SHESPEAKS Your Power to Influence

As more and more people wish to quit* the risky habit of cigarette smoking, many of us have benefited with the help of alternatives like nicotine gum or the patch. Though controversial, e-cigarettes have become a popular product among smokers and many credit this alternative with helping them to quit their smoking habit. Now there is a new non-tradiitonal cigarette that may peak some interest. A tobacco company is getting set to unveil their non-burning cigarette that simply heats tobacco turning it into a vapor and is marketed as a “reduced-risk” product.

ABC News reports about Revo, the “heat-not-burn” cigarettes, being distributed in February of 2015 by Reynold’s American Inc. Unlike the e-cigarettes that heat liquid nicotine, Revo heats real tobacco which may attract more smokers wishing to quit. The user can light the carbon tip to heat the tobacco while a tobacco-flavored vapor is released rather than traditional tobacco smoke. A pack of Revo is expected to cost about the same amount as a traditional pack of cigarettes.

Makers of the new cigarette believe that the vaporized e-cigarettes opened the door for the marketing of this new alternative. Though the “heat-not-burn” technology, which is thought to put users at a reduced health risk, has been around for years it’s only recently that consumers have taken such an interest in traditional cigarette alternatives. Cigarette consumer marketing head J. Brice O'Brien explains, “Heat-not-burn technology was 20 years ahead of when consumers were ready for it. It needed the mass presence of vapor products to open up an experience-base that smokers understood. The smoker could only compare heat-not-burn to a combustible and it lost every time. That's no longer the case.”

What do you think of the “heat-not-burn” cigarettes?

Do you think this will be a helpful alternative for cigarette smokers wishing to quit?

*The American Cancer Society marks the "Great American Smokeout" on the third Thursday of November each year by encouraging smokers to use the date to make a plan to quit, or to plan in advance and quit smoking that day. By quitting — even for one day — smokers will be taking an important step towards a healthier life.