Korea Phillip Morris, which sells "IQOS," has filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. It is very unusual for a tobacco company to file a lawsuit against health authorities.
On Oct. 1, Korea Philip Morris filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, demanding that the ministry disclose the basis for its analysis of harmful effects of smoking-type electronic cigarettes it announced in June.
According to the analysis conducted by the ministry, three types of smoking-type electronic cigarettes such as IQOS (Philip Morris), Glo (BAT Korea), and LiL (KT&G), are more harmful than existing cigarettes.
Regarding this matter, Philip Morris asked for the ministry's inspection methodology and disclosure of the original data, saying that the analysis method itself is problematic. Meanwhile, the ministry refused to it, and Philip Morris filed a lawsuit.
"Tar comes only from regular cigarette smoke," Philip Morris said. "Because there is no smoke in electronic cigarettes that heat up by a steaming way, the analysis method of the ministry cannot be applied."
However, the ministry stressed, "It is true that even a single cigarette is harmful to the body and that the existence of harmful ingredients is a problem in itself."