JTI announced that it has launched the Ploom X, a heated tobacco device, in the UK. The new device features upgraded technology to enhance the consumer experience and adds to JTI UK’s ever-evolving range of reduced-risk and alternative products. The technology is already available in Japan.
“The launch of Ploom X marks a milestone in JTI’s story and also sets a new paradigm in the heated tobacco category,” Mark McGuinness, JTI’s director of Marketing, said. “Ploom X is a truly innovative product that will exceed consumer expectations, making their tobacco moments even more pleasurable and truly unique.”
Ploom X is the latest heat-not-burn device on the market and represents the “cutting edge” of the next generation of heated tobacco products, according to a press release. The technological upgrades for the Ploom X device include:
A redesigned HeatFlow system and a higher heating temperature to ensure a more consistent nicotine delivery and a more enhanced flavor delivery from the first puff.
One simple heating mode which makes the device easy for consumers to use.
Adjustments to the airflow system enabling a more consistent vapor delivery and increased vapor volume.
Longer session times of up to 5 minutes and the ability to use more EVO tobacco sticks per charge, with up to 22 sessions with just one charge.
A smaller and more compact device. Ploom X users have the opportunity to express themselves by customizing the sleek aesthetic of the device with a colorful range of magnetic front panels that can be switched and swapped, in order to meet individual preferences and tastes.
Ploom X also has, on average, a 90-95 percent reduction in the levels of 9 constituents recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for reduction in cigarette smoke. This does not mean that use of Ploom X is safe or eliminates health or addiction risks associated with tobacco use. No tobacco product is safe.
Ploom devices are designed to be used exclusively with EVO tobacco sticks which contain ActivBlend, a tobacco blend made from microground and fine cut tobacco that delivers a truly authentic taste experience. With 20 sticks in a pack and a recommended retail price of £4.50, EVO costs less than half the price of a pack of cigarettes.
EVO tobacco sticks are available in a range of flavors: classic tobacco, unique menthol flavors, fruit and menthol infusions and capsule variants for users who want to have the option to release an additional burst of flavor during a session.
The U.S Food and Drug Administration today authorized several tobacco-flavored products from Logic Technology Development for sale in the U.S.. The brands include Logic Vapeleaf, Logic Power and Logic Pro, including hardware devices. The agency also issued marketing denial orders to Logic for multiple other electronic nicotine-delivery systems (ENDS) products. Any of those products currently on the market must be removed or FDA may take enforcement action, according to the FDA.
These products were authorized after the agency said its review of the product applications concluded, among other things, that the “likely benefit for adult smokers who significantly reduce their cigarette use (or who switch completely and experience cigarette use cessation) outweighs the risk to youth, provided that the company follows postmarketing requirements to reduce youth access and youth exposure to their marketing.
While today’s action permits these specific products to be sold in the U.S., it does not mean these products are safe nor are they “FDA approved.”
“Retailers should contact Logic with any questions about products in their inventory. Applications for Logic’s additional products, including menthol, remain under FDA review,” an FDA release states. “The FDA has taken action on approximately 99 percent of the nearly 6.7 million ENDS products submitted for premarket authorization, including issuing marketing denial orders for more than 1 million ENDS products.”
The agency is close to making additional decisions on applications for popular ENDS products that account for a large part of the market. The continued marketing of these products has the potential to have a substantial public health impact—either positively or negatively—as they hold an overall large market share and are used by a lot of people.
“As a cardiologist, I’ve personally seen the devastating health effects of tobacco use, so I’m highly motivated for the FDA to help reduce death and disability caused by these products,” said FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf. “We know that there is a demand among adult smokers to use e-cigarette products to try to switch from more harmful combusted cigarettes, but millions of youth are using these products and getting addicted to nicotine. The balance of these issues was considered by the agency’s career scientists when evaluating the potential marketing of e-cigarette products. They have made great progress and I know they will use the best available evidence with the most robust methods to ensure that products that continue to be marketed are appropriate for the protection of the public health.”
Under the premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) pathway, manufacturers or importers must demonstrate to the agency, among other things, that marketing of a new tobacco product would be appropriate for the protection of the public health. That statutory standard requires the FDA to consider the risks and benefits to the population as a whole, including users and non-users of tobacco products. The FDA must also consider the likely impact of the products on people’s behavior—specifically, the likelihood that existing users will stop using such products and the likelihood that those who do not use tobacco products will start using such products.
This is especially important for youth. Before a product is authorized under the PMTA pathway, the agency reviews a tobacco product’s components, ingredients, additives, constituents and health risks, as well as how the product is manufactured, packaged and labeled.
“Ensuring new tobacco products undergo premarket evaluation by the FDA is a critical part of our work to reduce tobacco-related disease and death,” said Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. “For the authorized products, the manufacturer demonstrated that possible benefits to adult smokers outweigh the risk of youth possibly initiating. We are making progress in our review of flavored ENDS, and we will continue to deny marketing of products where the applicant hasn’t provided enough evidence to show that the potential benefit to adult smokers outweighs the considerable risk to youth. We are committed to continuing to take the appropriate actions to protect our nation’s youth from the dangers of all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, which remain the most commonly used tobacco product by youth in the United States.”
Logic is only the second company to have vaping products approved for marketing by the FDA. In Oct. of 2021, the agency authorized the marketing approval of three outdated vapor products to the RJ Reynolds (RJR) Vapor Company for its Vuse Solo device and two tobacco-flavored pods. The agency also denied Vuse PMTAs for flavored products other than tobacco.
Logic and Ploom parent, JTI (Japan Tobacco International), has extended a technology partnership agreement with Sauber Engineering AG (SEN), a technology and prototype development company and part of the Sauber Group.
Through this partnership, both companies will continue to collaborate on the development of precision engineering projects aimed at increasing the performance of the next generation of JT Group products, according to a press release.
The two companies are currently working on innovative solutions to enhance the user experience of JTI’s vaping products, developing innovative product platforms and new functionalities which respond to the changing demands of consumers, to offer them even broader choice, according to the release.
JTI has been in the reduced-risk products category since 2011 and is currently present in 28 countries with its e-cigarette brand, Logic and heated tobacco brand, Ploom.
The scientific evidence is clear that nicotine itself is not responsible for smoking-related diseases.
By Ian Jones
If you are as old as me, and happen to come from the U.K., you may recall Nick O’Teen, one of the central characters in an anti-smoking campaign run by the U.K. Health Education Council (HEC) in the early 1980s. With his cigarette-butt-shaped top hat and bright yellow teeth, O’Teen was the campaign’s arch villain and was regularly apprehended by the campaign’s hero, Superman.
Now, obviously, Nick O’Teen’s name is a play on the word “nicotine,” so it is reasonable to assume that people who saw the campaign in the 1980s concluded that nicotine in cigarettes is the direct cause of smoking-related illnesses. In fact, according to recent surveys, this is still a commonly held belief, not only in the U.K. but in several other surveyed countries. But, given what we know today, does nicotine deserve this reputation or, as Mitch Zeller, director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products, the agency in the USA responsible for overseeing the implementation of tobacco product regulation, has previously asked, is it time for a “rethink within society on nicotine”?
Let’s start with the basics: What exactly is nicotine, and what does it do?
Nicotine is a chemical naturally found in tobacco and other related plants, in the same way that caffeine is naturally found in tea. Why does tobacco produce nicotine? Well, the commonly held belief is that nicotine helps protect the tobacco leaves from being eaten by insects and other predators. It does this in two ways.
First, nicotine has a bitter taste, so it could make the leaves unpalatable to some potential diners. Second, and of more relevance to its namesake Nick O’Teen, nicotine mimics one of the natural chemicals that cells in the nervous system of animals use to communicate with each other. Thus, eating nicotine-containing leaves could impact the normal working of the nervous system (in fact, this could even be fatal to some insects).
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Now, in you and me, the chemical that nicotine mimics, acetylcholine, is found throughout the nervous system and performs a myriad of functions. In the brain specifically, acetylcholine acts a bit like a volume control dial, turning up or turning down signals between brain cells. Which way the dial is turned depends on the brain region and the state of mind at the time.
This is why nicotine, by mimicking acetylcholine, is said to not only help with attention (volume up) but also relaxation (volume down). It also explains the addictive property of nicotine. In the part of the brain responsible for identifying enjoyable experiences, nicotine can turn the volume up, making the experience of smoking stronger.
Herein also lies a very important point; the addictive effects of nicotine are usually paired with a particular enjoyable experience. It explains why one of the common tests for tobacco addiction, the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence, was renamed to the Fagerström Test for Cigarette Dependence; addiction to smoking is not solely due to the addictive nature of nicotine alone, but is a result of the interplay between nicotine, acting as volume up, and a series of sensory and other cues (smell, taste, ritual, etc.).
But hold on a minute; doesn’t nicotine cause cancer and other diseases associated with smoking?
This is one of the main misunderstandings about nicotine and the answer is simple—no. The scientific evidence is clear that nicotine itself is not responsible for smoking-related diseases. These are caused by other things in smoke, particularly chemicals formed when tobacco is burnt. Remember, tobacco-derived nicotine is an approved medicine and is even available without prescription in many countries.
This would not be the case if there were serious health risks associated with its use. Furthermore, the use of tobacco products that are not burned during use, such as Scandinavian snus—a tobacco product that is placed under the consumer’s lip—is associated with much lower risks of developing cancer compared to smoking, even though the product also delivers nicotine to the user. The FDA in the U.S. recently acknowledged this by approving modified-risk claims for certain snus products.
This is not to say, though, that nicotine is risk free. As mentioned above, it is addictive and can reinforce addiction to certain pleasurable behaviors. By mimicking acetylcholine, it can also affect certain biological processes such as the development of new blood vessels. There are also concerns about the potential effects of nicotine exposure in developing brains, an area that certainly deserves more research focus (as well as effective practical measures to prevent minors from accessing nicotine-containing products).
OK, so the science to date noes not support the notion that nicotine causes cancer, but what about nicotine salts? I hear they are even worse than nicotine.
I would contend that this is another misunderstanding, this time in part due to a lack of clear explanation by manufacturers as to what nicotine salts are when they first came onto the market. The key point to remember is that nicotine is nicotine, whether in salt form, nonsalt form (“nicotine base”), naturally derived or synthetic. Nicotine salts are simply nicotine attached to something else, in the same way that cooking salt is sodium attached to chloride (i.e. sodium chloride).
Whether nicotine attaches to something else is simply down to how acidic the environment is. In acidic environments (e.g. an acidic e-liquid), nicotine is in salt form. At the other end of the scale, in alkaline environments, it is in base form (not attached to anything). In the middle (neutral pH), as in our bodies, nicotine is in a mixture of salt and base forms. An interesting aside is that nicotine salts are therefore not a new discovery; historically, e-liquids have been around neutral pH, so they have in fact always contained some nicotine salts.
In any case, the fact that our bodies like to maintain a “just so” neutral pH means that, from a biological point of view, the form of the nicotine in the liquid does not really matter much as it will conform to a salt/base mix as soon as it comes in contact with the body. What nicotine salts (and acidic e-liquids in general) do is provide a different sensory experience, especially at higher nicotine levels, which some consumers may prefer.
So, back to Nick O’Teen. Does he deserve his reputation? In my opinion, he was an arch villain of his time. As we’ve gained more understanding over the intervening years about the effects of nicotine in the body, I think we can indeed rethink the role of nicotine in society, just as Mitch Zeller suggests. Nicotine is not risk free and is certainly not something that minors should ever consume given concerns about the impact on the developing brain.
Likewise, there are other susceptible groups of people, such as pregnant women, that either should not use nicotine-containing products or, at a minimum, seek medical advice before deciding whether to do so. For most adults, however, nicotine deserves acceptance of its new non-villainous persona as a cause of tobacco-related illness, and to be seen as an adult lifestyle choice, the same as many other adult consumer products.
Ian Jones
Ian Jones is the R&D principal scientist for Japan Tobacco International (JTI).
