New SA rules will choke e-cigarettes – tobacco company

Philip Morris International – one of the biggest tobacco companies in the world – sees SA’s mooted tobacco regulations as an impediment to its plan to phase out its cigarette brands in favour of healthier alternatives. According to a Business Day report, the company wants to ultimately replace all its cigarettes with products that do not produce harmful smoke, such as e-cigarettes and its new iQOS range of devices, that heat instead of burn tobacco. But the company said if it went ahead in its current form, SA’s Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill would restrict the communication and marketing of all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes and products such as iQOS. The Bill includes provisions that introduce plain packaging and ban point-of-sale advertising and displays. That means consumers may never know about new-generation products such as iQOS, which produce ‘90% less of the dangerous components’ of traditional cigarettes, said Marcelo Nico, Philip Morris’ MD for Southern Africa. ‘What we encourage government to do, and it’s in the submissions we made on the draft Bill, is to separate the combustion burning of tobacco versus smokeless products like iQOS; they should be treated differently because this is part of the solution.’