In the island nation of Japan, regulations that essentially equate to a government ban on electronic cigarettes that use nicotine-laced liquid known as e-liquid has created an opportunity for heat-not-burn (HNB) products that heat tobacco to the point of vaporization, avoiding higher temperatures at which combustion occurs.
For reference, when smoking conventional cigarettes, combustion is the process that releases smoke. In the case of HNBs and vaporizers, such devices heat up their blends to the point at which vapor is created. In many cases, the truth of the matter is that the “vapor” created by some of these devices is in fact an aerosol, not vapor. Currently in the country, cigarette sales are falling and the reason is simple: many of the countries inhabitants are switching over to heat-not-burn devices that some believe to be less harmful than their conventional cigarette counterparts. Japan Tobacco, which the Japanese government owns one-third of, has forecast a 13.4 percent loss in cigarette sales in the country for 2017 – this in comparison to the year prior, 2016. Reuters reports that the company’s forecast for 2017 places their cigarette sales in the country at 92 billion.
In light of the ban on nicotine e-cigs in the country, Philip Morris International (PMI) has introduced a heat-not-burn device to market in Japan, an HNB that it calls the IQOS. Japan Tobacco International (JTI), which owns the San Francisco-based vaporizer startup Ploom, has released its own smokeless tobacco product to the Japanese market, Ploom Tech. British American Tobacco (BAT), the big tobacco company behind such vaping brands as Blu e-cigs, had no intent of being left out of the lucrative HNB market in Japan, which is why the company released its own smokeless tobacco product known as Glo. With cigarette sales in the country on the decline and interest in HNB devices on the rise, it should come as no surprise to find that new heat-not-burn products are on the horizon. Whether or not regulations will prevent the release of such future HNB devices remains unclear, but if regulations allow, new HNB products are likely just around the bend.
Read more at: https://vaporizerwire.com/japan-e-cig-ban-creates-opportunity-for-hnb-products/
