Heated Tobacco Products

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To secure the tobacco industry’s medium to long-term future, in light of growing tobacco regulations and a rapidly shrinking cigarette market, tobacco companies have been looking to develop and market so-called ‘Next Generation Products’ (NGPs), which include snus, e-cigarettes, and Heated Tobacco Products (HTPs).[1][2] This overview page focuses on HTPs. It explains what these products are, summarises tobacco company investments in this product segment, and discusses the main public health debates around these products. This page does not include research updates on the potential health benefits/risks of HTPs.

Background

Unlike e-cigarettes, HTPs contain tobacco. According to tobacco companies, by heating the tobacco, rather than burning like conventional cigarettes, the formation of cancer-causing chemicals created at high temperature associated with combustion is significantly reduced.[3] This tobacco industry reduced-risk claim has yet to be verified by independent scientific evidence, as discussed in the Harm Reduction section below.

In 2017, the British Government classified HTPs into three categories:[4]

1. Processed tobacco heated directly to produce vapour;
2. Processed tobacco designed to be heated in a vaporiser;
3. Devices that produce vapour from non-tobacco sources, where the vapour is then passed over processed tobacco to flavour the vapour.

The image gallery below shows examples of HTPs. Unless otherwise stated, images are screenshots from the manufacturers’ websites taken in June 2017.

  • Image 1. JTI’s ZeroStyle[5]

  • Image 2. 'PMI’s iQOS

  • Image 3. BAT’s iFuse

  • Image 4. JTI’s PloomTech

  • Image 5. BAT’s Glo

Despite significant media attention of the tobacco industry’s HTP pursuits,[6][7][8] and the technology marketed as ‘a real game changer’,[9] HTPs represented only 0.3% of the value of the global tobacco market in August 2017 according to market research company Euromonitor.[1] Cigarettes continued to dominate the tobacco market with 89.8% market share, loose tobacco accounted for 3.5% of the market, cigars 3.4%, smokeless tobacco 1.6%, and e-cigarettes 1.3%.[1]

Heated Tobacco Product Technology Pioneered in 1980s

Image 1: Accord Advertisement by Starcom Media Services[10]

HTP technology is not new. It was first developed by tobacco companies in the 1980s to address concerns about second-hand smoke exposure. In 1988, American tobacco company RJ Reynolds (RJR) launched the first HTP, Premier, in several American cities.[11][12] The company’s objective behind developing Premier was to “produce a cigarette which provided the enjoyment and satisfaction of other cigarettes, but without many of the perceived negatives”.[12] Richard Kampe, then President RJR Development, said: “What it all comes down to is a cleaner smoke for smokers and those around them”.[13] Premier was withdrawn from the market early 1989 reportedly because smokers “did not like Premier’s taste or smell”.[14]

In 1996 RJR started test marketing its second HTP called Eclipse, marketed to smokers under the slogan “imagine the unimaginable”.[15] The company purported that Eclipse was a new cigarette “with nearly 90 percent less second-hand smoke”.[16] This claim was refuted in 2002 by an independent study which found that Eclipse was at least as toxic as conventional cigarettes.[17] The product was on the American market until 2014.

In 1998, Philip Morris launched its first HTP called Accord under the slogan “the time is right”.[18] The company commissioned Starcom Media Service to run a media campaign to create awareness of the product and communicate its perceived benefits, including reduced second-hand smoke, smoke odour and ash.[10][19] Accord remained on the market until 2006, when it was discontinued due to poor sales.[20] Consumers allegedly complained that the product was not as satisfying as conventional cigarettes.[20] In 2007, PMI briefly rebranded Accord to Heatbar and trialled the product on the Swiss and Australian markets. It’s unclear when the product was withdrawn from these markets.

It appears as though none of the first and second generation HTPs gained commercial success, and none were marketed as potentially less harmful. A 2016 study by Dutra et al[21] concluded that the tobacco industry’s early HTP pursuits were primarily driven by non-health related reasons, in particular to evade smoke-free regulations and to complement, rather than compete with, conventional cigarettes.

A New Take on an Old Idea

HTPs re-emerged in 2010 when Japan Tobacco International (JTI) launched HTP ZeroStyle Mint in Japan.[5] Like earlier HTPs, the motivation behind ZeroStyle Mint was to reduce second-hand smoke exposure. The product was marketed to be used “in places where consideration needs to be given for those nearby.”[22]

From 2014, there was a marked increase in new HTP launches by tobacco companies. RJR launched Revo (allegedly a revamped version of Eclipse) under the banner “an unconventional cigarette”,[23] PMI introduced IQOS (allegedly a revamped version of Accord) under the banner “this changes everything”,[24] and BAT launched iFuse in 2015.[25]

By early 2018, all transnational tobacco companies except Imperial Tobacco had included HTPs in their product portfolio.

Japan Tobacco International

In March 2010, JTI introduced ZeroStyle Mint.[5] That same year the company acquired a 27% share in San Francisco-based entrepreneurial company Ploom, signing an agreement to commercialise Ploom’s HTP outside the US.[26] Ploom’s HTPs heat small pods of tobacco. In February 2015, JTI and Ploom (henceforth trading under the name ‘Pax Labs’) ended their partnership and JTI acquired the intellectual property rights for Ploom HTPs.[27] One year later JTI launched an upgraded version, called PloomTech. In February 2018 the company announced that it would launch another HTP by the end of the year.[28]

Philip Morris International

PMI launched IQOS (which reportedly stands for I Quit Ordinary Smoking[29]) in the second half of 2014 in Italy, and later trialled the product in Japan.[30] The electronic device heats tobacco sticks and in February 2018 IQOS was the most widely distributed HTP, available in Canada, Columbia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Italy, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Palestine, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine and the UK.[31] PMI has also been testing a HTP with a carbon tip, called Teeps. PMI alleges that this HTP is much closer to the look and feel of a conventional cigarette than IQOS.[32]

British American Tobacco

BAT initially focused its NGP investment on e-cigarettes (for more detail see the page on E-Cigarettes: British American Tobacco). In 2015, BAT entered the HTP market with the launch of iFuse, a product that heats an e-liquid, with creates a vapour which is passed through a tobacco pod (similar to JTI’s PloomTech).[33] In 2016, BAT launched Glo which the company has claimed to be “a real game changer for consumers”.[9]Glo, like IQOS, uses a battery operated device to heat tobacco sticks (called Neostiks and sold under BAT’s cigarette brand Kent).[34] According to BAT, Glo is a simpler and more practical alternative to IQOS.[35] In 2017, the product was sold in five countries, but BAT has said that it aimed to launch Glo in a further 16 markets in 2018.[36]

Imperial Tobacco

Despite a February 2018 statement[37] made by Imperial Tobacco claiming that the company trialled a HTP in December 2017, Imperial Tobacco was the only transnational tobacco company not selling HTPs in early 2018. The company’s NGP strategy has largely focused on e-cigarettes, and previously it publicly dismissed HTP health claims made by its competitors, asserting “there’s no difference really between those products and traditional tobacco products” and “It’s probably better described generically as ‘heat and burn’ rather than ‘heat not burn’”.[38] In 2015, Imperial Tobacco scientists published a study in the Environmental Analytical Chemistry journal that concluded that PMI’s IQOS released tobacco-containing side stream emissions, and as such, the scientists recommended that HTPs should be covered by smoke-free legislation.[39]

For more information on Imperial’s NGP investments, go to Next Generation Products: Imperial Tobacco.

Harm Reduction: A Tobacco Solution to a Tobacco Problem?

RJR’s executive Steven Alderman testified in an American court in 2016 that there is no such thing as a ‘safe’ tobacco product.[40] Yet, some tobacco manufacturers have marketed HTPs with direct and indirect claims that they are less toxic or less harmful than conventional cigarettes.[41][42] BAT and PMI have set up dedicated websites (bat-science.com, pmiscience.com) to showcase their harm reduction HTP efforts, and have published their findings in scientific journals.[43][44] In December 2016, PMI submitted a ‘modified risk’ IQOS application with the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which if successful, would allow PMI to market IQOS in the US as ‘reduced risk’.[45] BAT has indicated that it will undertake similar regulatory steps with Glo.[23] In January 2018, the Tobacco Products Advisory Committee (TPSAC) to the FDA, following careful scrutiny of PMI IQOS data, recommended against approving PMI’s application to market IQOS as ‘reduced risk’. The Committee concluded that the data had shown that IQOS users were exposed to lower levels of harmful chemicals, but had not demonstrated that this would translate into a measurable reduction in death and disease.[46]

Public health advocates have cautioned that the short and long-term effects on the health of the consumer of HTPs remain unclear, and that due to the tobacco industry’s long history of deceit over the health risks of smoking,[47] there is an urgent need for independent evidence.[48][49][50]

According to the World Health Organization (WHO):

“this generation of HTPs has not been on the market long enough for potential effects to be studied. Conclusions cannot yet be drawn about their ability to assist with quitting smoking (cessation), their potential to attract new youth tobacco users (gateway effect), or the interaction in dual use with other conventional tobacco products and e-cigarettes. Future independent studies should address these effects, as well as the safety and risk of HTPs.”[51]

A new body of evidence is emerging that suggests that HTPs may be more harmful to health than tobacco companies would like us to believe. In May 2017, Auer and colleagues published a research letter in JAMA Internal Medicine which challenged PMI’s claim that IQOS heats tobacco ‘without combustion fire, ash, or smoke’, and accused the company of “dancing around the definition of smoke to avoid indoor-smoking bans”.[52] According to the authors, PMI has misappropriated the popular, yet scientifically incorrect, perception that combustion releases harmful chemicals and creates smoke. Rather, the authors argue, it’s incomplete combustion (a chemical process known as ‘pyrolysis’) which produces cancer causing chemicals. Importantly, the authors demonstrate that pyrolysis occurs in IOQS.[52]

In addition, in December 2017 a number of former PMI employees and contractors described to Reuters “a number of irregularities” involving clinical trials that underpin PMI’s application to the FDA.[53] Tamara Koval, who worked from PMI from 2012 to 2014 and who was directly involved in these clinical trials, told Reuters that she questioned the quality of the researchers and laboratories contracted to carry out the experiments, and that when she had highlighted an irregularity in one the studies, PMI had excluded her from meetings. Reuters’ own investigations found that PMI had dropped one particular experiment because the basic procedure for obtaining informed consent from trial participants had not been followed. Speaking to the investigator in charge of that particular experiment, Reuters was told that he “knew nothing about tobacco”. Reuters also reported that a second investigator had submitted urine samples exceeding human levels, and a third had told Reuters that he “doesn’t hold such company-sponsored clinical trials in high regard, describing them as ‘dirty’ because their purpose is more commercial than scientific”.[53] PMI’s response to the Reuters report was that “all studies were conducted by suitably qualitied and trained Principle Investigators”, and that PMI had “taken steps to address any reported irregularities in our studies”.[53]

HTP Adoption Rates

BAT, PMI and JTI have used Japan, and to a lesser degree South Korea, as a trial market for its HTPs. Preliminary sales reports by the tobacco companies and industry analysts of have shown strong adoption rates. According to PMI, the tobacco company sold three million IQOS devices in Japan, and “demand continues to outstrip supply”.[54]

Whether these positive results will be replicated elsewhere remains to be seen. Reuters suggested that HTPs success in Japan might be connected to restrictive e-cigarette legislation, arguing that “e-cigarettes, which use nicotine-laced liquid, are not permitted under the country’s pharmaceutical regulation”. President of BAT Japan, Roberta Palazzetti, described Japan as “the first battleground for heated tobacco products”, explaining that BAT had chosen Japan because “Japan’s consumers are highly receptive to innovation”.[36] In addition, others have suggested that the Japanese success of HTPs may be linked to the Japanese values of discretion and social politeness, which do not necessarily apply to other markets.[55]

In Europe, Italy was at the forefront of HTP developments. PMI chose Milan to trial IOQS reportedly due to beneficial tax treatment of the product by the Italian government.[56] BAT Chief Executive Nicandro Durante reported in July 2017 that BAT had seen “no success whatsoever” with Glo in European markets like Italy and Switzerland.[23]

Threat to Implementation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

The WHO and the Secretariat to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) have warned that the tobacco industry’s HTPs are addictive,[57] “in pursuit of profit rather than public health”,[58] and should be subjected to the same policy and regulatory measures applied to tobacco products, in line with the FCTC.[57]

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Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Euromonitor International. Global Tobacco: Key Findings Part I- Cigarettes, 22 August 2017
  2. ↑ G. Salmon, British American Tobacco – Drawn to the glo, Hargreaves Lansdown, 27 July 2017, accessed September 2017
  3. ↑ Philip Morris International, Heat-Not-Burn, undated, accessed October 2017
  4. ↑ HM Treasury, Tax treatment of heated tobacco products, Closed consultation published 20 March 2017, accessed June 2017
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Euromonitor International. Meeting the new challenges – Corporate strategy in Tobacco. May 2011
  6. ↑ A. LaVito, You may soon see a product that heats tobacco instead of burning it, CNBC News, 25 January 2018, accessed February 2018
  7. ↑ O. Waring, New heat-not-burn smoking alternatives ‘may be less harmful than cigarettes’, The Mirror, 11 February 2018, accessed February 2018
  8. ↑ Consumer & Society, Could heat-not-burn spell an end to vaping?, 9 February 2018, accessed February 2018
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 BAT Sheds Light on Glo, CPS Daily News, 27 March 2017, accessed July 2017
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Starcom Media Services, Media Plan Recommendation Launch I Revised 980603, 3 June 1998, Truth Tobacco industry Documents, Bates no: 2071224804-2071224832, accessed July 2017
  11. ↑ Unknown, Trial testimony of Nicholas George Brookes, June 15 2000 [p.m, Engle v RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co], 15 June 2000, Truth Tobacco Industry Documents, Bates no: brookesn061500pm, accessed June 2017
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 P.S. Cohen, Marketing Research Report. Comprehensive overview of consumer reactions to Premier, 11 May 1989, Truth Tobacco Industry Documents, Bates no: 506904719-506904746, accessed July 2017
  13. ↑ Unknown, Attachment II. Press Release, 4 April 1989, Truth Tobacco Industry Documents, Bates no: 506905454-506905455, accessed July 2017
  14. ↑ B. Horovitz, RJR Smokeless Cigarette test is Snuffed Out, Los Angeles Times, 1 March 1989, accessed July 2017
  15. ↑ Unknown, I’d like to start my brief presentation today by introducing you to the people who developed eclipse…, 18 April 1996, Truth Tobacco Industry Documents, Bates no: 516860700-516860703, accessed July 2017
  16. ↑ Unknown, Press Release. The following press release was issued by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company on May 28, 1996 (199606528), 28 May 1996, Truth Tobacco Industry Documents, Bates no: 526348310-526348312, accessed July 2017
  17. ↑ J. Slade, G.N. Connolly, D. Lymperis. Eclipse: does it live up to its health claims? Tobacco Control 2002: 11(Suppl 2):ii64-70
  18. ↑ Unknown, Advertisements Regarding Accord Cigarettes, Truth Tobacco Industry Documents, 1999, Bates no:3990051443-3990051454, accessed February 2018
  19. ↑ Unknown, Marketing, 1990, Truth Tobacco Industry Documents, Bates no:2080923084-2080923118, accessed July 2017
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Ontario Tobacco Research Unit, OTRU Update: Heat-Not-Burn Tobacco products: Claims and Science, November 2016, accessed September 2017
  21. ↑ L. Dutra, R. Grana, S. Glantz, Philip Morris research on precursors to the modern e-cigarette since 1990. Tobacco Control published online first 15 November 2016, doi:10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2016-053406
  22. ↑ Japan Tobacco International,JT to Launch New Style of Smokeless Tobacco Product “Zerostyle Mint”, 17 March 2010, accessed July 2017
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 S.Chaudhuri, BAT to submit FDA application to sell Glo in U.S., MarketWatch, 27 July 2017, accessed September 2017
  24. ↑ Philip Morris International, 2016 Annual Report: IQOS This changes everything
  25. ↑ British American Tobacco, E-cigarettes and other Next Generation Products, undated, accessed October 2017
  26. ↑ Japan Tobacco International, Innovative partnership for Ploom and Japan Tobacco International JTI to take minority share in Ploom, News Release 8 December 2011, accessed June 2017
  27. ↑ Japan Tobacco International, JTI acquires “Ploom” Intellectual Property Rights from Ploom, Inc., 16 February 2015, accessed July 2017
  28. ↑ T. Urananka, Japan Tobacco to launch new smokeless product this year, Reuters, 6 February 2018, accessed February 2018
  29. ↑ L. Rapaport, ‘Heat-not-burn’ cigarettes still release cancer-causing chemicals, Reuters, 26 May 2017, accessed February 2018
  30. ↑ Euromonitor International. Global Tobacco: Key Findings Part 2: Vapour Products. August 2016
  31. ↑ Philip Morris International, Where is IQOS available?, undated, accessed February 2018
  32. ↑ Philip Morris International, Glossary: TEEPS, undated, accessed September 2017
  33. ↑ Vapor from novel hybrid tobacco heating product produces little or no effect on human cells, news-medical.net, 5 June 2017, accessed July 2017
  34. ↑ Euromonitor International. HTP (Heated Tobacco Products)- Hot Prospect? Briefing 24 April 2017
  35. ↑ D. Caruana, BAT launches Glo in South Korea, Vapingpost.com, 15 August 2017, accessed September 2017
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 Nikkei Asian Review, BAT’s entry an opening salvo in smokeless-tobacco war in Japan, 31 May, accessed July 2017
  37. ↑ Imperial Brands, AGM Update, 7 February 2018, accessed February 2018
  38. ↑ M. Geller, Imperial shuns “heating products” pushed by Big Tobacco rivals, Reuters, 6 May 2015, accessed June 2017
  39. ↑ G. O'Connell , P. Wilkinson, K.M. Burseg, et al. Heated tobacco products create side-stream emissions: implications for regulation. J Environ Anal Chem 2015;2:2380–91
  40. ↑ RJ Reynolds, In the Circuit Court of the Seventh Judicial Circuit in Volusia County Florisay. Engle Progeny Cases Tobacco Litigation. Deposition of Steven Alderman PH.D.; In the Matter of: Dickerson V Georgia-Pacific, Et Al. Christopher R. E. Coggins, PH. D. In the State Court of Dekalb County State of Georgia. Martha Dickerson. VS. Georgia-Pacific, LLC. Civil Action File No.:14A50080-1, 23 March 2016 and 12 July 2016, Truth Tobacco Industry Documents, Bates no: 537348052-537348315, accessed October 2017
  41. ↑ W. Wan, Big Tobacco’s new cigarette is sleek, smokeless- but is it any better for you?, The Washington Post, 11 August 2017, accessed October 2017
  42. ↑ British American Tobacco, The health risks of our products: Tobacco Heating Products, undated, accessed October 2017
  43. ↑ B. Titz, S. Boué, B. Phillips, et al, Effects of cigarette smoke, cessation, and switching to two heat-not-burn tobacco products on lung lipid metabolism in C57BL/6 and Apoe−/− Mice—an integrative systems toxicology analysis. Toxicological Sciences 2016;149:441–57
  44. ↑ F. Lüdicke, G. Baker, J. Magnette, et al. Reduced exposure to harmful and potentially harmful smoke constituents with the tobacco heating system 2.1. Nicotine & Tobacco Research 2017 Feb: 19(2): 168-175
  45. ↑ L. Wheeler, Tobacco giant asks the FDA to approve ‘less risky’ cigarette, thehill.com, 23 August 2017, accessed September 2017
  46. ↑ Y. Abutaleb, U.S. senators ask FDA to reject Philip Morris’ iQOS application, Reuters, 7 February 2018, accessed February 2018
  47. ↑ R. Proctor, Golden Holocaust: Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case for Abolition. 2012: University of California Press
  48. ↑ Action on Smoking and Health, ASH reaction to new Philip Morris IQOS ‘heat not burn’ product, 30 November 2016, accessed October 2017
  49. ↑ ASH Scotland, New tobacco products: heat-not-burn ASH Scotland Viewpoint, December 2016, accessed October 2017
  50. ↑ ASH Wales Cymru, Heat not burn products, undated, accessed October 2017
  51. ↑ World Health Organization Tobacco Free Inititiave, Heated tobacco products (HTPs) information sheet, WHO website, 2018, accessed February 2018
  52. ↑ 52.0 52.1 R. Auer, N. Concha-Lozano, I. Jacot-Sadowski et al., Heat-Not-Burn Tobacco Cigarettes: Smoke by Any Other Name, JAMA Internal Medicine, 2017 Jul 1;177(7):1050-1052, accessed February 2018
  53. ↑ 53.0 53.1 53.2 T. Lasseter, P. Bansal, T. Wilson et al., Special Report: Scientists describe problems in Philip Morris e-cigarette experiments, Reuters, 20 December 2017, accessed February 2018
  54. ↑ T. Uranaka, Philip Morris says it has doubled supply of iQOS tobacco device in Japan, Reuters, 1 March 2017, accessed July 2017
  55. ↑ B. Elder, Imperial sighs after broker waves away vaping scepticism. Financial Times, 21 August 2017
  56. ↑ Euromonitor International. Global Tobacco: Key Findings Part 3- Vapour Products. November 2015
  57. ↑ 57.0 57.1 World Health Organization Tobacco Free Initiative, Heat-Not-Burn tobacco products information sheets, September 2017, accessed February 2018
  58. ↑ Secretariat of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Secretariat’s statement on the launch of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, 19 September 2017, accessed February 2018
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