Ministry of Health takes tobacco giant to court over tobacco stick device
By Frances CookBusinessDesk Investments Editor·NZ Herald·
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Save The IQOS system heats tobacco sticks without burning them, until they release nicotine vapour. Photo / Philip Morris
A tobacco company and the Ministry of Health are locking horns in court, for a week-long battle over the sale of a new tobacco device.
Philip Morris is defending two charges over the sale of its HEETS tobacco stick, used in the IQOS electronic smokefree device.
It heats the tobacco
sticks without burning, so that nicotine vapour can be inhaled.
But the Ministry of Health says the product isn't legal in New Zealand.
Health ministry prosecutor Sally Carter told the Wellington District Court that the issue came down to legal fine print.