Heat-Not-Burn Cigarettes Are Still Dangerous

The new heated but not burning tobacco cigarettes that will be on the market early next year may seem like the products used in vaping but they are more hazardous, a New York tobacco cessation specialist says.

Similar to vaping, these cigarettes use a carbon tip at the end of the cigarette that gets hot and when smokers take a puff, they draw the heat through the tobacco into their lungs. The difference is that vaping products do not contain tobacco.

“It heats the tobacco to a certain degree to get the product to be usable so people can inhale the vapors,” says Daniel Jacobsen, NP, of the North Shore-LIJ Center for Tobacco Control in Great Neck. “The latest research shows that compared to some low-tar cigarettes, this product is actually more dangerous. It has more of two types of carcinogens. So this is a tobacco product as opposed to a vaping product, which do not use tobacco.”

For people who think that these types of cigarettes could be used in the smoking cessation process, Mr. Jacobsen says the product is not labeled as being for that use.

“We know what works,” Mr. Jacobsen said. “We know that nicotine products work. We know that behavioral classes work. We know that quit lines work. That’s really what works.”

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