2024-05-12 14:20:55
People continue to smoke because of the nicotine contained in tobacco leaves. However, not everyone knows that the main harm of smoking is not caused by nicotine, but by chemicals produced as a result of burning tobacco. Therefore, in order to reduce the harm caused by cigarette smoking, in recent decades, both scientists and industry have focused on creating new, potentially less harmful solutions that will gradually replace cigarettes. The tobacco industry itself is gradually changing, and its leading companies are even talking about the end of the cigarette era, expressing confidence that cigarettes will be replaced by new smokeless alternatives. And there is a reason for this – the number of smokers who give up traditional cigarettes and switch to alternative smokeless products is increasing every year around the world.
Recognizes the potential of heated tobacco to reduce adverse effects
The first widely known alternatives to cigarettes were e-cigarettes or vapes. E-cigarettes usually vaporize a liquid containing nicotine, but do not contain tobacco. Over time, e-cigarettes have developed technologically and are now available in many different forms around the world. The attitude of countries towards e-cigarettes as an alternative to cigarette smoking is not unambiguous; while in some countries e-cigarettes are banned or significantly restricted, in others, such as the UK, e-cigarettes are used as a solution to quit smoking and are prescribed to smokers in pharmacies.
A more recent invention is tobacco heating systems. In these devices, real tobacco is heated to a temperature where the combustion process does not take place, so these devices also do not emit smoke, but only vapor. Although heated tobacco is a relatively new invention, a wide range of research has already been conducted on it. The US Food and Drug Administration, which is responsible for protecting public health, after more than three years of evaluating the available scientific data, authorized tobacco heating systems (IQOS) as modified-risk tobacco products, allowing the public to be informed of the reduced exposure of these systems and to use labels such as “The IQOS system heats the tobacco but does not burn it”, “they significantly reduce the production of harmful and potentially harmful chemicals”; “scientific studies have shown that a complete switch from conventional cigarettes to the IQOS system significantly reduces the body’s exposure to harmful or potentially harmful chemicals”. Thus, indicating that heated tobacco can significantly reduce the production of harmful or potentially harmful substances compared to traditional cigarettes.
The development of smokeless alternatives is based on research that shows that most of the harmful and potentially harmful substances in cigarette smoke come from the combustion process. When tobacco burns, more than 100 different carcinogenic substances are released in the smoke. Doctors agree with this, but they emphasize that nicotine is an addictive substance, regardless of how it is taken, so the goal should be to completely quit using nicotine and tobacco products.
Potential to replace cigarettes
Heated tobacco could be a more acceptable alternative for cigarette smokers because it also contains real tobacco and is therefore more similar to classic cigarettes than vapes. Therefore, the possibility that smokers could choose heated tobacco as a less harmful alternative is quite high. This is also confirmed by research in Japan, which was the first country in the world to introduce the first tobacco heating devices in 2014. The Japanese have the longest history of using heated tobacco and are therefore, from a scientific point of view, the most suitable audience for experiential research.
Japan’s experience showed that with the introduction of heated tobacco on the market, the number of cigarette smokers began to decrease more rapidly, suggesting that heated tobacco has the potential to replace traditional cigarettes. Those who switched to heated tobacco quit smoking regular cigarettes. Of course, the best result would be to completely give up smoking cigarettes and using other nicotine-containing products, however, choosing alternatives that reduce the inhalation of harmful substances is better than maintaining the old, much more harmful habit. Japan’s National Health and Nutrition Survey showed that by 2014, about a fifth of Japan’s adult population smoked cigarettes, but in 2019, the prevalence of cigarette smoking among adults had already dropped to 13.1%.
Latvia is also included in the common world trends; people are gradually giving up smoking traditional cigarettes in favor of less harmful smokeless alternatives. Over the past 5 years, the market share of smokeless heated tobacco products has reached 14% of the total tobacco product market, encouraging smokers to give up cigarettes. However, it should be taken into account that the number of smokers of traditional tobacco products in Latvia is still relatively high – 32% of the population smoke in the country, which is significantly higher than the EU average – 23% (Eurobarometer data).
2024-05-12 14:20:55