Electronic cigarette? Heat not burning cigarette? Traditional tobacco? How Japanese deal with IQOS

Inose Naoki, a former Tokyo director, has recently publicly supported the heating of non – burning tobacco on its Twitter, and hopes that the new products will be treated in Japan for tax reduction in the future to affirm their contribution to the public environment.

On the same day, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun, the largest news agency in Japan, about whether the heat-non-burning tobacco to be treated as a traditional cigarette, the Tokyo municipal government recently collected public opinion. After receiving 2000 people’s feedback on the legal constraints on the non-burning heat as a traditional cigarette, the government of Tokyo said that They can’t ignore the opinion of the 2000 citizens, and because the hazards of the so-called “heated” non burning tobacco are not completely confirmed by science, they should be treated differently from the heat burning products and the traditional tobacco products. According to an analysis of the Philip Moelis Company, which sells the “iQOS” of the non-burning product, the analysis of the Philip Moelis Company reports that the content of the harmful ingredients is reduced 90 percent compared to the traditional cigarette. The Japanese tobacco companies (JT), which sells the same product “Ploomtech”, also said, “there is little concern about health hazards, so it should not be compared with traditional cigarettes.”

As the capital of Japan, the regulations on the prevention of passive smoking in children were set up in Tokyo in October. The regulations containing punishment measures were put into effect in 2017. In order to deal with the Tokyo Olympic Games, Chiba, which is next to Tokyo, has also formulated regulations on the prevention of passive smoking. The regulations on passive smoking prevention in all levels of city, village and village are also in the city of Hokkaido, but not for restaurants and customs shops.

In view of the passive smoking prevention Ordinance, the public is familiar with the harm of traditional cigarettes to health. However, there is a lot of controversy about whether the new type of tobacco such as heating and burning should be treated differently. There are two main arguments.

1. is heat-non-burning tobacco harmful to health?

2. is it still harmful to second hand smoking?

In response, Ishida Masahiko, a medical researcher at the Yokohama Municipal University of Japan, proposed that:

“The passive smoking prevention Ordinance is based on allowing smoking to be free while limiting the health hazards of cigarette smoke to non-smokers. That is to say, if the smoke and steam coming out of heated tobacco will do the same harm to health, it should be restricted like cigarettes. If not, heating and burning tobacco should be excluded from the target.

In view of whether heating does not burn the same harm, although the current amount of sound is still large tobacco companies, public health researchers and research institutions have begun the study of the health hazards of heating-non-burning products to human health. At present, in the paper on the analysis of the substances produced by heatingnon-combustion products, the mainstream of the paper is the opinion of Swiss researchers on the product iQOS of heating non-burning products. According to this paper, the nicotine, formaldehyde, and toxic acrolein produced by iQOS are about 84% less than that of traditional cigarettes.

But it is still not comprehensive to compare the effects of traditional tobacco and heating non – burning tobacco on the health of the users. For non smokers, no tobacco can be called completely healthy, but for smokers who are unable to quit or are not ready to quit, there is no doubt that it will be transferred to the smokers. The new type of tobacco products such as heat and non combustion can reduce the harm of smoking.

Ishida Masahiko believes that carcinogens are in fact universal, and there is not a completely healthy world without any carcinogenic substance, so it is often time to set a safety threshold for different substances.

In a home wine house, a total ban is imposed, but it is not relevant to use vapes that do not release second-hand smoke. Because it does not burn without fire, the ashtray is also made of paper, which is a good way to solve the problem.

The group of the smoking Japanese people is really big enough. In order to smoke and being healthy,  they have taken all kinds of means and attempts. I wonder if we can learn from them or learn from them. How do you think about this new vape pen?