In a landmark decision last July 7, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the marketing of IQOS as a modified risk tobacco product. Produced by Philip Morris International (PMI) based in Switzerland, IQOS is the first electrically heated tobacco system to qualify for sale in America.

FDA is a federal agency of the US Department of Health and Human Services responsible for protecting public health. Its authorization is an acknowledgment that IQOS is fundamentally different from conventional cigarettes and offers a better choice for adults who would otherwise continue smoking.

This was an exceptional turn of events in the campaign to rid the world of combustible cigarettes. The FDA ruling contains substantial information that contradicts the position of the World Health Organization (WHO) whose approach to tobacco control is known as “quit or die.”

WHO officials seem to have been caught unaware about the rising consumer demand for heated tobacco products (HTPs) that produce aerosol such as IQOS. Aerosol contains far lower quantities of harmful chemicals than those found in cigarette smoke, according to documents reviewed by the FDA.

Mitch Zeller, director of FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said: “Through the modified risk tobacco application process, the FDA aims to ensure that information directed at consumers about reduced risk or exposure from using a tobacco product is supported by scientific evidence.”

In granting a first-ever exposure modification order, the FDA concluded that an innovative electronic product like IQOS is beneficial to the health of the population as a whole – taking into account addicted adult smokers switching from cigarettes, as well as non-smokers who suffer from second-hand cigarette smoke.

Such pronouncements from the FDA debunk the WHO’s belief that “there is a large knowledge gap, as this generation of HTPs has not been on the market long enough for potential effects to be studied.” For more than a decade, scientists from government research institutes and independent laboratories in the Netherlands, Japan, and Germany have come out with studies showing that smoke-free nicotine products are better alternatives to smoking. However, the WHO would often quickly dismiss the results of such research without citing scientific evidence.

Britain’s Royal College of Physicians stated in a policy report titled “Nicotine Without Smoke: Tobacco Harm Reduction” that authorities need to keep pace with the emerging science and innovation around smoke-free products to benefit public health. The Canadian department responsible for the country’s federal health policy, Health Canada, advised consumers that completely replacing cigarette smoking with vaping reduces exposure to harmful chemicals.

So much information actually exists in the markets where HTPs are available. With over 14 million users of IQOS alone, PMI has demonstrated that heating tobacco instead of burning it significantly reduces the production of harmful chemicals compared to cigarette smoke. But why would PMI present the findings of its studies that will negatively impact the sales of its traditional cigarettes, if they were inaccurate?

Based on the WHO’s Global Adult Tobacco Survey, there are 17.3 million adult Filipinos who smoke.

Since 2009, the smoking quit rate in the Philippines has been a pathetic 4%, reflecting the ineffectiveness of currently approved cessation strategies including nicotine replacement therapy and quitting cold turkey. Globally, it estimates the number of smokers to remain at more than a billion people by 2025. Why deprive this huge constituency of less harmful alternatives?

Not all tobacco products are the same, and WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom should take the cue from scientific bodies like the FDA in recognizing the potential of new technologies that will reduce the risks faced by smokers. After all, smoking is a major risk factor for severe disease and death from COVID-19.

[email protected]