Are HTPs really safer than cigarettes? What we know so far about new no-smoke products hitting the US

The world’s top-selling heated tobacco device (HTP) recently relaunched in the US, with the industry touting it as a healthier alternative to traditional cigarettes. But is it really a smarter smoke — or just a rebranded risk?Dr.Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, an assistant professor of health promotion and policy at UMass Amherst, and her colleagues sifted through dozens of studies to see if the science behind heated tobacco really holds up. She broke down their findings in The Conversation.

Here’s everything you need to know. Unlike traditional smokes, these high-tech devices heat real tobacco leaves instead of burning them, producing a nicotine-filled vapor for users to inhale.They might look like e-cigarettes, but there’s a key difference: vapes heat a nicotine liquid, not tobacco.And unlike your standard cigarette, HTPs don’t burn the leaf — they just warm it up.“These distinctions matter because it’s the burning of tobacco leaf – not the nicotine – that directly causes the disease and death associated with smoking,” Hartmann-Boyce explained.

Tobacco giants market HTPs as a safer smoke-free alternative to cigarettes – and they’ve got industry-backed research to support their claims. Several studies that have received funding from tobacco companies have found that the vapor from HTPs contains significantly lower levels of harmful toxins like heavy metals, aldehydes, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons when compared to cigarette smoke.There’s even some evidence suggesting that for certain users — like those with chronic lung disease — switching from cigarettes to heated tobacco could have some benefits, according to the BBC.But when Jamie Hartmann-Boyce and her team reviewed 40 clinical trials on these devices, the results weren’t as clear-cut.In fact, they deemed the evidence on the health benefits or risks of HTPs as “inconclusive.”The researchers dug into molecular changes in the body — known as biomarkers — to understand...