Heated tobacco products (HTPs) contain nicotine and other carcinogens, and can be as addictive and harmful to the body as regular cigarettes, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said on Thursday.
The agency issued a warning about the health effects of using HTPs the day after the US Food and Drug Administration announced that tobacco giant Philip Morris could market a tobacco heating system — an electronic device that heats tobacco-filled sticks wrapped in paper to generate a nicotine-containing aerosol.
“Smoking cigarettes does nothing but harm the body, and new types of products — e-cigarettes and HTPs — are the same,” the HPA said.
Citing the WHO’s information sheet on HTPs, the agency said that “there is no evidence to demonstrate that HTPs are less harmful than conventional tobacco products.”
HTPs contain nicotine, which induces the release of dopamine in the brain and is highly addictive, as users need more nicotine with repeated use, it added.
The products also contain tar, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and other toxic or cancer-causing substances, the agency said, citing a 2017 Japanese study.
The new products might attract more young people to smoking, Tobacco Control Division head Lo Su-ying (羅素英) said.
A survey of 16-to-19-year-olds in the US, Canada and the UK found that 29.1 percent of respondents wanted to try e-cigarettes and 25.1 percent wanted to try heated tobacco products — higher than the 19.3 percent who wanted to try regular cigarettes, she said.
The agency urges people to avoid substances that are addictive and contain many unknown ingredients, Lo said.
Some countries have approved the use of HTPs, but Taiwan has so far not approved their use, so heated tobacco products cannot be imported either, Lo said.
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