SMOKE-FREE PRODUCTS

It's no secret that quitting tobacco and nicotine altogether is the best choice a smoker can make. But the reality is that many don’t.

For those individuals, smoke-free products like nicotine pouches, snus, heated tobacco, and e-cigarettes, have the potential to be less harmful than continuing to smoke cigarettes. This is because, as the name suggests, they don’t produce smoke, so can significantly reduce the average levels of harmful chemicals compared to cigarettes. Importantly, they are not risk-free and are addictive.

HOW DO SMOKE-FREE PRODUCTS WORK?

Smoke-free products deliver nicotine without burning.

Nicotine is addictive and one of many reasons why people smoke, but it’s by no means the most harmful thing about smoking.

The most dangerous thing about smoking is the smoke itself. It contains high levels of harmful chemicals that are known to be the main cause of smoking-related diseases, such as lung cancer.

For this very reason, products that provide nicotine without smoke, whilst not risk-free and addictive, can be a far better choice for adult smokers than continued smoking.

Smoke-free products can play a vital role in securing a smoke-free future, helping adults all over the world make informed decisions.

WHAT PRODUCTS ARE AVAILABLE?

There are lots of product types in the smoke-free category, such as oral smokeless products, snus pouches, e-cigarettes, and heated tobacco products.

Heated Tobacco

Heated tobacco products use real tobacco, which naturally contains nicotine. They heat the tobacco, rather than burning it, which is the important difference between these smoke-free products and cigarettes.  

Because they don't burn tobacco, these products are smoke-free— producing a nicotine-containing aerosol that is fundamentally different from cigarette smoke.

E-cigarettes 

E-cigarettes are handheld battery-powered devices that heat an e-liquid to produce an aerosol, commonly referred to as vapor—hence the term “vaping.” These products generally don’t contain tobacco and importantly they don’t create smoke.

Not all e-liquids contain nicotine, but the vast majority do. If the e-liquid contains nicotine, so will the vapor.

Nicotine Pouches

Nicotine pouches don’t contain tobacco and ingredients primarily include nicotine and flavors, wrapped in a cellulose pouch, which is placed between the gum and the cheek or upper lip.

The nicotine is then absorbed through the oral mucosa. These smoke-free products are not risk-free and provide nicotine, which is addictive.

Snus

Snus contains tobacco and delivers nicotine orally. Again, the product comes wrapped in a cellulose pouch which can be placed between the gum and the cheek or upper lip to be absorbed through the oral mucosa.

Heated Tobacco

Because they don't burn tobacco, these products are smoke-free— producing a nicotine-containing aerosol that is fundamentally different from cigarette smoke.

E-cigarettes 

Not all e-liquids contain nicotine, but the vast majority do. If the e-liquid contains nicotine, so will the vapor.

Nicotine Pouches

Nicotine pouches don’t contain tobacco and ingredients primarily include nicotine and flavors, wrapped in a cellulose pouch, which is placed between the gum and the cheek or upper lip.

The nicotine is then absorbed through the oral mucosa. These smoke-free products are not risk-free and provide nicotine, which is addictive.

Snus

None of these smoke-free products are risk-free, and they provide nicotine, which is addictive. However, they can be a better alternative for adults than continued smoking. The best choice for health is always to quit tobacco and nicotine altogether.

Smoke-free products can be a much better choice than continued smoking because they have the potential to reduce the harmful byproducts of burning found in cigarette smoke. By cutting out smoke, smoke-free products can produce lower levels of harmful chemicals then cigarettes.

Numerous countries that have championed the use of smoke-free alternatives, along with existing measures to discourage initiation and encourage smokers to quit, are seeing reductions in smoking rates compared to countries where these products are not available.

Japan leads the smoke-free way

Japan is an example of how smoke-free products—particularly heated tobacco in this case—can help significantly accelerate the decline in smoking rates. In 2014, 19.6 percent of adults in Japan smoked cigarettes, but by 2022, this number had dropped to 10.6 percent—a 46 percent decrease in eight years.*

This achievement aligns with the 2014 introduction of heated tobacco products in Japan. Before then, the decline in cigarette sales had averaged just 1.8 percent from 2011 to 2015, driven by conventional tobacco control measures.**

Since the launch of heated tobacco products, this decline accelerated fivefold to 9.5 percent, without a major change in national tobacco control policy. A 2019 study concluded that the introduction of HTPs “likely reduced cigarette sales in Japan”.

Offering adult smokers that don’t quit a less harmful alternative to cigarettes clearly helped drive this rapid reduction in cigarette smoking—the most harmful form of nicotine consumption.

* National Health and Nutrition Survey (Japanese)

**  Based on Euromonitor International Data collected between 2011 and 2018