Tobacco adverts were banned in 2002. But if you walk into a Sainsbury’s or a Morrisons you may well see adverts for iQos, a device that uses an electronic current to heat tobacco.
Some are on flashing video screens in places where they can easily be seen by children. The BBC has also seen adverts in Morrisons for a similar device called Ploom.
Heated tobacco is different from vapes, which contain nicotine but no tobacco, and they are much less popular. But tobacco companies are keen to promote it as a new revenue stream to replace dwindling cigarette sales.
The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI), which represents local authority trading standards teams, says the ads are “prohibited” by the 2002 law.
CTSI says the issue has never been tested in court, so it cannot say conclusively that running them is illegal.
“The only people who can definitively test it are the courts. Now the courts are chocka. Trading Standards is very stretched, and I think that’s probably the reason why you’re seeing more and more of these ads,” Kate Pike, lead officer for tobacco and vaping at CTSI, told the BBC.
“It’s taking the mick, is my view.”
There is limited evidence regarding the health effects of heated tobacco, according to Prof Lion Shahab, co-director of the tobacco and alcohol research group at University College, London.
“As it involves no combustion, heated tobacco is likely less harmful than cigarettes,” he said.
“Current findings suggest that heated tobacco may be more harmful than e-cigarettes, and less effective at helping smokers give up cigarettes long-term.”