Countries Where HNB Products are Sold

Heat not burn (HNB) products are available in more than 37 countries, including Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, Spain, Ukraine, Russia, the United Kingdom, Guatemala, Colombia, and South Africa. Many of these countries, and others, regulate these products differently than cigarettes and other combustible tobacco products.

In the EU, these products are regulated as novel smokeless tobacco products under Article 19 of the European Union TPD.38 Article 19 establishes a separate regulatory category for novel tobacco products that do not fall within the tobacco product categories as defined in Article 2. Novel tobacco products can either be products for smoking or smokeless; the key differentiator being the presence or absence of combustion. However, the electronic part of an HNB device is not subject to regulation under the TPD.

In addition to receiving a separate regulatory category under the TPD, HNB products are also regulated differently than combustible tobacco products. For example, health warnings for these products are different from those required for cigarettes, both in terms of size and content. Other elements in the TPD also treat these products differently, such as the use of additives and ingredients necessary to produce products that operate differently from combustible cigarettes.

Under the TPD, Member States must establish a system of notification or authorisation, with which manufacturers must comply before placing a product on the market, consisting of available scientific studies on a number of topics and other available and relevant information, such as risk/benefit analysis of the product.

See also p. 90 of the report: No Fire, No Smoke: The Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction 2018 — Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction (gsthr.org)