The World Health Organization (WHO) released its first-ever guidelines for adult smoking cessation on July 2. These guidelines include recommendations for quitting heated tobacco products. On Father’s Day, the Alliance of Banning Cigarettes Taiwan called on the government to follow the WHO initiative and encourage people to support their fathers to quit smoking.
Taiwan's Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act was amended in March 2022 to completely ban e-cigarettes and regulate heated tobacco products. Currently, no heated tobacco products have been approved for sale in Taiwan. Guo Fei-Ran (郭斐然) from the Department of Family Medicine at NTU says that as heated tobacco products are likely to enter the Taiwanese market in the future, the government should include cessation guidelines for these products in their upcoming clinical smoking cessation service guidelines. Lin Ching-li (林清麗), director of the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Center of the John Tung Foundation, urged the government to review heated tobacco products before approval and not succumb to pressure from tobacco companies.
Health experts warn that heated tobacco products are not a safe alternative to traditional cigarettes. The data also shows that heated tobacco smoke contains 22 harmful chemicals at twice the concentration found in cigarettes, and seven harmful chemicals at ten times the concentration. Animal studies have revealed that exposure to heated tobacco smoke results in serum nicotine levels 4.5 higher than exposure to cigarette smoke.