A Smokeless Cigarette Introduced by Japan Tobacco
Published on May 24, 2010 6:12 AM
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Last week Japan Tobacco Co., the leading tobacconist in the county, launched an absolutely new and landmark product, a smokeless cigarette.
Sales of these revolutionary products began on May 19th, and the tobacco giant believes the product will gain popularity among those smokers who are willing to puff but do not want to expose people around them to dangerous tobacco smoke.
The smokeless cigarette, named "Zero Style Mint," looks like conventional cigarettes, but includes a tube with a space for a cartridge with ground tobacco leaves inside that tube. The user should inhale through a mouthpiece to get the flavor of tobacco and mint, while the product emits no second-hand fume.
“Zero Style Mint” is offered for as little as 300 yen ($3.2) per set of a stick and two cartridges. Sales of this smokeless product were launched in Tokyo, but its manufacturer plans to sell it across Japan basing on the consumers’ response to the product.
This innovative product is expected to be very successful in Japan, since while the most part of smokers still tend to smoke conventional cigarettes, there is a growing demand for the products that can be used in public places where cigarettes are banned.
A recent report by the Japan Ministry of Health concluded that nationwide smoking rate among male population has dropped to 36.8%, the lowest rate since the start of such reports in the 1980. The rates among female smokers were even lower with only 9.1 percent of adult women are smokers, down from 11 percent a decade ago.
And the authorities are eager to keep these figures going down as there is a growing trend to perceive smoking as a threat for public health. Prefecture governments were required to implement total bans on public smoking and elaborate methods to enforce the anti-smoking policies. Currently smoking is banned in such public venues as restaurants and cafes, hotel rooms, public transport, education facilities and medical centers.
Japan Tobacco CEO Hiroshi Kimura declared that smoking is a legal activity and the government should allow smokers light up in specially designated areas, physically separated from non-smoking sections.
Mr. Kimura said Tokyo smokers already expressed considerable interest in "Zero Style Mint," as many of them are eager to keep their habit providing that it doesn’t put others at risk.
Daito Kawaguchi, owner of a tobacco shop in Tokyo said the new product is selling greatly, with many people coming and taking several packages at a time. He added they sold their initial stock within the first day of sales.
And though some officials say the new smokeless cigarettes should be included in the ban on smoking in public, the majority of them admit these products will be allowed for consumption in public.
For example, in Tokyo where lighting up is prohibited in all public indoor places, smokeless cigarettes will be permitted, because they do not produce dangerous second-hand smoke and fines will be levied on the users of smokeless cigarettes.
