Heated tobacco vs nicotine-free sticks

Heated tobacco vs nicotine-free sticks

Cigarette smoking is the main cause of preventable diseases and deaths. Statistics from WHO show that smoking kills more than 8 million people every year. Because of the harm of smoking to health, more and more countries have implemented stricter policies and regulations on tobacco use.

To address this situation and to maintain the sustainability of the tobacco industry, manufacturers are committed to developing less harmful tobacco substitutes as part of their participation in the tobacco harm reduction strategy, which is a public health strategy involving reducing the health risks of smoking.

There are all kinds of tobacco substitutes in the market that claim to be low-risk, among which e-cigarettes or vaping are the most familiar to the public. But in recent years, another relatively new product category-heated tobacco products has attracted more and more interest among smokers.

Heated tobacco products & the science behind them

Heated tobacco products (HTPs), also known as tobacco heating products or heat-not-burn(HnB) tobacco products, are heated without burning by electronic equipment, releasing nicotine-containing aerosol for users to inhale.

Heated tobacco products are designed in various forms, such as specially designed sticks, plugs or pods containing tobacco. For example, a stick is a cigarette-shaped tobacco tube, which usually consists of a filter tip, wrapping paper and processed tobacco leaves.

Besides, the heating method or engineering method varies with the type of heating device. There are battery-powered handheld devices that contain heating elements or blades to heat the sticks. This kind of heated tobacco products, also known as electrically heated tobacco products (eHTPs), are the most widely used heated tobacco products in the market at present.

Another type is called aerosol heated tobacco products (aHTPs), also referred to as "hybrid" devices.Just like eHTPs, aHTPs are battery-powered handheld devices, but they don't directly heat tobacco. Instead, they heat liquids to produce a hot emission, which then passes through a tobacco plug to absorb the nicotine and flavor released from the tobacco, and inhaled by users.

In addition, some heated tobacco products similar to cigarettes have carbon ends wrapped in glass fibers, and users light the carbon ends with lighters or matches to heat the cigarettes to release inhalable aerosols.

Though their engineering methods may be different, the science behind these heating devices has something in common, that is, using high heat to decompose, rather than burning tobacco to release nicotine-containing emissions. The process is also called pyrolysis, which is essentially different from combusted cigarettes.

When a conventional cigarette is combusted, it releases tobacco smoke and its byproducts that contain a huge amount of toxic substances such as carbon monoxide, arsenic, formaldehyde, benzene, ammonia and more.

It is widely recognized that it is tobacco smoke and its residues that should be responsible for the smoking-related diseases, including lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), respiratory conditions , heart attack, stroke, etc.

Different from ordinary cigarettes, heated tobacco products are heated at a specific temperature not exceeding 350℃, which will not reach the level of burning or combustion. Thus, the emissions they produce are not regarded as "smoke", but an aerosol containing no toxins related to combustion and smoking.

Moreover, heated tobacco products are usually confused with e-cigarettes because they all use electronic devices to heat raw materials. Actually, heated tobacco products are not electronic cigarettes.

Though these two product categories are different in many aspects, such as taste, flavor and sensory experience, the essential difference between them is that e-cigarettes heat e-liquids to produce nicotine-containing steam, while heated tobacco products heat real tobacco to produce nicotine.

There are many brands of heated tobacco in the market, and the market leader should be Heets produced by Philip Morris International (PMI). Heets is the first modern heated tobacco brand with great commercial success.

Heets sticks: widely popular tobacco alternative

Heets sticks are an integral part of IQOS heated tobacco devices that are introduced by PMI. An IQOS HTP device consists of a battery-powered heating device, a pocket charger and Heets sticks.

The Heets sticks are heated with an IQOS heating equipment, which contains a blade that pierces the end of the stick inserted into the holder.

IQOS HTP devices were first launched in Japan in 2014 and quickly gained a foothold in the Japanese market. Moreover, in recent years, the popularity of IQOS has soared around the world. By far, it has been promoted in more than sixty countries, making it the most widely used heat-not-burn device.

The Heets sticks mimic the appearance of regular cigarettes, while they are shorter in size. Therefore, they are also called mini cigarettes.

Apart from the visual similarity with traditional cigarettes, the Heets sticks also reproduce their smoking sensory experiences and rituals, such as real nicotine hit and hand-to-mouth movements, which make users feel that they are smoking ordinary cigarettes.

Besides, the Heets sticks also taste like conventional cigarettes, though some users may consider their tastes are a bit lighter than the latter.

While Heets sticks offer authentic tobacco experiences like regular cigarettes, they expose users to lower levels of toxins associated with tobacco smoke, since they are heated or baked at around 350 ° c to create an aerosol. No combustion occurs when they are in use.

For those smokers who prefer to keep their smoking habit, but don't want to inhale the toxic chemicals related to combustion in ordinary cigarettes, the Heets sticks will be the right choice for them.

Nicotine-free sticks: the novel heated alternative

While heated tobacco products, such as the above-mentioned Heets, provide users with tobacco experiences and have the potential to be less harmful than conventional cigarettes, they still have nicotine, a highly addictive substance present in tobacco, which is the main factor that makes it difficult for smokers to quit smoking.

Moreover, nicotine has other side effects, such as dizziness, dry mouth, indigestion, sleep disorder and so on. What's more, it is harmful to brain development.

To put it another way, quitting smoking and nicotine for good is the best choice for our health. Most smokers, however, find it quite difficult to quit smoking, mainly because they are addicted to nicotine.

To this end, some manufacturers have developed new heated products without tobacco and nicotine to help smokers give up smoking further.

Neafs, for example, is one of the most representative brands in this field. Neafs has gained more and more attention all over the world since it was founded in Orlando, Florida in 2015.

Neafs sticks are non-tobacco heated sticks that replicate the look and feel of heated tobacco cigarettes, offering users smoking-like feelings and rituals. The brand is also positioned as a "heated alternative".

Neafs provides nicotine-free heated sticks. A Neafs nicotine-free stick does not use tobacco, but uses tea as its base, and is mixed with mint, plant glycerin, propylene glycol and edible essence to provide aerosol inhaled by users.

The taste of Neafs sticks is rich, including ice lemon, blueberry, coffee, strawberry and mojito, to meet everyone's needs.

Though Neafs sticks are rich in flavors, they are all based on tobacco taste. It is truly a unique highlight of the brand to make a taste similar to tobacco without using tobacco.

Moreover, because Neafs sticks do not contain tobacco, they will not give off the pungent smell and unpleasant aftertastes brought by real tobacco leaves. Thus, Neafs nicotine-free sticks provide a refreshing tobacco experience, which is more enjoyable than heated tobacco products.

In summary

The heated tobacco products make adult smokers keep their smoking-like habits, and at the same time expose them to low levels of toxicants related to tobacco burning.

Meanwhile, nicotine-free heated alternatives like Neafs go one step further, keeping smokers away from tobacco and nicotine, while enabling them retain the smoking-like feelings and habits.

Both heated tobacco products and nicotine-free heated sticks are designed to reduce the harm of tobacco cigarettes.