Moldova’s Government Wrongly Implies That HNBs Are As Harmful as Cigs

As PMI’s iQOS emerges on the Moldovan market, the local Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection sadly failed to conduct a comprehensive investigation about the scientific data pertaining to the products, and released an inaccurate warning about the relative risks of the products.

The iQOS device, is a Heat not Burn (HnB) smokeless alternative to combustible cigarettes and works by heating tobacco leaves known as Heets or HeatSticks. These refills which look like short cigarettes, must be inserted into the device and are heated up once it is switched on.

The Ministry referred the World Health Organization’s Tobacco Control Framework Convention (FCTC), which states that all forms of tobacco use are harmful, including vaping products and HnB devices. However, a number of public health experts have spoken up against the FCTC, and last month a UK harm reduction group accused the WHO of abusing its own rules to silence criticism of its anti-harm reduction policies.

Studies indicate that HnB devices are safer than cigarettes

In the meantime, a recent independent study by renowned anti-smoking expert Dr Konstantinos Farsalinos analyzed and compared carbonyl emissions from an HnB device, an e-cigarette and a regular cigarette. The products used in this study were PMI’s IQOS, both regular and menthol variants, the Nautilus Mini e-cigarette, a tank-type atomizer tested with a tobacco-flavoured liquid at 10 W and 14 W and a Marlboro Red cigarette.

The researchers concluded that the IQOS HnB device emits substantially lower levels of carbonyls than a regular cigarette (Marlboro Red).

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