Role of testing standards in smoke-free product assessments

Testing standards for tobacco and related products are an important basis for product science-based regulation. The recent emergence and rapid growth of products offering an alternative to continued smoking for adult smokers who would otherwise continue to smoke, urgently calls for the establishment of quality and assessment standards relevant for these products. The two main categories of products under consideration are electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco products, which both deliver nicotine in the aerosol that is not smoke, because tobacco is not burned in the process, and in particular no solid particles are generated as a result. In the case of electronic cigarettes the need for new testing and product standards is well recognized and relevant initiatives are underway, whereas no testing standards specific for heated tobacco products are currently under development. In the present manuscript, a critical review of the applicability of existing testing standards - which were mainly developed for cigarettes, is provided, and a framework approach is proposed toward developing relevant testing standards to be able to compare aerosol yields across different product categories (cigarettes, e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products).