Heated Tobacco Product Regulations

Heated tobacco products, also marketed as smokeless tobacco, are a better, healthier alternative to conventional cigarettes. However, that does not mean that they do not need to abide by similar, strict regulations as the rest of the tobacco industry. Tobacco and related products contain nicotine, which is an addictive substance that governments all around the world regulate individually.

In this article, we will focus on the regulations that apply to heated tobacco products in the United Kingdom, including tobacco-free heated alternatives, such as NEAFS sticks. Additionally, we will also compare them against heated tobacco regulations in Australia, the European Union, and the United States in order to give you a full, comprehensive overview of the heated tobacco regulations in Western markets. Finally, we’ll dive into the laws governing electronic cigarettes and the regular ones to check whether or not there are any significant differences in the legality of selling, advertising, and consuming heated tobacco products and their counterparts.

History of Tobacco Regulations in the UK

Before getting into the nitty-gritty of the laws governing heated tobacco products in the United Kingdom, it might be worthwhile to go over how these regulations have evolved over time. It might be hard to imagine in 2023, but tobacco products weren’t always as heavily regulated as they are nowadays. In fact, back in the 1950s and 60s, smoking was not only widely accepted and prevalent almost everywhere in the UK and the US, but also advertised as encouraged by various medical professionals to help individuals with coughing and other respiratory issues! Of course, that quickly changed after a wave of scientific studies linking smoking to lung cancer and various other deadly diseases came out, with the 70s and 80s being characterized by a massive change in the public opinion’s attitude towards smoking.

As usual, the law has taken some time to catch up to these new findings, and the first widespread smoking ban in the United Kingdom came only in 2007. As of July 1st of that year, smoking tobacco products became illegal in all “enclosed workspaces” in the UK, meaning virtually all public indoor spaces, including pubs. The only exceptions to this rule were made for the designated rooms in prisons, hotels, and tobacco stores that allowed customers to sample their products. Of course, people can still smoke cigarettes within the confines of their homes and flats.

A few months later, in October 2007, the UK government raised the minimum age at which one could buy and consume cigarettes (and other nicotine-containing products) from 16 to 18. Additionally, in Scotland, police officers may legally confiscate cigarettes and other tobacco products from individuals suspected to be under 18 years old after ID verification.

Since their introduction, these new regulations are estimated to have helped slash the number of smokers in the UK by one quarter, with 20% of the British population consuming cigarettes in 2007, and just under 15% in 2020.

Regulations Affecting Heated Tobacco Products in the UK

Heated tobacco products and their non-tobacco alternatives are also heavily regulated in the UK, primarily because of their nicotine content. These laws pertain to the correct labelling of these items, as well as classify them into three main categories, or types, as they are referred to in official government documents.

Classifications

His Majesty’s Treasury differentiates between three types of heated tobacco products:

• Type 1: “processed tobacco heated directly to produce vapour” – this is the type attributed to most of the popular heated tobacco products available on the British market.
• Type 2: “tobacco designed to be heated in a vaporiser” – refers to tobacco sold by itself that can be heated to produce vapour in a variety of universal vaporising devices.
• Type 3: “devices that produce vapour from non-tobacco sources, where the vapour is then passed over processed tobacco in order to flavour the vapour” – this type refers to products that combine e-cigarette technology with heated tobacco to generate the vapour inhaled into the user’s lungs.

Labelling Requirements

All heated tobacco products need to be properly labelled and warn and inform users of the fact that the product they have purchased contains nicotine. The health warnings take up the form of black text written against a white background, covering at least 30% of the entire packaging, stating: “This product contains nicotine, which is a highly addictive substance.”

This requirement is not limited to heated tobacco, as all nicotine-containing products need to be labelled as such. This includes e-liquids, e-cigarettes, and heated alternatives, such as NEAFS sticks and TEO heating devices.

Tax

In the United Kingdom, heated tobacco is taxed on the same basis as tobacco used for hand-rolling. The current tax rate on hand-rolling tobacco sits at £234.65 per 1 kilogram. On average, a pack of heated tobacco-containing products contains 6.2 grams of tobacco, which comes out to around £1.47 per package.

It is important to keep in mind that the tax rates for tobacco products are increased almost on a yearly basis in an effort to continue discouraging people from picking up the habit of smoking. If you’re a heated tobacco enthusiast and want to plan out your smoking budget in advance, keep your eyes peeled for announcements from His Majesty’s Treasury about any future tobacco tax rate hikes.

Heated Tobacco Regulations vs. Other Nicotine Products

Not all nicotine-inhaling products are treated the same in the eyes of the UK government. While all of them are heavily taxed and need to obey certain packaging requirements, there are several key differences that smokers should be aware of in order to make informed choices possible with regard to their habits.

E-Cigarettes

Due to their unique method of producing nicotine-containing vapour and the lack of tobacco used in the process, e-cigarettes producers are treated differently than tobacco products and have additional regulations imposed upon them. First of all, the nicotine content in e-liquids can’t be higher than 20mg/ml. Secondly, e-liquid bottles (AKA refill containers) can have a maximum capacity of 10ml. Finally, the liquid tank of an e-cigarette cannot exceed 2ml.

It should also be noted that e-cigarettes are taxed at lower rates than tobacco products, seeing as they do not contain tobacco leaves and are therefore not eligible for tobacco duty.

Regular Cigarettes

Traditional cigarettes are the most strictly regulated tobacco products in the UK. The British Tobacco Control Laws dictate that:

• All cigarette brands must use the same, plain packaging, with only the brand’s name and health warnings on display,
• All characteristic flavours of cigarettes are banned, including menthol cigarettes,
• The sale of single cigarettes and small packets are also banned,
• Aside from person-to-person marketing and retailer incentives, all forms of advertising and promotion of cigarettes are prohibited.

The tax rate on cigarette packs is also much higher than those imposed on e-cigarettes and liquids or heated tobacco products. Cigarettes have a tax of 16.5% of the retail price + £5.26 per packet that contains 20 cigarettes.

Heated Tobacco Regulations Abroad 

The United Kingdom has some of the harshest heated tobacco regulations in the world. The tobacco-governing laws vary from country to country. In this section, we’ll shine some light on the heated tobacco regulations in the EU, USA, and Australia.

European Union

The use and sale of heated tobacco products in the European Union fall under the provisions of the Tobacco Products Directive introduced by the European Commission in 2014 and was applied in all of the EU member states by the end of 2016. The directive includes regulations that are similar to those of the UK, including plain packaging, nicotine content, and marketing prohibitions. The tax rate imposed on heated tobacco products is up to each individual member state. Until recently, the flavours of heated tobacco sticks and similar products were not affected by these regulations.

In the summer of 2022, the European Commission introduced a directive proposing to ban all heated tobacco flavours other than plain tobacco. It was passed and published in November 2022 and will become applicable starting November 23rd, 2023.

United States

The landscape of tobacco regulations is rather complicated in the United States, where each state can impose its own tax rates on the products. Considering that heated tobacco is still a relatively new product on the market, the pace of introducing and passing new regulations is rather slow in the US, the situation around the use, sale, and taxation of heated tobacco products remains unclear in most states.

On a federal level, only two brands of heated tobacco products have been approved for sale within the United States by the Food and Drug Administration.

Australia

Australia has always been a country where smoking laws were particularly harsh on consumers, and heated tobacco products are no exception to this rule. The Australian government has outright banned the sale of any and all heated tobacco products. This means that you won’t be able to buy any heated tobacco products in the country at all.

What Do All These Laws Mean for Customers?

Given the above overview of the heated tobacco and general tobacco regulations in the UK, and abroad, it becomes clear that, while still strictly regulated, heated tobacco products continue to be one of the more affordable ways to consume nicotine in 2023.

Although most of the newly introduced regulation explicitly targets the manufacturers and retailers who produce and sell these products, the additional costs they have to face are promptly transferred onto consumers via price increases. This trend applies across the board, from e-cigarettes, through regular cigarettes, all the way to heated tobacco products. However, due to the fact that heated tobacco is not vaporised via combustion, and as such is less harmful than conventional smoking, heated tobacco products escape most of the harshest laws imposed by regulators.

Final Thoughts

So, there you have it – the complete overview of heated tobacco laws and regulations in the UK, as well as a brief description of similar legal restrictions imposed upon such products in other Western countries. As governments all around the world continue to crack down on nicotine and tobacco, non-tobacco and nicotine-free alternatives that still allow you to inhale and release those satisfying puffs might just become the most affordable, healthiest option out there.

NEAFS sticks are produced without the use of any tobacco whatsoever. Instead, we use top-shelf tea leaves to create our sticks, heated through the state-of-the-art TEO device. Whether you’re just a social smoker or want to break free from the stinky cigarette smoke, check out NEAFS for a new, heated alternative that will help you stay away from tobacco for good!