Tobacco’s Scientific Frontier: Lessons From Global Innovations

Attitudes towards tobacco are shifting. I have done some reading on the effects of burning tobacco and how it affects health. I have noticed some heated tobacco products and wonder if we need to change our thinking on harm reduction. For a long time, the industry’s harm reduction focus was on cigarettes. I wonder what these heated products are like, scientifically and from a global policy perspective. 

Cigarettes have health problems, and from long-term research, the burning of the tobacco has the most severe consequences. When a cigarette is lit, the temperature gets really high, up to 900°C, and that releases 6,000 chemicals, 70 of which are carcinogenic, and many of which are linked to cancer. This burning process is what is most unhealthy about cigarettes. HTPs are very different from regular cigarettes. Instead of burning tobacco, HTPs heat it. HTPs provide nicotine vapour without the burning of tobacco sticks. HTPs are not free of the cigar burning process and are no better when thinking about harm reduction.

This is important because if there's no burning, there's no smoke. And if there's no smoke, there are a lot fewer harmful chemicals. I read a particular study in Nicotine & Tobacco Research on this. They reported a decent drop in exposure to numerous toxic substances when a person transitioned from regular cigarettes to heated tobacco products (HTPs). 

Tobacco harm reduction is a concept that tries to provide less risky alternatives to people who are unable to quit tobacco or nicotine use entirely. A few countries have started to become more permissive about HTPs. You can find these products in more than 70 countries, including Japan, the UK, and Germany. Although not all of these countries manage the products in the same way, many people seem to think HTPs can reduce the overall risk associated with smoking. I found a study from Japan particularly interesting—after HTPs were introduced, the decline in cigarette sales seemed to accelerate. It poses the intriguing question of whether smokers are actually switching to HTPs.

When contemplating the health policy for India, the first thought is the complete eradication of tobacco products. It seems like the Government is opting for the less risky option by not allowing the introduction of tobacco heated products. It is a compliment to stop addiction in younger people. It is a logical idea seen from a distance. 

In my opinion, there seem to be tobacco control similarities in other countries, and maybe there is something worth learning from them. Each country seems to have different strategies when it comes to tobacco control policy and health policy. Comparing them and seeing the results might give our country's health policy some ideas. 

There are many recent scientific innovations made on smokeless tobacco products worldwide. Understanding what the scientific innovations are does not change India’s main goal of complete tobacco eradication. Having such materials on tobacco control policy, research, and innovations might help in achieving the goal of complete tobacco eradication. There is a reasonable expectation of no smoking in the future, and people are concentrating on such materials.

About Heated Tobacco Products (HTPs)

• Heat-Not-Burn Technology: HTPs employ advanced electronics to warm tobacco to a maximum temperature of 350°c. The controlled heating process produces an aerosol to inhale rather than combustible tobacco smoke.

• Less Dangerous Constituents: Because HTPs do not burn tobacco, studies show that HTP tobacco aerosols contain far fewer harmful and potentially harmful constituents when compared to cigarette smoke.

• Global Adoption: HTPs are legally sold as an alternative to adult cigarettes in more than 70 countries around the world.