NEW YORK: The United States Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) authorization of marketing of modified risk tobacco products (MRTPs) should encourage other countries to take a second look at innovative products as effective means to eradicate the smoking epidemic, according to two public health experts.

Prof. Tom Glynn, an adjunct lecturer at Stanford Prevention Research Center and a former director of International Cancer Control at the American Cancer Society in Washington D.C., said heat-not-burn tobacco products (HTPs) such as IQOS, electronic cigarettes and other less harmful products provide smokers with better alternatives to cigarettes.