‘Heat not burn’ cigarettes, marketed as a safer option by tobacco companies, still contain chemicals that are harmful to health, a government advisory body has found.

The independent Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT) has looked at the evidence on the “heat not burn” products currently available mainly online in the UK. They are less risky than conventional cigarettes, the committee has found, but nobody should assume they are safe.

Reporting its findings to the department of health in England, the committee said people who use the two products sold in the UK are exposed to about 50% less or 90% less of the “harmful and potentially harmful” compounds. The variation is mostly to do with the temperature to which the tobacco is heated; one product reaches 350C and the other 50C. In a conventional cigarette, tobacco is burned at 800C.



Professor Alan Boobis, chair of the COT, said there is likely to be a risk to health with “heat not burn” products, although it would be a reduced risk, but the safest thing is to quit altogether.

If you are having trouble stopping smoking, he said, first try the licensed nicotine replacement therapies, such as patches and gum. “Then think about e-cigarettes. If that really doesn’t work, there are the ‘heat not burn’ devices,” he said.

“But at the same time, we have to be very much on our guard that these are not seen as recreational devices.”

The committee found there was a risk, though, reduced, to bystanders who might inhale the fumes. It also advised that they could not be considered safe for pregnant women.

The ‘heat not burn’ cigarettes in the UK market have been developed by the tobacco giants Phillip Morris International (PMI) and British American Tobacco. PMI has said it is committed to a smoke-free future in which it will sell safer alternatives. But it still markets cigarettes heavily around the world, especially in the developing world where fewer restrictions are in place.

“Heat not burn” cigarettes produce a vapour either from directly heating tobacco or from heating other substances which are then passed over tobacco to flavour it. The higher temperatures are reached where tobacco is heated directly, as in the PMI iQOS product.

The committee is also looking at the safety of e-cigarettes, but did not have the evidence to compare them with the “heat not burn” products.

Deborah Arnott, the chief executive of the anti-smoking health charity Ash, said, “The COT review is welcome as an independent assessment of tobacco industry evidence on ‘heat not burn’ products. COT concluded that while ‘heat not burn’ products are lower risk than smoking they are not risk-free, so quitting tobacco use completely is still the healthiest option.”