Joe Lo, 37, has been using an electronic cigarette alternative known as IQOS instead of traditional cigarettes for a year. It heats tobacco and gives off vapor, but only a little smoke. The insurance salesman in Hong Kong, who smoked for 14 years, no longer worries about his four-year-old son [...]

But there is one problem: He depends on a friend who travels frequently on business to Japan to get tobacco sticks for his IQOS, because they are not available in Hong Kong.