South Korea’s health authorities said yesterday that five cancer-causing substances ‘were found in heat-not-burn electronic cigarettes’ sold on the local market, according to a Yonhap News Agency story.
Presumably the tests were carried out on the vapor produced by these devices.
The five ‘group 1 carcinogens’ – benzopyrene, nitrosopyrrolidine, benzene, formaldehyde and nitrosamine ketone – were said to have been detected in all the products.
However, the level of these carcinogens was between 0.3 percent and 28.0 percent of that discovered in tests on conventional combustible products.
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety carried out their investigation into three tobacco heating devices – Philip Morris Korea’s IQOS, British American Tobacco’s Glo, and KT&G’s lil.
“There is no reason to think that e-cigarettes [sic] are less harmful than conventional cigarettes after comprehensively considering various research, such as those carried out by WHO,” a ministry official said.
Two of the three products were said to have ‘contained’ more tar than conventional cigarettes did, though which two was not stated.
However, a graphic included with a story on koreabiomed.com indicated that the two were IQOS and Lil.
“The amount of nicotine contained in e-cigarettes was about the same level compared to conventional tobaccos, indicating that e-cigarettes are not helpful to those wanting to quit smoking,” the official said.