🏭 How to read "tobacco-company science." A lens for heated-tobacco research
How to read "tobacco-company science" — a lens for heated-tobacco research.
In debates over IQOS and heated tobacco, the issue you can't sidestep is research funding.
Tobacco companies talk about heated tobacco as a "smoke-free future," "risk reduction," and a "science-based choice." There's data behind it, too. Avoid combustion, and there may be fewer harmful substances than a cigarette.
Read who funded it
But to read it scientifically, you have to check who did the research, who funded it, which outcomes they looked at, and over what time frame they evaluated it.
The BMJ Tobacco Control systematic review and meta-analysis on heated tobacco says that evaluating the health effects of heated tobacco requires longer-term, high-quality research independent of the tobacco industry. Existing research has the limitation of being mostly short-term or industry-funded.