the E-cigarette Iqos, Philip Morris are Already two years after its introduction to the market a hit. It was “by far the most successful new introduction of a industry brand family in the German cigarette market for decades,” said recently Markus Essing, head of Philip Morris in Germany. The group wants to continue to generate 40 percent of sales with “reduced-risk products,” as Iqos. Iqos be a “potentially less harmful Alternative to traditional cigarettes”.

Now a finding of Blue cross Bern-Solothurn-Freiburg sit up and take notice. The addiction prevention specialist unit had a Filter of Iqos in a recognised laboratory to toxins examine. The polymer filters were heated to 100 degrees. In this case, the lab found that dangerous toxins – the so-called Isocyanate – remove from the Filter. Whether the consumption of E-cigarettes, these toxins are inhaled, has not been tested. The Competent at the Blue cross, Markus Wildermuth, is worried: “The use of the Filter will be heated even more strongly than in the laboratory.” It is the risk, therefore, that the found toxic substances when Inhalation of Iqos.

doctor: “highly problematic, if the substantiated”

The renowned lung doctor Rainer Kaelin shares the Concerns of the Blue cross: “the Inhalation of very small quantities of Isocyanates can be harmful to health.” Isocyanates must be assigned from a health point of view in a different category than the pollutants in the tobacco smoke. Substances which arise during the combustion of Tobacco, harmful to health, according to Kaelin in the rule, only if you inhale it over a longer period of time. “Isocyanates can, however, already after three months of sick.” In the extreme case, the Inhalation of isocyanates in the air “after a year, to diseases with fatal outcome”.

Isocyanates can cause lung diseases, which is comparable with the obstructive chronic pulmonary disease COPD. Kaelin was eight years Vice-President of the Lung Association. For jobs, what with the isocyanate-containing substances are used, there are strict rules. The concentration must not be higher than 0.02 milligrams per cubic meter of air. Kaelin warns: “If confirmed, the consumption of Iqos Isocyanates are inhaled, is, in my view, highly problematic”. Isocyanates in Iqos can be according to Kaelin, even harmful, if you are below the limit values Suva.

studies show the opposite

Philip Morris admits on request, you have identified the toxic substances in the Filters of the Iqos under similar conditions. It should be noted “however, that the Filter was not used in the same way as Iqos, would do users under everyday conditions,” says Philip Morris spokesman Julian Pidoux in the opinion. In order to understand which components of an Iqos-the user under everyday conditions will actually be inhaled, have analysed “the Philip Morris of the Aerosol of Iqos with detection limits down to the millionths of a gram per kilogram of nitrogen completely,” Pidoux. In an Iqos-the user inhaled Aerosol, you’ve identified no Isocyanates. “We can confirm, therefore, that users of Iqos are not exposed to these Compounds in the use of the product.”

For Wildermuth from Blue cross that is a little reassuring: “We were able to prove that the Filter will melt during normal use partially and is heated to a temperature at which Isocyanates replace actually.” The Philip Morris dispute, up to the present, the Filter when Iqos-melts consumption partially, although a US study, as well as numerous feedbacks from Iqos-the consumer showed the opposite, says Wildermuth. In addition, it is per se problematic if such consumer goods containing toxic substances. “As long as independent researchers of the potential risk due to Isocyanates pursue, the Iqos user exposed to a potential risk.”

(Sunday newspaper)

Created: 06.04.2019, 23:04 PM