FDA in its MRTP application to determine whether PMI's IQOS product meets the US Tobacco Control Act's standard for MRTP claims. We examined whether PMI provided sufficient data showing tobacco users will not initiate with IQOS, that youth will not misperceive the MRTP-related claims being made concerning IQOS, and how youth perceive health risks associated with IQOS.

Results: PMI's own studies failed to provide evidence that youth, including non-users and former users, will not find IQOS appealing, will not initiate use of IQOS and will not perceive these products as risk-free. Further, PMI did not refer to independent studies conducted among adolescents which could influence their conclusions. Finally, their studies suffered from design and implementation flaws and cannot be relied on to support the proffered claims.

Conclusion: PMI's own data and available evidence from scientific studies conducted independent of the tobacco industry regarding how novel tobacco products are currently being marketed suggest that introduction of IQOS will result in adolescent and young adult non-users initiating tobacco use with IQOS and could also increase poly-use of IQOS along with other tobacco products.

Keywords: electronic nicotine delivery devices; non-cigarette tobacco products; packaging and labelling; public policy; tobacco industry.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Packaging of IQOS (top: picture taken by Minji Kim) resembles that of a high-end smartphone (bottom: Apple iPhone 7; source: www.phonearena.com).
Figure 2
Figure 2
IQOS Flagship store in Seoul, Korea, June 2017 (photos by Minji Kim).
Figure 3
Figure 3
IQOS Flagship store in Amsterdam, Netherlands, September 2017 (photo by Minji Kim).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Kim M. Philip Morris International introduces new heat-not-burn product, IQOS, in South Korea. Tob Control 2018;27:e76–e78. 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2017-053965 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. International PM, 2017. Our tobacco heating system iqos: tobacco meets technology https://www.pmi.com/smoke-free-products/iqos-our-tobacco-heating-system.
    1. US food & drug administratoion. Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act - An Overview.
    1. Philip Morris SA, 2016. Philip Morris Products SA. Modified Risk Tobacco Product (Mrtp) Applications https://www.fda.gov/downloads/TobaccoProducts/Labeling/MarketingandAdver....
    1. Tabuchi T, Gallus S, Shinozaki T, et al. . Heat-not-burn tobacco product use in Japan: its prevalence, predictors and perceived symptoms from exposure to secondhand heat-not-burn tobacco aerosol. Tob Control 2018;27:e25–e33. 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2017-053947 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

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