With smokers’ growing health awareness, and more restrictive tobacco control measures, more and more manufacturers in the cigarette industry have devoted themselves to developing newer nicotine and tobacco products with an aim of keeping smokers away from harmful constituents associated with regular cigarettes.
Ever since the early 2000s, a variety of innovative nicotine and tobacco products have been rolled out on the market and have taken the world by storm. They include e-cigarettes, snus, oral nicotine, heated tobacco products and more. These products are commonly considered as smoke-free alternatives to traditional cigarettes or tobacco substitutes.
Being a more recent innovation, heated tobacco products have become quite a phenomenon in recent years. Today, let’s have a look at this trendy innovation.
What are heated tobacco products?
Heated tobacco products (HTPs)are also known as heat not burn products(HNB), heated cigarettes, heatsticks, heated sticks or tobacco heating products(THPs).
Heated tobacco products are operated by using a heating control system, also called an HNB device to heat compressed tobacco leaves up to a temperature of 350°C to generate a nicotine-containing aerosol that users suck in.
The heating control system can be a battery-powered electronic device. When using this kind of heating system, the user gently inserts the stick into the device, with the tobacco side facing downwards. The device is embedded in the stick with a glass-covered ceramic heating blade that heats up the tobacco.
There is also another type of heating system that uses a carbon tip heat source wrapped in glass fibers. In using a carbon tip heating device, the user needs to light the carbon tip with a match or lighter (similar to lighting a conventional cigarette), which heats dried tobacco inside to produce a nicotine-infused vapor.
As for the ingredients, heat tobacco products usually compose of tobacco, chemical additives and sometimes flavors.
Heated tobacco products and regular cigarettes share something in common. For example, they both use actual tobacco leaves as their base materials, and they look similar in shape and appearance.
However, when it comes to the sciences behind them, they are fundamentally different from each other.
Heated tobacco products are free of tobacco smoke and its byproducts
As heated tobacco products are heated with HNB devices, they work differently from standard cigarettes.
A traditional cigarette is ignited to an extremely high temperature of up to 900°C, resulting in combustion. During the burning process, the cigarette produces an emission containing tobacco smoke, ash, and tar, which are made up of a vast amount of toxic substances.
It is reported that there are about 7 thousands of chemicals present in tobacco smoke and its residues, among which 250 constituents are known to be toxic and about 70 are carcinogenic compounds.
These hazardous substances are the major cause of tobacco-related diseases, which include lung cancer, heart disease, respiratory problems, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), stroke, among others. It is widely acknowledged that smoking is the leading cause of avoidable premature mortality.
Due to increasing public awareness of cigarettes’ harm, more and more smokers intend to give up smoking or seek less harmful nicotine delivery systems. This is one of the reasons why heated tobacco products come into being.
Unlike conventional cigarettes, heated tobacco products are heated without reaching the combustion, and hence don’t produce tobacco smoke, ash, tar and other poisonous chemicals which are created when a regular cigarette is burnt.
In this regard, heated tobacco products seem to have the potential to expose users to lower levels of toxic chemicals than conventional cigarette smoking. Indeed, heated tobacco products are usually marketed as less harmful alternatives to tobacco cigarettes.
Though heated tobacco products are reported to taste lighter and milder than regular cigarettes, they are viewed to be closest to conventional cigarettes in terms of sensations and satisfaction compared with other alternatives like e-cigarettes, as these products imitate the behavior of smoking traditional cigarettes.
The major players in HTPs sector
A number of transnational tobacco companies (TTCs) have engaged in the manufacturing of HTP sticks and devices under their brands.
The most representative one is Philip Morris International (PMI), which has dominated the biggest market in the heat not burn products sector. According to the studies, PMI took up a market share of 71% in the HTPs sector in 2021.
PMI launched its first-ever IQOS tobacco-heating system in 2014, which was introduced in Japan and Italy. The IQOS soon gained great popularity, making HTPs widely known to the world.
By far, PMI has launched several generations of IQOS heated tobacco systems, with the latest version IQOS ILUMA requiring no blade and no cleaning, which they claimed as “the most robust device to date”.
Other leading HTP brands and their players include Glo by British American Tobacco, Ploom by Japan Tobacco International(JTI), Lil by Korean Tobacco & Ginseng (KT&G), Pulze by Imperial Brands, Mok by China National Tobacco Corporation and more.
Heat tobacco products have gained growing popularity in many countries. Japan, by far remains the hottest and biggest market for HTPs. Besides, Russia, Italy and South Korea also have a favorable amount of HTPs users.
Heat alternative products: a new trend in HNB sector
More recently, some manufacturers have broken the boundary of the tobacco industry by developing alternatives to heated tobacco products. These cutting-edge products are referred to as herbal heatsticks, HNB alternative or heated alternative compared with heated tobacco.
Heated alternative products replicate the look and feel of heat tobacco products. They work in the same way as HTPs, which is to use an electronic device to heat, rather than burn the sticks to produce an aerosol for users to inhale.
The fundamental difference between heat tobacco products and heated alternative products is that the former uses actual tobacco leaves, while the latter does not. Heated alternative products replace tobacco leaves with natural herbs and a variety of tea leaves as their base materials.
Since heated alternatives don’t contain tobacco leaves, they are free from the harsh smell of tobacco and unpleasant aftertaste. Moreover, heat alternatives usually come with a rich array of enjoyable flavors such as leman, mints, burberry, coffee, jasmine, among many others.
Some of the prominent herbal heatsticks brands include NEAFS, Genmist, tqs flavour, CIGOO Ccobato, Unicco and more. For example, NEAFS have grown in popularity around the globe since it was established in 2015.
NEAFS stickers are formulated with a blend of natural herbs, tea leaves, nicotine, flavorings, vegetable glycerine and propylene glycol, offering refreshing and unique sensations, and also achieving a similar taste experience to tobacco-based products.In other words, NEAFS reproduce the experience of smoking while avoiding the release of toxic tobacco-related chemicals.
For users who intend to quit nicotine or try out something new, NEAFS offers nicotine-free options to choose from. The flavors are available in blueberry, coffee, mojito, menthol, strawberry and original to meet a wider range of needs.
In conclusion
Heated tobacco products and heated tobacco alternative products are suitable for those who otherwise continue to smoke and consume nicotine products.By switching to these tobacco substitutes, users can enjoy the nicotine hit and satisfaction similar to regular cigarettes while at the same time staying away from tobacco smoke and its byproducts.
