Heat Not Burn Products Cause A Sharp Drop In Japanese Cigarette Sales

A new study shows that since heat not burn products entered Japan, cigarette sales across Japan have been severely hit.

It is reported that Japan is the ninth largest cigarette market in the world, but the smoking rate is still very high, but the introduction of heat not burn herbal sticks has a significant effect on reducing the local smoking rate.

Nancy Lucas, executive director of the Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates Alliance (CAPHRA), said: “When you realize that this decline can only be achieved quickly with the introduction of heat not burn, the decline in smoking among Japanese adults People are surprised.".

Researchers in Canada and the United States, among them the well-known harm reduction advocate Professor David Sweanor (Prof. David Sweanor) looked for the possible relationship between the sales of Japanese tobacco and heat not burn products from 2011 to 2019. Japan introduced heat not burn herbal sticks at the end of 2015. Researchers have used data from the Tobacco Institute of Japan and big company to find that since 2016, only cigarettes have been sold in Japan. Sales of heat not burn products have accelerated by 5 times, which corresponds to an increase in sales of heat not burn products.

The study titled "What are the reasons for the rapid decline in Japanese cigarette sales?" The study was published on May 20 in the peer-reviewed open-access scientific journal International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

Sweanor explained that although Japanese regulations exclude alternatives to combustible cigarettes, facts have proven that Japan has become a successful model for reducing tobacco harm.

"In major markets, we have seen the fastest decline in cigarette sales. One-third of the cigarette market disappeared in a short period of time. This is achieved through non-compulsory measures. Smokers are only provided A viable option."

Another recent study aims to determine smokers' perceptions of the health risks of using heat not burn products compared to using combustible cigarettes. The title of the study is "Japanese adult smokers' perception of the harmfulness of heated tobacco products and combustible cigarettes: results of the 2018 ITC Japan survey". It collected data from 2614 adult exclusive smokers and 986 dual smokers. data. Participants were asked to report their perceptions of the harmful effects of HTP compared with cigarettes and their exposure to heat not burn advertisements in the past six months.

The aggregated data shows that among all smokers, 47.5% believe that heat not burn herbal sticks are less harmful than cigarettes, and 24.6% believe that heat not burn herbal sticks are the same, and 26.1% Indicates that you don't know.

Compared with exclusive smokers, dual users are more likely to think heat not burn is less harmful (62.1% vs. 43.8%, p <0.0001), and they are less likely to report “unclear” (14.3% vs. 29.4%, p <0.0001).

The researchers concluded that users of heat not burn herbal sticks are more likely than non-users to believe that the product is safer than regular cigarettes, and this belief is more pronounced among regular users. Similarly, smokers who have been exposed to advertisements are more likely to believe that heat not burn herbal sticks are less harmful than cigarettes.