A growing range of technologies can provide an acceptable dose of nicotine without combustion. These Alternative Nicotine Delivery Systems (ANDS) are evolving rapidly, partly due to advances in battery technology. An overview of the main categories of non-combustible, nicotine-based products is provided below.
Vapour Products
These products use a battery to heat a liquid that typically contains pharmaceutical-grade nicotine, an inert diluent such as propylene glycol, and flavourings. This process creates an aerosol which the user inhales, with nicotine absorbed in the mouth, throat, and lungs. There are many different forms of these products, from disposable devices to more advanced modular systems that can be customized.
Heated Products
Also known as heat-not-burn, these products use an electronically controlled holder to apply heat to tobacco sticks, plugs, or capsules. The user places the tobacco unit in a holder and draws on it in a similar fashion to a cigarette. This process creates a vapour containing nicotine and flavours from the tobacco, which aims to mimic the experience of smoking but with a substantially Reduced-risk profile.
Novel Nicotine Products
This category includes products that deliver nicotine in various forms, including gum, lozenges, transdermal patches, films, liquids, and pouches. Some may be sold as pharmaceuticals, while others may be positioned as over-the-counter consumer products.
Expert Voices
“Evidence for the “gateway” effect — the increased risk of youths using Electronic nicotine delivery systems eventually becoming smokers — has been overstated and riddled with conjecture and assumptions. For example, the association between early use of vaping products and subsequent smoking does not necessarily mean that these youth would not have smoked even in the absence of Electronic Cigarettes.”
Tikki Elka Pangestu
Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore and former Director of Research Policy & Cooperation at the WHO
“There are compassionate and more cost-effective ways to reduce smoking prevalence. One of these is to encourage switching to a low-risk alternative… The use of e-cigarettes (vaping) has been found to be more effective than nicotine replacement therapy in enabling people to quit smoking”
Marewa Glover PhD
Director, Centre of Research Excellence: Indigenous
Sovereignty & Smoking, New Zealand