New study says smokeless cigarette gives off less smoke but may not lead to better health

By Michael Ford
University News Services

RICHMOND, Va. – While a new smokeless cigarette produces less secondhand smoke, it may not actually lead to better health. Smokers who may alter their smoking behavior and actually smoke more – may potentially increase their nicotine dependence and smoke exposure according to a Virginia Commonwealth University study. The VCU study, in Nicotine and Tobacco Research, showed that smokers who used the novel smokeless device puffed more often and seemed to get less relief from smoking-induced cravings.

The study evaluated smokers and assessed subjective and physiological effects caused while using the Accord cigarette smoking system produced by Philip Morris U.S.A. Accord uses a hand-held device to electronically heat pressed tobacco in specially designed cigarettes.

Seven women and three men participated in a pair of two-hour study sessions where they smoked either Accord or their conventional brand of cigarette at 30-minute intervals. Prior to the sessions, all participants abstained from smoking for eight hours, which researchers say created tobacco withdrawal.

"Smoking one of the normal brands of cigarettes decreased their tobacco withdrawal substantially," said lead author Thomas Eissenberg, Ph.D., VCU assistant professor of psychology and the Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies. "Smoking one of the novel systems did not decrease the participants’ withdrawal. In fact, it took four novel system cigarettes to decrease the level of withdrawal smokers reported equivalent to what one of their own cigarettes did."

After smoking both regular cigarettes and the novel Accord, participants rated their withdrawal symptoms, including craving, urge to smoke, irritability, anxiety and restlessness. Researchers also measured carbon monoxide levels for the participants and other physiological responses, such as heart rate.

Measured in expired air, carbon monoxide levels went up for every individual cigarette when participants smoked their regular brand – so much so that carbon monoxide levels doubled to 24 parts per million from the six parts per million measure taken at the session’s beginning. However, the carbon monoxide levels for the Accord didn’t increase even after four of the novel cigarettes.

Heart rates increased more after participants smoked their first conventional cigarette, increasing from nearly 79 beats per minute to more than 90. The increase was only three beats per minute after participants smoked the first Accord.

"Perhaps there is less health risk to smoking the novel smoking system, Accord, and indeed we did see some of that in the study," Eissenberg said. "The Accord delivers much less carbon monoxide than a normal cigarette does, and there is no doubt that carbon monoxide is dangerous and it’s good to decrease it. But if you go around smoking more of these smokeless cigarettes to get the same level of withdrawal relief, then you might negate that carbon monoxide benefit."

The research was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.