There's been widespread belief the so-called "heat-not-burn" electronic cigarettes are safer than conventional ones... as they heat tobacco to a temperature high enough to create vapor not smoke.<br />But that may not be true, as health authorities in the nation announced there's no reason to believe these relatively new devices are less toxic.<br />Our Ko Roon-hee explains further. <br /> It's been a little over a year since so-called "heat-not-burn" electronic cigarettes came onto the Korean market, and they've caught on quickly among smokers.<br />According to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, as of this April, heat-not-burn products had a cigarette market share of almost 10 percent.<br /> However, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety released analysis Thursday... saying there is no evidence that these products are less harmful than conventional cigarettes.<br />Together with outside researchers, the ministry studied three popular e-cigarette products -- the Lil by local tobacco company KT&G, the Glo by British American Tobacco, and the iQOS by Philip Morris.<br /> In them, it found five substances classified as five substances classified as "first level carcinogens" by the International Agency for Cancer.<br />However, the amounts were only between zero-point-3 percent and 28 percent of those found in conventional smokes.<br /> The amount of nicotine was similar to that found in ordinary cigarettes -- between a tenth and one half of a milligram.<br />The ministry added that two of the products, though, contained more tar. <br /><br /> "Some of the heat-not-burn electronic cigarettes contain more tar than regular ones. <br />This means these e-cigarettes could contain other toxic substances...not found in regular tobacco."<br /> But the report was met with a backlash from manufacturers, who've called it meaningless.<br />They say it's not appropriate to simply compare amounts of tar... because tar is produced when tobacco is burned, which their devices don't do.<br /> This isn't the first warning from the government about heat-not-burn cigarettes.<br />The health ministry announced last month that twelve new written and graphic warnings will be put on heat-not-burn cigarettes starting this December. <br /> The government is also working on a law to make manufacturers submit a full list of the ingredients and toxic substances in the heat-not-burn cigarettes and disclose the information to the public.<br />Ko Roon-hee, Arirang News. <br />
