Comparative Health Risk Assessment of Heated Tobacco Products versus Conventional Cigarettes

Smoking is the largest preventable cause of death in the world with around eight million estimated premature deaths per year. In response to the harmful effects of conventional tobacco products the tobacco industry has launched a new type of products called Heated tobacco products (HTP) and e-cigarettes, which are considered safer for human health than conventional cigarettes. The research was conducted by searching the scientific literature using platforms “Google scholar,” “PubMed” and “Science Direct.” To compare the non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risk of HTP products and conventional cigarettes, margin of exposure and lifetime excess cancer risk were calculated using data obtained from a scientific literature search. HTP products have shown a reduced risk to human health compared to the conventional cigarettes, although they still contain compounds that can be dangerous to human health. There is not enough data obtained from independent studies that could safely indicate that these reduced amounts of toxic chemical entities in the composition of HTP do not induce any harmful effect. Further research is needed to determine the harmful effects of HTP aerosol, as well as to tighten the legislation that would limit the production, import and distribution of these products worldwide until their safety for human health is confirmed with a sufficient number of transparent and representative results obtained in independent scientific studies.

吸烟是全球范围内可预防的首要致死原因，据估算每年造成约800万例过早死亡。为应对传统烟草制品的有害影响，烟草行业推出了两类新型产品：加热烟草制品（Heated Tobacco Products, HTP）与电子烟，这类产品被认为相较于传统香烟对人体健康更为安全。本研究通过谷歌学术（Google Scholar）、PubMed及Science Direct三大平台检索科学文献完成。为对比加热烟草制品与传统香烟的非致癌及致癌风险，研究利用文献检索所得数据，计算了暴露边际（margin of exposure）与终生超额癌症风险（lifetime excess cancer risk）。研究结果显示，相较于传统香烟，加热烟草制品对人体健康的风险有所降低，但其仍含有可能危害人体健康的化合物。目前尚无足够的独立研究数据，能够确切证实加热烟草制品成分中含量降低的有毒化学物质不会产生任何有害影响。未来仍需开展进一步研究，以明确加热烟草制品气溶胶的有害效应，同时需完善相关立法，在全球范围内限制此类产品的生产、进口与流通，直至通过足够数量的独立科学研究获得透明且具有代表性的结果，证实其对人体健康的安全性。