Tobacco Giant Philip Morris Defends Non-Burning Product Under Smoke-Free Laws

Source from:  Stuff.co.nz 03/05/2018

A non-burning tobacco stick and whether it can be smoked is at the centre of a week-long district court trial in Wellington.

The Ministry of Health last year laid two charges against tobacco giant Philip Morris over HEETS, a tobacco stick that is heated in an electronic device called IQOS to release nicotine.

The charges relate to the sale of the product and about its importation.

The Ministry considers HEETS fall into the category of tobacco products designed for oral use other than for smoking and are prohibited in New Zealand under Section 29 of the Smoke-Free Environments Act 1990.

Philip Morris is defending the charges.

IQOS is a smokeless electronic device that the company began promoting in the past couple of years. It is available internationally.

Health ministry prosecutor Sally Carter told Wellington District Court judge Peter Butler he could hear from an expert witness confirming that the sticks were tobacco.

The issue would be about the statutory interpretation of the smoke-free legislation and whether the product was captured by the act, she said.

Carter said the judge would also hear the research Philip Morris had done, about the product and how it worked and if it was harmful or not.

She said there needed to be changes to the legislation to bring it up to date and they were in train, but the charges before the court needed to be dealt with under the legislation as it is now.  Enditem