Heated Tobacco Products
Heated tobacco products (HTPs) are one of the tobacco industry’s newest ways to keep people addicted to tobacco and attract new users, including young people. They have been marketed around the world in ways that appeal to youth and sales are growing in a number of international markets. While research on the long-term health impacts of HTPs is still emerging, the products contain both tobacco and nicotine, each of which is harmful.
Heated tobacco products (HTPs) are one of the tobacco industry’s newest ways to keep people addicted to tobacco and attract new users, including young people. They have been marketed around the world in ways that appeal to youth and sales are growing in a number of international markets. While research on the long-term health impacts of HTPs is still emerging, the products contain both tobacco and nicotine, each of which is harmful.
What Are Heated Tobacco Products?
HTPs are tobacco products that require the use of an electronic device to heat a stick or pod of compressed tobacco (“tobacco insert”). The tobacco insert (by definition, a cigarette) is heated to a temperature high enough to produce an inhalable aerosol that the WHO considers smoke. HTPs are not e-cigarettes. HTPs contain tobacco, whereas e-cigarettes do not.
Health Risks
HTP emissions are tobacco smoke by definition, and they contain many similar toxic chemicals including nicotine, tobacco-specific nitrosamines, carcinogenic aldehydes and acrolein. Nicotine is highly addictive and there is no safe level of exposure for youth. It can harm the adolescent brain, which continues to develop until about age 25, impacting learning, memory and attention. It can prime the brain for addiction to other drugs, decrease immune responses and raise cardiovascular disease risk.
Product Use
HTPs are now available in over 70 markets globally, with global consumption increasing 10.4% between 2023 and 2024 alone. Use rates vary greatly by country, but in the largest HTP market, Japan, current adult use is estimated at 10%. Since HTPs were reintroduced in a few cities in 2025, U.S. prevalence rates are not yet available.
U.S. FDA Regulation
Tobacco products must receive authorization from the FDA before being sold in the U.S. IQOS 2.4 and IQOS 3 are currently the only HTPs with Food & Drug Administration (FDA) authorization and are available for sale in a few cities. The FDA has authorized Philip Morris to market IQOS 2.4 and IQOS 3 with a specific reduced exposure claim, but the products cannot be marketed as “safe,” “FDA approved,” or as presenting less risk of disease or “safer” than other tobacco products.
Global Regulation
Globally, governments regulate HTPs by prohibiting their sale or by applying certain WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) supply- and demand-reduction measures. Governments that allow for the commercialization of HTPs should ensure that regulations align with WHO FCTC-based measures and encompass both tobacco inserts and devices, including prohibiting HTP use in public places, requiring pictorial health warning labels and banning HTP advertising, promotion and sponsorship.
Addressing the growing problem of HTP use among youth and non-smokers
