Rob Taylor, Senior Harm Reduction Communications Manager at Imperial Brands, continues to address some of the most common myths and misconceptions around next generation products (NGP) in the concluding part of this series.
Nicotine is one of the most misunderstood chemicals in public debate. Historically associated with tobacco and smoking, this has led to an inevitable association with smoking-related disease. Even today, many people – including medical professionals – continue to believe it’s carcinogenic.
This is perhaps the greatest – and most concerning – misconception around nicotine, so it’s important to set the record straight.
Nicotine and cancer
To date, many expert health organisations – including the UK’s National Health Service – have concluded that nicotine, by itself, has not been established to cause cancer.
They agree the highest risks from smoking are from burning tobacco and inhaling smoke, not from nicotine.
NGP like vapes, heated systems, and tobacco-free oral nicotine pouches deliver nicotine without burning tobacco.
This is a crucial distinction when it comes to comparing the relative risks of any NGP and cigarettes.
Watch a video on this misconception.
Is Nicotine poisonous?
Our products contain a warning highlighting that nicotine is poisonous. This is a regulatory requirement because, at high doses, it can be.
However, nicotine isn’t poisonous at the intended levels typically consumed by NGP users.
Watch a video on this misconception.
Nicotine and cigarettes
Nicotine occurs naturally in the tobacco plant, so there’s no need to add it to cigarettes.
We do, however, add pharmaceutical grade-quality nicotine to some NGP, like vapes and tobacco-free oral nicotine pouches.
What’s in vape e-liquids and heated tobacco sticks?
We have a dedicated team of highly qualified, professionally registered toxicologists who assess every ingredient in our products.
This includes the pharmaceutical grade-quality nicotine we add to those NGP (vapes and oral nicotine pouches) that don’t contain tobacco.
Our stewardship team approve all components we use and at what levels. So, we’re very confident about what we put in our products – and their quality.
Watch a video on this misconception.
NGP and long-term effects
While it’s true that NGP are still relatively novel products, global knowledge about NGP continues to grow daily.
For instance, over 10,000 studies on vaping alone have been published since 2010.
This significant body of science comprises both industry research – including our own – and independent academic studies.
Vaping and other NGP use isn’t risk-free, but the scientific evidence suggests it is likely to be significantly less risky than smoking – as NGP don’t produce the thousands of chemicals generated from burning tobacco.
Many experts agree.
The overwhelming majority of the research to-date suggests NGP offer those individuals who smoke, and who are unwilling or disinterested to stop smoking or consuming nicotine, a potentially harm reduced alternative to cigarettes.
Watch a video on this misconception.
In Conclusion
It’s clear that there are still many enduring misconceptions around cigarettes, smoking, nicotine, and NGP – and for the latter to fulfil their public health potential it’s essential everybody has access to the facts.
We believe the onus is on all parties – including ourselves – to work collaboratively to challenge nicotine’s misunderstood and misrepresented role in smoking-related disease, and to endorse the positive role it can play to improve broader public health through NGP.
To find out even more about nicotine, visit our dedicated page on this website.
Follow us on LinkedIn and read more about our intentions to help create potentially healthier futures for our consumers on our corporate website. You are free to share this content with credit to Imperial Brands under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0) license.
