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 Nicotine and the relative risk scale

Guided by science, Imperial can build a healthier future for our consumers says Harm Reduction Engagement Manager Dr Sarah Weaver.

As a challenger business committed to consumer choice, we’re offering increasing numbers of our adult smokers a wide portfolio of next generation products, or NGP.

Both our own – and independent – scientific evidence suggests they’re all potentially safer to consumers than continuing to smoke cigarettes.

To better set the scene though, it’s helpful to unpick the differences between tobacco, nicotine and smoking, and address the confusion and misinformation that often exists around these topics.

Nicotine is a naturally occurring constituent of the tobacco plant, one also found in other plants, such potatoes, tomatoes and aubergines, albeit at lower levels.

Much like caffeine, nicotine is a stimulant with a long history of being consumed for enjoyment and pleasure by humans.

Public health bodies have concluded that nicotine is addictive. However, they also agree it’s the smoke created by the burning of tobacco leaf that contains most of the hundred-plus harmful chemicals responsible for smoking-related disease. This is a crucial distinction. While our NGP usually contain nicotine, advances in science and technology enable them to deliver this to users without the need to burn tobacco.

Our scientific research demonstrates that our NGP produce substantially fewer and lower levels of the harmful chemicals in cigarette smoke. This evaluation – what we call product characterisation – essentially marks the beginning of each NGP’s journey across our rigorous scientific assessment framework to substantiate their harm reduction potential.

To aid understanding of the harm reduction potential of each NGP relative to cigarettes, we’ve created an illustrative representation of the current scientific evidence, the relative risk scale. Click on the product types in our interactive graphic below to read more about each.



None of our next generation products – including the Pulze and iD heated tobacco platform – involve combustion and the generation of harmful smoke.



New research: Significantly lower levels of harmful chemicals in blu 2.0 and blu bar vapour compared to cigarette smoke.


Imperial Risk Scale
Combustible cigarettes

Combustible cigarettes possess the highest risk profile of all products on the relative risk scale; they contain the most toxicants – and at the highest levels – as a result of burning of tobacco and the inhaling of smoke directly into the lung. Combustibles therefore pose, by far, the highest risk of smoking-related disease to adult smokers.

Heated tobacco

Although Heated Tobacco (HT) products contain tobacco leaf, they don’t burn tobacco. The resulting aerosol (vapour) contains fewer and substantially lower levels of toxicants compared to combustible cigarette smoke. HTs contain tobacco, which naturally contains some toxicants, while vapour is inhaled into the lung. This carries slightly more risk than products that don’t contain tobacco leaf, or products that don’t require inhalation to deliver nicotine.

Snus

Traditional Swedish-style snus contains tobacco leaf. However, tobacco isn’t burnt and so many of the toxicants present in cigarette smoke aren’t produced. Snus contains tobacco leaf, which naturally contains some toxicants, and therefore carries slightly more risk than a product that doesn’t. Nicotine is delivered orally via the gum membranes, meaning lung-related toxicity and disease risks aren’t to be expected.

Vape

Vapes are non-combustible NGPs which can contain nicotine but, crucially, no tobacco leaf. As they don’t combust tobacco, vapes produce significantly fewer and lower levels of toxicants compared to cigarette smoke. As vapes are tobacco-free, they contain lower levels of the toxicants naturally found in the tobacco plant and in tobacco-containing NGPs. Nicotine is delivered via inhalation into the lung, which carries slightly more risk than products that don’t.

Oral nicotine pouches

Tobacco-free oral nicotine pouches use pharmaceutical-grade high purity nicotine derived from tobacco leaf that’s either combined with a plant fibre-based substrate (e.g. wheat or bamboo) or in a dry powder format. Oral nicotine pouches don’t burn tobacco and do not contain any tobacco leaf. They deliver nicotine orally via the gum membranes, meaning lung-related toxicity and disease risks aren’t to be expected.

Nicotine replacement therapy

Nicotine Replacement Therapies (NRTs) are tobacco-free, non-combustible pharmaceutical nicotine products, available as gums, inhalers and patches, and regulated as medicinally licensed smoking cessation products. They contain the same nicotine as combustible cigarettes but with fewer and substantially lower levels of the other toxicants found in tobacco smoke. NRTs have the lowest relative risk profile relative to combustible cigarettes.

The scale highlights that our portfolio of NGP possess varying characteristics. For instance, some contain tobacco, others don’t. Some deliver nicotine via lung inhalation; others deliver it via the gum linings.

These characteristics determine their respective positions on the scale. Crucially, though, no NGP involves tobacco combustion and the generation of harmful smoke. This means they’re all potentially significantly harm reduced, relative to continuing to smoke cigarettes.

The best course of action that smokers can take to improve their health is not to use any tobacco or nicotine product. However, millions of adult smokers are either uninterested or unwilling to do this. Therefore, offering our adult consumers the choice to switch to potentially harm reduced NGP is the next best option.

Our scientific research demonstrates that our NGP produce substantially fewer and lower levels of the harmful chemicals in cigarette smoke.  

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