For the better part of a decade, vaping dominated the smoke-free nicotine conversation. But a new category – heated tobacco products, or HTPs – has quietly grown into a multi-billion-euro global market, and it is now arriving on Irish shelves with considerable commercial momentum behind it. Understanding what HTPs actually are, how they differ technically from both vaping and smoking, and what the science says about their relative risk profile is essential context for anyone navigating the modern nicotine landscape.
What Are Heated Tobacco Products?
HTPs, also called tobacco heating systems (THS), heat real tobacco – in the form of specially engineered tobacco sticks or pods – to temperatures between 250 °C and 350 °C. Crucially, this is below the combustion threshold of tobacco, which sits at around 600 °C for a lit cigarette’s burning coal. By staying below combustion temperature, HTPs produce a tobacco aerosol that contains nicotine and flavour compounds from the actual tobacco leaf, without the large volumes of carbon monoxide, tar and pyrolysis products generated by burning.
The distinction from vaping is fundamental: HTPs use real tobacco, while e-cigarettes use liquid. The aerosol from an HTP is closer in chemical composition to tobacco smoke than to e-cigarette vapour, though it still contains significantly fewer and lower levels of harmful compounds than conventional cigarettes. This places HTPs in a distinct intermediate category – not as clean as vaping, but substantially cleaner than smoking.
How the Technology Works
The dominant HTP device globally is Philip Morris International’s IQOS, which pioneered the category commercially in Japan in 2014. The IQOS system uses a HeatStick (branded as HEETS or TEREA) – a specially compressed tobacco plug within a filter – inserted into a holder that heats it from the outside using a ceramic heating blade. The device maintains a precise temperature profile throughout the session, typically lasting for fourteen puffs or six minutes, controlled by an internal processor.
Competing systems include British American Tobacco’s glo (which uses induction heating, achieving slightly higher temperatures) and Japan Tobacco International’s Ploom (which uses lower-temperature heat extraction). Each system uses proprietary consumables – unlike vaping, you cannot use a third-party tobacco stick in a competitor’s device. The locked ecosystem is commercially deliberate and has generated significant regulatory and competition law commentary.
The Heated Tobacco Market in Ireland
IQOS arrived in the Republic of Ireland in 2019 and has grown steadily since, aided by PMI’s significant retail and marketing investment. HEETS are now available in many convenience stores, newsagents and petrol stations alongside traditional cigarettes. The glo system from BAT entered the Irish market shortly after. As of 2024, HTPs represent a small but growing share of the total nicotine market in Ireland, with the largest user bases concentrated in urban areas and among former cigarette smokers aged 25–45.
From a regulatory standpoint, HTPs containing tobacco are regulated under the same framework as conventional cigarettes in Ireland – the Tobacco Products Directive and the Irish Public Health (Tobacco) Acts apply fully. They may not be used in smoke-free environments, which in practice means the same restrictions as cigarettes: no use in enclosed workplaces, on public transport, in restaurants, bars, or any indoor public space.
The Science: Reduced Risk, But Not No Risk
PMI has invested heavily in generating clinical and chemistry data on IQOS. Their submissions to the US FDA – which resulted in the US FDA granting IQOS a Modified Risk Tobacco Product (MRTP) authorisation in 2020, a first for any tobacco product – showed measurable reductions in harmful and potentially harmful constituents (HPHCs) compared to cigarettes. Key findings included approximately 90–95% reductions in carbon monoxide, acrolein and other combustion-specific compounds.
However, independent researchers have noted important caveats. HTPs still generate measurable levels of acrolein, formaldehyde and other known carcinogens, albeit at lower levels than cigarettes. The aerosol from HTPs contains nicotine at levels comparable to cigarettes, meaning addiction maintenance is equivalent. Long-term epidemiological data – the kind that took decades to accumulate for cigarettes – simply does not yet exist for a product category that has only been widely used since 2016.
Where does the scientific consensus sit? HTPs appear to be significantly less harmful than cigarettes and somewhat more harmful than well-formulated e-cigarettes. For smokers who cannot or will not switch to vaping, HTPs represent a meaningful harm reduction option. They are not a safe product.
Why Some Smokers Prefer HTPs to Vaping
The appeal of HTPs to certain smokers is easy to understand once you have used one. The experience is closer to smoking than any other alternative: the ritual of inserting a tobacco stick, the tobacco flavour derived from real leaf, the warm aerosol on inhale, and the similar session length (14 puffs corresponds roughly to smoking a cigarette). Vapers often describe missing the tobacco flavour that, even in excellent tobacco-flavoured e-liquids, never quite captures the complexity of actual heated tobacco.
For smokers who have tried vaping and not achieved satisfaction – a significant population – HTPs offer another option without requiring a full transition to an entirely different technology and flavour profile. The nicotine delivery is also faster and more consistent than many pod vapes, though still not as instantaneous as a cigarette.
HTPs, Vaping and the Road Ahead
Industry analysts at Euromonitor project that the global HTP market will continue growing strongly through the late 2020s, driven primarily by Japan, South Korea, Eastern Europe and, increasingly, Western Europe. Ireland is expected to follow the broader Western European trend, with HTPs gaining market share primarily from cigarettes rather than from vaping – the two products attract somewhat different profiles of ex-smoker.
Regulatory evolution will be the key variable. The EU is currently reviewing the TPD, and there is active debate about whether HTPs should face the same restrictions as cigarettes or be regulated more like vaping products. The direction taken by the revised TPD – expected in the mid-2020s – will significantly shape the market’s trajectory. For now, they remain a compelling and technically interesting middle ground between the analogue simplicity of a cigarette and the digital sophistication of a modern pod vape.