Nicotine availability from Eclipse tobacco-heating cigarette.

A cigarette which heats rather than burns tobacco (Premier) was introduced in 1988, but was unacceptable due to unpleasant taste and low nicotine intake. We examined availability of nicotine from a new version (Eclipse), in the same four subjects as our earlier Premier study. Average blood nicotine boosts of 23.7 and 17.8 ng/ml were obtained from smoking a first and second Eclipse. This substantially exceeds intake from Premier (boost 13 ng/ml) and that obtained by heavy smokers from conventional brands (boost 12-15 ng/ml). Eclipse (or similar product) may be the best option for averting Peto's dire warnings of rising millions of annual smoking deaths in the 2020s, and its potential for large-scale, long-term switching warrants further study.