Evaluating the Acute Effects of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Devices Marketed to Smokers.

Overview

The study's aim is to develop a clinical model that can be used to measure the nicotine delivery and tobacco/nicotine abstinence-suppressing capability of electronic devices that are marketed as a means to deliver nicotine to cigarette smokers. The study will compare the nicotine delivery, cardiovascular effects, and tobacco withdrawal suppressing effects of two devices currently marketed in the U.S.: Crown Seven and NJOY. Specifically, the effects of these devices will be compared with the effects of own brand cigarettes (positive control), and an abstinence condition (sham smoking; puffing from an unlit cigarette). The primary hypothesis is that the nicotine delivery, withdrawal suppression, and other effects of electronic devices marketed as a means to deliver nicotine to smokers can be measured during a period of acute exposure.

Potential reduced exposure products (PREPs) are being developed and marketed by the tobacco industry in an attempt to reduce some of the risks involved in tobacco use (see Breland et al., 2002b). Evaluating the effects of these products is crucial to public health, as past industry-sponsored efforts at harm reduction (e.g., so-called "light" and "ultra-light" cigarettes) were not evaluated and failed to reduce carbon monoxide (CO), nicotine, and carcinogen exposure in smokers; these efforts thus failed to reduce the harms of smoking (Stratton et al., 2001). This study is part of an on-going, NIH-funded program of research to develop a science-based model that uses outcome measures relevant to evaluating current tobacco industry-sponsored smoking harm reduction efforts systematically and efficiently.