The government ensures that Sampoerna products are not recalled

SURABAYA – The government has declared that it will not withdraw Sampoerna products from the market. This Hall was confirmed by the Regional Secretary for the Province of East Java, Heru Tjahjono.

“There is no recall of Sampoerna products,” Heru said when journalists contacted him via text message on Tuesday (5/5/2020). This confirms that the news circulating about the recall of cigarette products manufactured by PT HM Sampoerna is not true.

Meanwhile, scientifically by virology, it is mentioned that it is not necessary to withdraw cigarette products. Head of the Corona Research and Vaccine Formulation Team at the University of Airlangga (UNAIR) Surabaya, Prof. dr. Chairul Anwar Nidom said that cigarettes from factories in the Rungkut Surabaya region did not transmit Coronavirus Diseases 2019 (COVID-19).

Nidom said there was a misunderstanding and misinformation in the community regarding the transmission of the Corona virus. “The public should be given the best possible explanation that viruses that attach to inanimate or dry matter only survive for up to three hours,” he said.

Covid-19 will not survive on an object or product that does not have biological material. Although there are biological materials such as saliva or feces, the virus can only last from 8 to 12 hours.

The same is the case with cigarette products. Nidom evaluated that the cigarettes produced are generally stored in a warehouse before being distributed. This means that there is a long period of time from the production and distribution stages.

“Cigarettes are dry ingredients, so the virus will not grow or replicate there, because it must be dead,” he said. Furthermore, Nidom said, the cigarette products from the exposed factories were quarantined before being distributed, meaning that the opportunity for the virus to stay alive did not exist at all.

“Cigarettes can be a means of transmission if people borrow and borrow cigarettes, for example, many people smoke a cigarette. Now that can only transmit the virus,” he said. If the new product is in the packaging, he continued, there is definitely no virus because it has been previously isolated in the warehouse.

(msd)

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