NGOs accuse company of flouting nicotine-label rule on heated tobacco

Taipei, Oct. 22 (CNA) More than a dozen NGOs in Taiwan on Wednesday accused a tobacco company of deliberately violating the law by failing to label nicotine content on heated tobacco products, and urged authorities to step up enforcement after the items were ordered pulled from shelves last week.

Many have asked why the tobacco company would prefer "being fined NT$5 million (US$162,600) rather than labeling the nicotine content and complying with the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act," Lin Ching-li (林清麗), director of the Tobacco Control Division at John Tung Foundation, said at a press conference in Taipei.

While the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) has not officially banned the media from disclosing the company's name, CNA is withholding it to avoid inadvertently promoting the brand and violating advertising restrictions under the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act.

Lin and representatives from 12 other NGOs held the press event to urge tougher enforcement after the HPA ordered eight types of heated tobacco products -- all from the same company -- pulled from shelves last Friday, their first day on sale.

Those eight products were Taiwan's first legally approved heated tobacco products to reach the market, but were quickly pulled from shelves after inspectors found the packaging did not list nicotine content as required by law.

Health Minister Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said last Saturday that the company had submitted samples for pre-market review and "the samples were labeled with nicotine content."

Shih said at the time that authorities are investigating where the process failed and why the shelf products differed from the submitted samples, and will impose fines once responsibility is established.

During the press event, Guo Fei-ran (郭斐然), an attending physician in the Department of Family Medicine at National Taiwan University Hospital, cited a 2024 paper in the academic journal Toxics, which examined heated tobacco products sold in nine countries and found they contained an average of 4.7 milligrams of nicotine per stick.

"That exceeds Taiwan's legal limit of 1.0 milligram," Guo said, adding that a document published by the tobacco company involved in the case indicates its heated tobacco products contain 18-20 milligrams of nicotine per gram of tobacco, equivalent to approximately 4.3 to 6 milligrams per stick.

Describing it as an "unspeakable secret," Lin argued that if the tobacco company complied with the law by labeling nicotine content on heated tobacco, it might not be able to sell its products in Taiwan as they exceed the legal limit.

"Multinational tobacco companies generate about NT$180 billion a year in Taiwan's tobacco market, so they have money and power," she said, noting that such resources can "make things go their way," making a NT$5 million fine negligible by comparison.

Following their removal from shelves last Friday, some of the heated tobacco products were sent for testing to determine whether their nicotine content meets the stipulated standard.

Shih said last Saturday that heated tobacco does not produce tar, unlike conventional cigarettes, so the nicotine limit is set at no more than 1 milligram per stick.

If the products are below that limit, their health risk is the same as that of regular cigarettes, not higher, he said at the time, adding that test results were expected as soon as this week.