Category: Technology

Changing Vapor
The president and founder of Aspire, Tony Lau, has been making vapor safer for more than a decade.
By Timothy S. Donahue
Tony Lau has helped transform an industry. Today, his designs are used by nearly every vapor industry manufacturer in Shenzhen, China, the vapor hardware manufacturing capital of the world. Lau, president of Shenzen Eigate Technology Co., better known as Aspire, has been producing and improving vapor products since early 2007.
Before getting into the vapor industry, Lau was working for companies like Remington and building hair care products. He learned how factories were run and how to create proper quality-control (QC) protocols. In 2007, Lau began his vapor career with KangerTech, long considered to be one of the oldest hardware manufacturers, as one of KangerTech’s four original owners. At KangerTech, he brought his expertise in QC, R&D and production to the new industry. Speaking to Vapor Voice through a translator during a recent visit to Shenzhen, Lau says he saw the e-cigarette industry as a way to help people quit smoking and start using nicotine in a safer format.
During the early years, Lau was producing batteries for some of the first e-cigarettes on the market. He began to confront then-industrywide issues like leakage and spitback and wanted to try to do things his own way. In 2010, Lau left KangerTech to open his own company, Eigate. The company was finding early success and was growing quickly. In 2013, Eigate started its own brand, Aspire, according to Lau. At Aspire, Lau is in charge of QC and R&D. His nephew Allen Lau oversees sales, marketing and production. “This is so I can focus on R&D and QC,” says Tony Lau.
In 2015, Aspire had more than 600 employees and about 6,000 square meters of factory and office space. Today, the company employs over 1,000 people and has 15,000 square meters of factory, office and lab space that is good manufacturing practice (GMP) and ISO 9001 certified. “None of this has been accomplished by chance. Aspire has a professional product R&D team as well as a strict quality-control system to ensure [the] best in product quality, and we are not doing it alone. Aspire constantly works with overseas designers and researchers to develop new products that bring users the best and most healthy alternatives to tobacco,” says Lau.
Aspire has put continuous effort into establishing close and stable relationships with its distributors by promoting mutual cooperation. With the help of its distributors, Aspire has created service centers worldwide to provide customers with quick and efficient support, according to Lau. “With the efforts and creativity of the Aspire team, we have quickly become one of the leading brands in the vaping industry,” he says.
In the beginning, Lau was creating devices but didn’t understand how the hardware was interacting with the user, so he started vaping. He then began to realize that he needed to understand the transition from smoking to vaping and started smoking cigarettes to experience the difference firsthand. “I needed to understand customer feedback—airflow and flavor. It was the only way to know,” he says. “It’s not good for my health, but it has been good for many other people’s health. I hope what we are doing is making people healthier than [when they are] smoking cigarettes.”
When Lau began building the Aspire brand, his goal was to produce high-quality products that lasted for a long time. Today, Lau holds more than 1,000 patents around the world, most of them for designs in tank technology. “Now, almost all factories use technology that I created. We have patents in the U.S., Europe and China,” he says, adding that many people ask him why he doesn’t sue over other companies using his designs. “Because vapor is a new industry, and I want more people to come into the industry to help build better businesses,” he says. “The industry needs competition in order to have growth and longevity.”
One of the first products Lau created that changed the market was the CE4 tank with KangerTech. The CE4 was the first clear cartomizer (clearomizer) that gave consumers the ability to see how much liquid was left in the tank. “This was an important innovation,” says Lau. “It allowed consumers to save money by knowing when a tank was actually finished.”
The second generation of the CE4 allowed consumers to refill the tank. This was another industry first at the time. Sales exploded. The customer feedback started pouring in, says Lau. Now consumers were asking for variable voltage and wanted to be able to change the coil instead of just throwing away tanks when the coil was no longer producing the proper flavor. Lau started Eigate and Aspire to meet this demand, eventually creating the Nautilus, which was the first tank with a changeable coil.
Aspire’s Nautilus series along with the BVC coils changed the way vapers vaped by allowing adjustable airflow for the first time. Even today, the Nautilus tank and Nautilus mini tank continue to be very popular among vapers worldwide. “Now all tanks use this technology,” says Lau. “A company may change the appearance, material or shape, but the technology is the same.”
The vapor industry was starting to explode in 2014. That was the year that rebuildable dripping atomizers (RDA) became all the rage. The RDA could create some very big clouds. Lau refused to make an RDA tank. He knew there had to be a better way than rebuilding coils to get high vapor production. In 2014, Aspire rocked the vapor world again with the launch of the first device dedicated to sub-ohm vaping, the Atlantis series.
“With an RDA, users would have to fill the liquid many times, yet with Atlantis they could get more life from their juice, and it didn’t leak like most RDA tanks,” he says. “The Atlantis is much easier to change the coil—just replace not rebuild. The Atlantis tank helped spur the surge in e-liquid manufacturers because it made vaping easier.”
Lau wasn’t done changing the industry just yet. In 2016, the company launched Cleito tanks, which are refilled using the top fill design and use a revolutionary new coil design that frees up even more restriction in the airflow by eliminating the need for a static chimney within the tank itself. “The Cleito tanks have made vaping so much easier with [their] simplicity of design and high performance,” says Lau.
Then, in late 2017, Aspire and Lau released the revolutionary Revvo tank with the Aspire Radial Coil (ARC). The flat stovetop-like design provided an expanded flavor profile and increased vapor production. “This was another industry-changing design,” says Lau.
Now the industry is changing again. Sales for the “big vape” devices are plummeting, and consumers want the Juul-style pod systems, according to Lau. The marijuana, THC and cannabidiol (CBD) markets are starting to skyrocket as well. “We are now making the devices for this new THC/CBD industry. We are working on making the best devices for this industry and could be done as early as mid-July,” says Lau. “People may not realize that these different devices need different technology. The different oils have a different thickness and viscosity. For the consumer, taste is the most important thing, and you must make products that enhance the flavor of the oils.”
For a vapor company to be successful, Lau says that first and foremost it must produce high-quality products and test products for quality throughout the whole production process. Companies must also remember that battery cell life is vital to how long a piece of hardware will last. Therefore, Lau opened his own battery production facility.
“The best way to guarantee high-quality batteries is to produce them yourself, so that is what we did. In hardware, the customer experience is about the flavor; the second thing is the airflow; third is no leakage or spitback; and lastly, the product must have a long lifespan,” says Lau. “Aspire listens to its customers, and we want to bring consumers the cutting-edge products they want as well as provide outstanding service. That’s how we ‘Aspire’ to do business every day.”

Timothy S. Donahue
June 25, 2019
Green Light
The arrival of IQOS in the U.S. market raises some questions and eyebrows.
By Maria Verven
After a two-year wait, Philip Morris International (PMI) has received the go-ahead from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to sell its IQOS heat-not-burn (HnB) tobacco product in the U.S. Reportedly, an estimated 7.3 million consumers worldwide have already switched from combustible cigarettes to the IQOS.
The whole idea is that when tobacco is heated and not burned as in traditional cigarettes, the level of harmful chemicals is much lower. Because the IQOS uses tobacco, PMI claims it’s “a closer experience to smoking cigarettes than other alternatives such as e-cigarettes.”
What exactly is this new product? How does it work? And what possible effect will it have on the U.S. vapor market?
What’s an IQOS and how does it work?
The IQOS (pronounced EYE-kose) works by heating tobacco-filled sticks called HeatSticks just enough to release nicotine-containing vapor (up to 350 degrees C or 662 degrees F) but without creating combustion, fire, ash or smoke.
The IQOS comes in two different versions: One contains three parts—HeatSticks, the IQOS holder and a charger, and the other combines the holder and charger, enabling the user to use it multiple times before having to recharge the battery. Both work the same way: You insert a HeatStick into the IQOS, push a button to turn on the electronically controlled heater and then draw on the end of the HeatStick, which releases an aerosol and the taste of tobacco.
When you’re done, the HeatStick goes in the trash while the IQOS goes back into the charger. The integrated version lasts for 10 consecutive uses before it needs to be recharged.
What’s a HeatStick?
HeatSticks, or HEETS, contain tobacco “plugs” made from tobacco leaves that have been ground and reconstituted into tobacco sheets. Called “cast-leaf,” these sheets are crimped and made into tobacco plugs. They’re specifically designed to be heated, not burned as in traditional cigarettes. Regular cigarettes don’t work in the IQOS.
How much does the IQOS cost?
IQOS kits retail starting at $116 (IQOS 2.4 kits are available on Amazon) and up to $300 for the IQOS 3. One carton (10 individual packs of 20 HeatSticks), available in Marlboro, Marlboro Smooth Menthol and Marlboro Fresh Menthol, costs around $90.
Where will it be marketed?
IQOS has been sold in cities all over the world, including in Canada, Europe, Japan and Russia. Now that PMI has secured FDA approval, PMI’s parent company, Altria, will open a brick-and-mortar store as well as mobile stores in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Shortly thereafter, they will begin selling IQOS all across the U.S., starting in about 500 retail stores, including Circle K, Murphy USA, QuikTrip, RaceTrac and Speedway.
“Japan has had IQOS and similar products longer than any other major market, and in a mere three years, Japan’s cigarette sales fell by a third,” says David Sweanor, chair of the advisory board for the Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics at the University of Ottawa. Sweanor has worked on public health policy for tobacco since 1983.
“Scandinavian countries, the U.K. and other places are all clearly showing the ability to replace combustibles. We have never seen such a dramatic decline in smoking,” Sweanor said, predicting that the market will respond with an increasing array of ever-better alternatives to cigarettes, just as risk-reduction innovations have transformed a vast range of other goods and services.
Are there other heat-not-burn products on the market?
Big tobacco companies—which realized as early as the 1950s that cigarettes were potentially lethal—have been trying for decades to develop technology that eliminates the combustion of tobacco since that’s when carcinogens are created.
The idea to create an HnB tobacco product has been unsuccessfully tested in the market at least since 1988 when R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (RJR) came out with Premier. Thus far, these products have not been able to gain market traction, even after constant redesigning and rebranding.
For example, Premier was later redesigned and rebranded as Eclipse, which was sold for only four years, from 2003 to 2007. After that product failed to catch on, RJR came out with Revo, which was just a redesigned version of Eclipse. After that product flopped, it was pulled off the shelves in 2015.
PMI came out with its first HnB product called Accord in 1998, but it too failed to gain traction and was pulled from shelves around 2006. Marketed as a “cleaner” tobacco product, PMI claimed that Accord reduced exposure to the harmful compounds normally released by burning tobacco.
Critics contend that the IQOS is nothing new. The IQOS is a variation on the Accord “without consistent improvements in exposure to aerosol toxic compounds,” says Stanton A. Glantz, director for the Center for Tobacco Research Control and Education at the University of California in San Francisco, California, USA.
“In contrast to PMI’s past claims for Accord, PMI now claims in its MRTP [modified-risk tobacco product] application that IQOS reduces health risk,” Glantz wrote. “This shift in stance is likely not the result of any toxicological difference between Accord and IQOS but rather a change in the social and regulatory landscape permitting these claims.”
Are youth using the IQOS?
In response to a much discussed “epidemic” of teen vaping (see “FDA in Transition,” Vapor Voice, Issue 2, 2019), the FDA has cracked down on e-cigarette sales and marketing. In response to a lawsuit by the American Academy of Pediatrics and other health groups, a federal district judge recently ordered the FDA to speed up the timeline for reviewing the thousands of vapor products now on the market.
Nevertheless, the FDA and PMI both claim that the IQOS won’t be as popular among teenagers as e-cigarettes since it doesn’t come in sweet or fruity flavors. Plus, the price is much higher, especially compared to Juul pods, which have become the most popular vapor product on the market. However, the FDA will still require IQOS advertisements be targeted at adults and will prohibit television and radio advertising.
“Given the rapid pace of innovation in the tobacco products space, we are emphatic that youth should not use any tobacco- or nicotine-containing product,” said PMI’s CEO, Andre Calantzopoulos. “Youth should not become nicotine users. PMI takes that responsibility seriously. In our IQOS stores, we refuse to offer these products to people who have never smoked or those who have quit smoking. We are also clear that these products are not risk-free or a safe alternative to cigarettes.”
“There is a balance that must be struck,” he continued. “Public policy needs to recognize the role that new smoke-free tobacco and other nicotine-containing products can play in helping move adult smokers away from cigarettes. Achieving this balance is absolutely necessary to realizing a true public health breakthrough and requires close coordination with the regulatory agencies.”
Calantzopoulos said that real-world data from countries where IQOS is currently being sold shows that it is reaching the correct audience—current adult smokers. For example, in Japan, the largest IQOS market thus far, 98 percent of IQOS users were tobacco users before switching. Globally, the average IQOS user is between the ages of 30 and 49.
Is the IQOS safer than combustible cigarettes? Where does it fit on the risk continuum?
Although PMI claims that using IQOS exclusively will significantly reduce harm from smoking traditional cigarettes, the FDA is still reviewing PMI’s modified-risk tobacco product application that would allow it to market IQOS as being safer than cigarettes.
PMI’s website touts the following clinical finding: “Smokers switching to Platform 1 (i.e., IQOS) were exposed to lower levels of harmful chemicals compared to those who continued smoking. We measured biological markers in the blood and urine and found that levels of exposure to harmful and potentially harmful constituents (HPHC) were comparable to the levels of those who quit smoking for the duration of the study.”
The FDA corroborates PMI’s claim that levels of cancer-causing chemicals are lower in IQOS’ aerosol than in cigarette smoke. In the news release announcing its approval of the premarket tobacco product application for IQOS, the FDA states, “Through the FDA’s scientific evaluation of the company’s applications, peer reviewed published literature and other sources, the agency found that the aerosol produced by the IQOS tobacco-heating system contains fewer toxic chemicals than cigarette smoke, and many of the toxins identified are present at lower levels than in cigarette smoke. For example, the carbon monoxide exposure from IQOS aerosol is comparable to environmental exposure, and levels of acrolein and formaldehyde are 89 percent to 95 percent and 66 percent to 91 percent lower than from combustible cigarettes, respectively.”
Overall, HnB products have been the source of much study. A systematic literature review of 31 publications on HnB products, secondhand emissions and human exposure published in September 2018 in Tobacco Control found that compared with cigarettes, HnB products reduced levels of HPHC by at least 62 percent and particulate matter by at least 75 percent.
However, it also found that while “HnB use suppressed urges to smoke, participants rated HnB [products] less satisfying than cigarettes. In addition (and in comparison to e-cigarettes), HnB products exposed users and bystanders to toxicants, although at substantially lower levels than cigarettes.”
Not surprisingly, public health groups aren’t any more enthusiastic about HnB products than they are about vapor products, as they remain entrenched in an abstinence-only stance. American Lung Association CEO Harold Wimmer in a statement said that his organization is “deeply concerned about the health impacts of this new product.”
Advocates of the vapor market are also unimpressed.
“If e-cigarettes and vaping products did not exist, then IQOS would be a valuable addition to the market,” said Michael Siegel, professor at the Department of Community Health Sciences at the Boston University School of Public Health. “However, since we already have a thriving market of vaping products—which do not contain any tobacco and are orders of magnitude safer than cigarettes—I don’t see how a heat-not-burn tobacco product really advances the smoking cessation product market.
“There are much safer alternative nicotine-delivering products. While IQOS is somewhat safer than smoking, it is still far more hazardous than vaping products. On the risk continuum, with e-cigarettes at the low end and cigarettes at the high end, IQOS would probably be up towards cigarettes, though not as high but still way above the risk of e-cigarettes.
“To the extent that IQOS diverts attention away from e-cigarettes, it could have negative public health effects. Our focus should be on those vaping products,” Siegel said. “The best scenario would be if IQOS attracts smokers who want to quit but were not able to quit using e-cigarettes or any other strategies.”

Maria Verven
Maria Verven is a 35-year PR veteran and owner of Verve PR, a marketing firm focused on the vapor industry.
June 25, 2019
Spicing Things Up
An innovative mouthpiece enables consumers to enjoy flavor, even from flavorless liquids.
By Timothy S. Donahue
It’s a big question mark for vapor businesses: Will the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ban all flavors except tobacco, menthol and mint? The answer could kill a life-saving industry that many say needs flavors to help keep former smokers from going back to combustible cigarettes. During Vapor Fair, which was held in Miami Beach, Florida, USA, from March 6-7, JuiceeTips unveiled a product that will allow vapers to continue enjoying flavor, even if e-liquids become flavorless.
JuiceeTips, the name of both the company and the product, are a new patent-pending flavored mouthpiece cap for vaporizers, cigalikes, cannabis devices and hookah products. The new technology uses the science of smell and taste to impact how a vaper accesses their flavor without the addition of any liquid flavorings in the e-liquid, according to Steven Landau, the owner and founder of JuiceeTips.
The mouthpiece tips are made by using injection molding with a proprietary blend of FDA-approved, food-grade flavor ingredients infused into plastics that fit most mouthpieces for vapor products, according to Landau. “The flavors are made with our trade-secret formulation guidelines, which make them compatible with plastics,” he says. “The manufacturer also uses our trade-secret methods for making aromatic and flavored parts. This is a process that took us many years to develop. There are no other products on the market that are made like or work like JuiceeTips.”
The flavored tips work on vapor (and cannabis) devices with both 510 and 810 threading, as well as most cigalike products. They also work with hookah and cannabis joints. The cigalike, 510 and 810 tips all share the same mold and have metal fitments that make them fit each specific application, according to Landau.
JuiceeTips amplify the total taste experience. It doesn’t matter what product you prefer; the flavor experience is immediately improved, according to Landau. “Also, changing flavors is as simple as changing the tip. There is no need to carry multiple tanks with various flavored e-liquids,” he says. “Consumers can also make any flavor taste mentholated with our menthol ice tip.”
For cigalikes and vaporizers, JuiceeTips currently offers dessert enhancer (a strawberry cream flavor made to complement most sweet dessert flavors), fruit enhancer (a fruity/sweet flavor designed to complement fruit flavors), menthol ice (which makes any flavor taste mentholated) and tobacco (which offers a tobacco-like taste), according to Landau. “We also have a wide variety of hookah flavors such as double apple, fruit punch, orange, lemon, spearmint, chai, wintergreen, menthol, mint and others for hookah,” he says. “We will continue to release new flavors on a regular basis.”
The JuiceeTips story began in 1996 while Landau was on a ski trip. “After a few runs, I was very thirsty and had dried lips. So, I got off the slopes and bought some cherry lip balm and a bottle of plain water,” he says. “After applying the cherry Chapstick and drinking the water, I had the impression it tasted like cherry. I knew immediately the cherry taste [of the water] came from the aroma of the balm.”
That is how the idea for making flavored plastics to change the perception of taste was born. Fast forward a few years and Landau founded a company called ScentSational Technologies (SC), which is the leading developer of scented products and packaging for the food, beverage, pharmaceutical and consumer products industries.
SC developed methodologies for adding FDA-approved, food-grade flavors directly into plastics that are designed to make products smell and taste better. The focus of the company’s products and technologies was to enhance and improve the aroma, taste, consumer perception and shelf life of foods, beverages, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals and consumer products by adding aroma into the product and/or packaging.
“During consumer testing we learned that while most people think things like beverages taste better with added aroma—olfaction—there is a segment of society that can’t pick up improved taste without gustation—the sense of taste,” says Landau. “So we researched, developed and patented drinking devices that add both aroma and sweetness during consumption.”
The product wasn’t ready for vapor industry just yet. The patented method for those types of products involved using a confection material that was not only hard to manufacture but also made it usable only one time and was sloppy to use. Landau headed back to the drawing board.
“I started working with customers to improve their product taste, and we developed a technology to add sweet aroma and taste into mouthguards and other consumer products. With this technology we then started to supply several major brands,” he says. “That’s when a customer came to us asking for aromatic hookah tips, and the lightbulb went off. I came up with the idea of adding sweetness to the tip, and the result was astounding.”
When most people think of as taste, it is a result of their sense of smell. The tongue can only taste five things: sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami (corresponding to the flavor of glutamates). It is estimated that approximately 80 percent to 90 percent of taste is from the sense of smell. “That’s why if you blindfold a person and plug their nose, they can’t tell the difference between water and wine or an apple and an onion,” says Landau. “But let go of the nose and they know what it is immediately. Humans are built for receiving smell and taste together.”
It’s true. The tongue and mouth have receptors specifically for tasting characteristics such as sweet and salty. The nose and olfactory bulb work together to feed aroma signals directly into the brain. When you combine the sense of taste with the sense of smell, something magical happens: Taste and smell work together to deliver a well-rounded flavor profile.
“That’s why people pour so much salt and sugar on their food. The taste is amplified. Foods without salt and/or sugar are often considered bland or tasteless, and that’s the secret behind JuiceeTips,” says Landau. “You see, vapor, hookah and cannabis rely 100 percent on aroma. Yes, the aromatic taste experience is there, but it is not the full spectrum of taste. But when you add sweetness, the combined effect connects all of the dots and significantly strengthens the total taste experience.”
There is also a strong health benefit to using JuiceeTips. E-liquids and other vapor flavor-delivery systems are inhaled directly into the lungs. Although the flavors used are safe for ingestion, they have not been validated as safe for inhalation by the FDA. An example of this is when workers in a popcorn plant developed a condition called popcorn lung, which comes from inhaling diacetyl, a flavor ingredient proven safe for ingestion but that causes cancer when inhaled. Most e-liquid companies no longer use diacetyl in their products.
“[Some] of the concerns in the vape industry are the unknown hazards of inhaling flavors intended for ingestion that are instead combined with a system to carry those ingredients directly into the lungs,” says Landau. “When people vape, they basically atomize those flavors directly into their lungs.”
Since the flavor in JuiceeTips is contained, bound up inside the plastic, it delivers the same kind of taste experience without sending those flavors into the lungs. “You can even vape propylene glycol or vegetable glycerin with JuiceeTips, and the taste experience is still incredible,” he says. “We are very focused on offering a safe flavor experience to consumers and believe that JuiceeTips offers the best solution in the industry.”
Vapor Fair was the first trade show for JuiceeTips, according to Landau, who added that everyone who tried the product at the event was “blown away” by the difference in taste. “We are in the process of understanding how to best bring JuiceeTips to the market and are very interested in speaking with companies who can help us,” he says. “We are also seeking distributors to work with.”
The suggested retail price for a tin of three 510 or 810 vape tips is $15.99, and Landau says each tip is designed to last approximately one month. “The wholesale price is 50 percent off retail. We believe JuiceeTips offer retailers a great add-on product to help increase per-visit sales in their shops,” he says. “JuiceeTips not only deliver a significant taste enhancement to customers, it offers the opportunity for higher profit margins to retailers.”
Landau said JuiceeTips is focused on delivering a great consumer experience that will fall within the FDA’s regulatory guidelines. JuiceeTips offers many flavors that currently mirror and complement many e-liquids flavors on the market and enhances the flavor experience; however, if the FDA were to ban flavors in e-liquids, JuiceeTips could “fill the gap and deliver a great taste experience” from just the JuiceeTip itself without adding any harmful ingredients.
“If the FDA outlaw flavors, we see JuiceeTips as the leading platform for delivering a safe and effective flavor system for consumers who now have the capability to buy unflavored and nicotine-free products and still have the ability to get a great flavor experience,” he said. “If flavor regulation isn’t as strict as predicted, then JuiceeTips will continue to offer additional flavor stock-keeping units (SKUs), shapes and sizes to fit a large variety of vapor, cigalike and hookah applications. Additionally, if you want to develop custom flavor SKUs for your company, we welcome the opportunity to help you improve your customers’ vaping experience.”

Timothy S. Donahue
April 30, 2019
Unrivaled Transformation
Two leading tobacco companies present their most advanced next-generation products in the U.K.
By George Gay
Within the space of two weeks in February, British American Tobacco (BAT) and Philip Morris Limited (PM Limited) each held a launch party for their latest U.K.-market vapor products, and it seemed to me that there was something particularly significant about these events. Firstly, the products’ advanced technologies and contemporary aesthetics spoke volumes about the huge research, design and development efforts that have gone into producing and refining them.
Secondly, the confidence displayed by the two companies seemed to speak volumes about their belief both in the products they were displaying and the rightness of the radical new directions their businesses are taking—from smoke to vapor. One of the panels of a static display at the PM event brought me up short. It was headed “The smoking problem.
The industry has come a long way and, although no sensible person would argue that the journey from smoke to vapor has been easy, is nearly completed or will be smooth sailing from now on, these companies deserve credit for having been willing to publicly recognize that the products they have traditionally offered add up to a problem and to invest heavily in coming up with a solution, or at least, so far, a partial solution to that problem.
In fact, it’s worth dwelling on that for a moment, I believe, because while the tobacco industry comes in for some well-deserved criticism, I cannot think of another consumer products industry that has undergone or is undergoing such a transformation. Of course, many will say that no other industry has such a toxic product to transform away from, but that’s not entirely true. Interviewed recently by The Guardian’s Amy Fleming, David Nutt, a professor and the director of the neuropsychopharmacology unit at Imperial College London, said that alcohol is so toxic it should be banned. Nutt has apparently invented a healthy synthetic alcohol, so it will be interesting to see whether the alcoholic beverage industry embraces it.
Perhaps one day we will all be able to go down the pub for some guilt-free celebrations on synthetic alcohol and vapor. But in the meantime, at least the tobacco and nicotine industries have something to celebrate. Speaking at the company’s Feb. 13 launch event, BAT U.K.’s general manager, Gemma Webb, said the tobacco industry was entering the most dynamic period of change it had ever encountered. “We are experiencing an extraordinary, once-in-a-generation coming-together of societal change, public health awareness and, crucially, access to technological innovation in the nicotine category,” she said. “This convergence of factors has created a unique opportunity for the industry and our business: the opportunity to make a substantial leap forward in our ambition to provide our consumers with a choice of potentially reduced risk-tobacco and nicotine products.”
The event included the launch of the newest iterations of BAT’s Vype electronic cigarettes, the Vype iSwitch and iSwitch Maxx, where much of the focus was on the introduction of the company’s Puretech vaping technology. Instead of the coil and wick that is traditionally associated with electronic cigarettes, Puretech incorporates an ultra-slim, stainless steel blade that heats the e-liquid to create vapor. “The blade, which is around the thickness of a human hair, has a surface area 10 times larger than a traditional coil and wick heating system,” BAT wrote in a press note that was handed out at the event. “The blade provides a much more precise and measured way to heat the e-liquid, increasing consumer taste satisfaction by ensuring a smoother, richer and more consistent vape, with no off-notes.” Puretech is being incorporated in both the Vype iSwitch and Vype iSwitch Maxx, the latter of which is said to be BAT’s most interactive and connected vapor device.
And, of course, there is more development to come. Brief mention was made at the Feb. 13 launch event of BAT’s announce the day before that it had entered into a new global partnership with British automotive manufacturer McLaren that the company said was rooted in advanced technology and innovation. “The multiyear partnership is focused on accelerating its transforming tobacco agenda, at the heart of which is its commitment to providing a portfolio of potentially reduced-risk products (PRRPs), which can deliver a ‘better tomorrow’ for its consumers,” the press note said.
OFF-NOTES
This all sounds well and good, but it has to be acknowledged that not everybody is going to be celebrating. There are people within the tobacco control sector who, understandably, will look with disdain on the idea that the tobacco industry is once more in party mood when looking to the future. These people will be aware that the tobacco industry didn’t suddenly see the light, as some would have us believe. But the simple truth is that, switching smokers of combustible cigarettes from risky to less-risky products is proving to be one of those areas where the market is best at sorting things out, and that is because the interests of consumers and the interests of the marketers have been brought into alignment.
The tobacco control community needs to accept that what the vapor side of the industry is doing is helping smokers. Certainly, the tobacco control sector should not try to pour cold water on the vapor movement by spreading lies and publishing unscientific papers just because it doesn’t like the tobacco industry, which seems to be happening. There are people opposed to tobacco who, by concentrating their fire on the vapor industry, are seemingly starting to forget that the original aim was to rid the world of cigarettes. They seem to be coming close to promoting combustible cigarettes.
Fortunately, there are health experts who think differently. In March, it was left to Michael Siegel, a professor at the Boston University School of Public Health’s department of community health sciences, to point out that a proposed ban on e-cigarettes in San Francisco, California, USA, didn’t make a whole lot of sense when combustible cigarettes would remain on retailers’ shelves. Two San Francisco officials had introduced bills that would ban the sale of electronic cigarettes in the city until the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had evaluated their effect on public health. Siegel responded by pointing out that tobacco cigarettes have already had their safety tests and have failed miserably.
He also questioned why the city didn’t take combustible cigarettes off the shelves. Of course, Siegel has been around long enough to know exactly why such cigarettes are not being taken off the shelves, but his question is interesting because it mirrors one often asked of tobacco manufacturers: Instead of trying to switch people to less-risky products, why don’t you stop selling combustible cigarettes? The answer is obvious. I mean, why don’t we dispense with the wheel to prevent people dying in automobile accidents as well as of pollution, which has overtaken smoking as a killer?
The fact is that with most such endeavors, we have to stay focused on harm reduction rather than harm elimination, without dropping that as an ultimate goal. And in this respect, participants at the PM Limited event held on Feb. 26 were given the opportunity to listen to a presentation by Moira Gilchrist, vice president of scientific and public communications at Philip Morris International (PMI), about tobacco harm reduction and the part that PMI is playing in it by developing products underpinned by robust science and research.
The presentation was part of the launch party for the company’s latest range of iQOS heated-tobacco and vapor products. IQOS products were displayed, and there were static presentations explaining, for instance, the timeline of product development from Accord to iIQOS, and why health problems stem from the inhalation of the byproducts of tobacco combustion.
In a press note, PM Limited said that the three new smoke-free iQOS devices that were on display at the event are the company’s most advanced to date and have been designed to make it easy for smokers to switch away from combustible cigarettes completely. According to PM Limited’s managing director, Peter Nixon, the new products have been specifically designed to give every one of the U.K.’s 7.4 million smokers a way to stop “burning tobacco.” “We are confident that our new IiQOS range provides the solutions needed to help all U.K., smokers move away from cigarettes,” he said.
One of the devices presented at the launch was the iQOS3, which was described as being the latest version of the tobacco-heating device and features a longer battery life, faster charging and a more ergonomic design. The iQOS Multi, meanwhile, was described as being a new, more compact tobacco-heating device that was designed to provide a different experience to that of PMI’s other devices. With iQOS Multi, consumers could use 10 back-to-back tobacco sticks before needing to charge the device.
The iQOS Mesh, who first market is the U.K., was said to be a premium vapor product that uses a replaceable pod containing nicotine e-liquid. It, too, has replaced the traditional “coil and wick,” in this case with a mesh. The German-made mesh heater, which is 16 microns thick, is said to provide 1,332 tiny holes that allow e-liquid to flow and be heated evenly for a consistent vape experience every time. The heat control technology heats the e-liquid in less than 0.1 second after the user begins to puff on the device and applies precise heating cut-off to avoid liquid condensation. In addition, smart digital controls detect when e-liquid levels are low, thus avoiding overheating and a burnt taste.

George Gay
April 30, 2019