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Canada Is Hampering Efforts To Quit Smoking With ‘Puzzling’ Vaping Policies

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Steve Birr Vice Reporter
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The leader of one of the world’s largest tobacco companies is blasting the “puzzling” vaping policies of Canada, which ignore differences in risk between the devices and traditional tobacco products.

Philip Morris International CEO Andre Calantzopoulos ripped into tobacco control policies in Canada, questioning the government’s refusal to regulate products with safer risk profiles separately from traditional tobacco. PMI produces a heat-not-burn device called iQOS that research suggests is significantly less harmful to health than smoke inhaled from combustible tobacco, reports Global News.

Calantzopoulos argues that products like iQOS and technologies from the burgeoning global vaping industry are helping smokers quit and reduce harm to themselves and those around them. Public health advocates focused on harm reduction say safer products that satiate smokers’ appetite for nicotine are key to reducing smoking rates and ultimately eradicating the habit.

“It’s puzzling to me that the Canadian government does not provide itself with the ability to evaluate these products,” Calantzopoulos said Sunday during an interview on The West Block, according to Global News. “I think it’s very wrong to believe that and also tell consumers that smoke that all tobacco products are the same. They are not, and I think that there is enough science to demonstrate this.”

PMI representatives announced Sept. 13 that the company is committing $1 billion over the next 12 years to the Foundation For A Smoke Free World, a new charity arm of PMI committed to reducing smoking rates. The organization, which they say is legally protected from the influence of employees at PMI, is headed by Dr. Derek Yach, who previously spearheaded anti-smoking efforts for the World Health Organization (WHO). Critics of big tobacco are generally skeptical of PMI’s motivations and commitment to reducing global smoking rates.

“I recognize that we have a credibility gap here, and I don’t ask people to trust what I’m saying, but verify the product we put on the market and the science we provide,” Calantzopoulos said on The West Block. “I’m always welcoming and calling for independent verification.”

Research from the R Street Institute, a free-market think tank, evaluating the impact of heat-not-burn devices on overall health bolsters their image as a harm reduction product that can help move smokers away from traditional cigarettes. PMI announced Aug. 24 that approximately 3 million smokers in Singapore have transitioned from cigarettes to the iQOS. The company says that more than 232,000 smokers across the world, or roughly 8,000 people a day, ditched cigarettes for the iQOS in July.

E-cigarettes already have a substantial amount of research showing their efficacy as a harm reduction tool.

Major health groups in England, like the Royal College of Physicians, agree that using e-cigarettes eliminates most of the harms attributed to smoking. They also recommend vaping to patients trying to quit traditional tobacco products. Public Health England says vaping eliminates up to 95 percent of the risk associated with cigarettes because the majority of cancer-causing chemicals are inhaled through smoke.

Calantzopoulos says Canadian officials need to follow the model of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration when it comes to alternative smoking technologies. The Food and Drug Administration recently acknowledged the health benefits of e-cigarettes and is now encouraging smokers to transition to vaping to reduce their health risks.

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