Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education

A number of new tobacco products for which reduced exposure, reduced toxicity and reduced health risk claims are being made are being introduced in markets worldwide. These products include cigarettes modified to purportedly reduce their toxicity, including cigarettes with modified tobacco from which established carcinogens are reduced/removed, products designed employing unconventional technologies, and a variety of oral tobacco products.

In the past, tobacco companies have marketed products that claimed lower emissions (1); but in fact, these cigarettes did not deliver reduced uptake of toxicants or lower risks to those who smoked them (2, 3, 4). Harm reduction claims for some products are currently being made in some markets (5, 6), and future claims are likely to be made without regulatory oversight. There is no existing regulatory structure to evaluate the scientific validity of these claims (2).